Les diamants de la couronne


Les diamants de la couronne is an opéra comique by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed by the Opéra-Comique at the second Salle Favart in Paris on 6 March 1841. The libretto is by Auber's regular collaborator, Eugène Scribe with the help of Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges.

Performance history

The opera was performed at the Opéra-Comique 379 times up to 1889, under the title Les diamants de la reine, and was revived in Marseilles on 20 March 1896.
Outside France it was first performed in Brussels on 25 November 1841, New Orleans on 31 March 1842, Munich on 15 July 1842, Prague on 13 August 1842, Hamburg on 29 October 1842, Riga in 1843, Amsterdam in 1843, Berlin at the Hofoper on 11 February 1843, Copenhagen on 17 February 1843, New York on 14 July 1843, London at Princess's Theatre on 2 May 1844 and later at Covent Garden on 11 June 1845 and Drury Lane on 16 April 1846.
It was first performed in Stockholm on 17 September 1845, Rio de Janeiro in September 1846, Lemberg in 1848, Vienna on 25 January 1849, Buenos Aires on 11 April 1852, Boston in 1854, San Francisco in 1854, Turin on 3 April 1858, Sydney in August 1863, Barcelona on 20 October 1866, Saint Petersburg on 15 January 1876, Lisbon on 26 April 1878, Naples at the Teatro Bellini on 30 April 1879, in Mexico on 8 May 1879, Budapest in 1880, and Malta in 1890.
A version of the same story was composed as a zarzuela in three acts by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri with its libretto by Francisco Camprodón taken from the original by Scribe and Saint-Georges, and first performed in 1854.

Roles

Synopsis

The plot concerns a Portuguese princess, Catarina, who intrigues with bandits after she is forced to sell the crown diamonds of the title.

Recordings