La Esmeralda (opera)

La Esmeralda is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin. The libretto was written by Victor Hugo, who had adapted it from his novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, although she lived for another 40 years.

Partially paralyzed from birth, and basically chair-bound, Louise Bertin had been somewhat of a child prodigy. She painted, wrote poetry, and when she was only 19 composed her first opera, Guy Mannering for which she also wrote the libretto based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, Guy Mannering or The Astrologer. Two of her later operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique, Le loup-garou (The Werewolf) in 1827 and Fausto in 1831 (again with a libretto by Bertin, this time adapted from Goethe's play Faust). Although many of Victor Hugo's plays and novels were later adapted as operas (e.g. Hernani, Ruy Blas, Le roi s'amuse, Angelo, Tyrant of Padua, Marie Tudor, and Lucrèce Borgia), La Esmeralda was the first and only libretto which he wrote himself in direct collaboration with the composer. Shortly after he completed Notre-Dame de Paris in 1830, Hugo began sketching out an operatic adaptation. The success of the novel had brought him many offers from composers anxious to turn it into an opera, including Meyerbeer and Berlioz. He had declined those proposals, but according to Hugo's wife, he changed his mind out of friendship for the Bertin family. In September 1832, while Hugo was staying with the Bertins, Louise, supported by her father Louis-François Bertin, asked him for permission to create an opera from the work. He immediately commenced work on a libretto, completing it on his return to Paris (despite the frenzy of rehearsals for his play Le Roi s'amuse), and sending Louise the first draft manuscript on 30 October 1832.

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