Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal (Don Sebastian, King of Portugal) is a French grand opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, based on Paul-Henri Foucher's play Dom Sébastian de Portugal (1838), a historic-fiction about King Sebastian of Portugal (1554-1578) and his ill-fated 1578 expedition to Morocco. It premiered on November 13, 1843 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (or Paris Opéra). This ...
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Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal (Don Sebastian, King of Portugal) is a French grand opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, based on Paul-Henri Foucher's play Dom Sébastian de Portugal (1838), a historic-fiction about King Sebastian of Portugal (1554-1578) and his ill-fated 1578 expedition to Morocco. It premiered on November 13, 1843 at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique (or Paris Opéra). This was the last opera that Donizetti completed before going insane as a result of syphilis.
At the time, Donizetti was attempting to compose an opera competitive with similar historical operas by Daniel Auber, Fromental Halévy and Giacomo Meyerbeer. One critical description of the nature of Dom Sébastien is "a funeral in five acts". By contrast, Winton Dean has described the main characteristic of the opera as "uncompromising dramatic honesty" in his comments on unusual dramatic facets of the work. Mary Ann Smart has prepared a critical edition...
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