Ascanio camille saint saens biography

Opera by Camille Saint-Saëns

For the opera by Mozart, see Ascanio in Alba. For the magician, see Arturo de Ascanio.

Ascanio is a grand opera in five acts and seven tableaux by composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

The opera's French libretto, by Louis Gallet, is based on the 1852 play Benvenuto Cellini by French playwright Paul Meurice which was in turn based on the 1843 historical novel by Alexandre Dumas, père.

Ascanio camille saint saens biography

The name was changed to Ascanio to avoid confusion with the Berlioz opera Benvenuto Cellini. The opera premiered on March 21, 1890, at the Académie Nationale de Musique in Paris,^[1] in costumes designed by Charles Bianchini and sets by Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Eugène Carpezat (acts I; II, scene 2; and III), Auguste Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon and Marcel Jambon (act II, scene 1).

Composition history

Ascanio was composed by Saint-Saëns during 1887–1888. Saint-Saëns chose the subject of the historical figure of Benvenuto Cellini largely