La dame blanche (The White Lady) is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boïeldieu (1775-1834). The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no less than five of the works by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including his novels The Monastery, Guy Mannering, and The Abbot. The opera has typical elements of the Romantic in its Gothic mode, including an exotic Scottish locale, a lost heir...
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La dame blanche (The White Lady) is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boïeldieu (1775-1834). The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no less than five of the works by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including his novels The Monastery, Guy Mannering, and The Abbot. The opera has typical elements of the Romantic in its Gothic mode, including an exotic Scottish locale, a lost heir, a mysterious castle, a hidden fortune, and a ghost, in this case benevolent. The work was one of the first attempts to introduce the fantastic into opera, and is a model for works such as Meyerbeer's Robert le diable and Gounod's Faust. The opera's musical style also heavily influenced later operas like Lucia di Lammermoor, I puritani and La jolie fille de Perth.
La dame blanche was first performed in Paris on 10 December 1825 at the Théâtre Feydeau by the Opéra-Comique opera company. It was a major success and became a standby of the 19th...
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