Esmeralda (Battista)
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Esmeralda is an 1856 grand opera in four acts with a score by the Italian composer Vincenzo Battista. With a libretto in English by Charles Jefferys,[1] it was based on Battista's Italian version Ermelinda (1851),[2] which in turn was based on Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
In 1851 in Naples in Italy Battista was at the height of his fame and powers. He had already staged a number of operas at the prestigious Teatro di San Carlo including Margherita d'Aragona (1844)[3] with the soprano Fanny Goldberg, the tenor Gaetano Fraschini and the baritone Filippo Coletti. His opera Rosvina de la Forest (1845) was commissioned by La Scala in Milan.
To a libretto in Italian by Domenico Bolognese (1919–1891) he composed the score for Ermelinda (1851), which in turn was based on Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The opera opened as Esmeralda at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 30 June 1856 under the musical direction of J. H. Tully[4] and with a libretto in English by Charles Jefferys.[1]
- Ermelinda - Signora Violette Evrard
- Guido di Lancry, Captain of the Archers - Sig. Agresti
- Giulio Laroche, a poet - Sig. Cammarano
- Paolo Fulvi, brother of the Baroness - Sig. Evrard
- Baronessa de Gontran - Signora Silvestri
- Elisa, her daughter - Signora Eboli
- Roben, chief of the Gypsies - Sig. Grandillo
- Quasimodo the Hunchback - Sig. Luigi Fioravanti
- Morepin, another relative of the Baronessa - Sig. N. N.
Choir of Archers - Gypsies — Nobles invited to the party - the Bourgeois. Appearance of Citizens and Soldiers
The scene is set in Madrid. The time is 1482.
London cast (1856)
Source:[4]
- Esmeralda, the Gitana - Lucy Escott
- Fleur de Lys - Elizabeth Haigh-Dyer
- Eloisa, Mother of Fleur de Lys - Miss Atkinson
- Morepin, Father of Fleur de Lys- Mr. J. W. Morgan
- Phoebus, Captain of the Archers - Mr. Henry Haigh
- Gringoire, the Poet - Mr. Charles Manvers
- Claude Frollo, the Monk - Mr. Charles Durand
- Quasimodo, the Hunchback - Mr. Conrad Borrani
- Clopin, King of the Gipsies - Mr. Hamilton
Chorus-of Gipsies, Archers, Nobles, Citizens and Soldiers.
The Scene is in Paris—Time 1482.