Maritana is a three-act opera including both spoken dialogue and some recitatives, composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball (1792–1873). The opera is based on the 1844 French play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel (Dumanoir), which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don César de Bazan (the character of Don César de Bazan first appeared in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas). The opera premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 15 November 1845.
The first of six operas by Wallace, the work is often cited as an inspiration for a plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Yeomen of the Guard in which a man weds a woman while awaiting execution in prison, escapes and, while he is disguised, the couple fall in love.[1]
- ^ Traubner, Richard (2003). Operetta: A Theatrical History. Taylor & Francis. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-203-50902-9.