Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

and secure much good entertainment at the young man's ex-pense. After teasing him mcrcilessly,
they finally leave him to partake of a meal; and whilst alone he is visited by a young American
naval officer, Lionel, who has come ashore for a few hours to hunt. Lionel presently departs, and
takes a boat back to his ship; but he is caught by a violent thunderstorm, and' his boat is struck and
capsized'. Lionel himself is struck by the lightning and' blinded, in which helpless state he is cast
on shore. He is found by Henriette and brought to her sister's house, where she nurses him back to
health; but as his blindness continues, he puts himself under the care of the sister's uncle, who is a
doctor. Meanwhile he and Henriette have fallen in love with one another; but George, taking it for
granted' that she will accept him, has by this time decided that he prefers to marry Henriette rather
than her sister. Therefore, when he sees Henriette and Lionel enjoying a happy little love scene,-
he receives a great shock to his vanity. Meanwhile, Lionel has received such good' treatment for
his eyes from the old uncle that when he is at last able to remove his bandages it is found that his
temporary blindness is a thing of the past. However, having never yet be-held Henriette, and
happening to see her sister first after receiving back his sight, he mistakes the lively widow for his
sweetheart, the voices of the two sisters being very similar. He gives her a loving greeting; and'
before the widow has time to rectify his mistake the pair are seen by Henriette, who, deeming her
lover to be false, is filled with grief, and runs away immediately from the neighbourhood. From
her hiding-place she writes to Lionel advising him to marry her sister; and' at the same time she
sends a message to George saying that she is willing to be-come his wife, and 'so please the uncle.
She is not, however, long permitted to remain under this mis-apprehension; and' by pretending that
Madame Darbel and Lionel have been married, the friend's induce her to return; and then after
hearing the true explanation of the matter, she is reconciled to Lionel, and they are betrothed.
George now assures Madame Darbel that she has been his favourite from the first; and the widow
therefore bestows herself on him, and the two couples are satisfied.
69. THE JEWESS
Grand Opera in Five Acts By Jacques François Fromenthal Elias Halévy
Libretto By Eugene Scribe
First Produced Paris, February, 1835
Chief Characters Rachel, Princess Eudossia, Eleazar, Cardinal di Brogni, Leopold
THE scene is laid in Constance, in the Middle Ages. The Cardinal de Brogni exercises much
power in the city; and he is a man who suffers from a continual grief. Before entering the Church,
when Chief Magistrate of Rome, he had banished all the Jews from the city. Before the harassed
Hebrews had all departed, however, Rome was attacked by the Neapolitan army, and De Brogni's
palace was burned, his wife and child being believed to have perished in the flames. The child, a
baby girl, how-ever, was rescued from the burning building by a Jew named Eleazar, who took her
away with him into exile. When the opera begins Eleazar is in Con-stance, where he has become a
wealthy jeweller; but he and his supposed daughter, Rachel, have rendered themselves unpopular
from the fact that they belong to the Jewish faith, and have refused to join in the general holiday
on the return of the Christian Emperor Sigismund. They are mobbed by the people, and are twice
saved from their fury, first by the Cardinal de Brogni, and secondly by the young Prince Leopold,
who has seen and fallen in love with the beautiful Rachel. He is, however, the affianced husband
of the Princess Eudossia, niece of the Emperor; and so he disguises himself as a young Jew,