Christophe Colomb

This article is about the opera by Milhaud. For Eugene Zador's 1939 work, see Christopher Columbus (Zador).
Christophe Colomb
Opera by Darius Milhaud
Milhaud in 1923
LibrettistPaul Claudel
LanguageFrench
Based onLife of Christopher Columbus
Premiere
5 May 1930 (1930-05-05)
Berlin State Opera

Christophe Colomb (Christopher Columbus) is an opera in two parts by the French composer Darius Milhaud. The poet Paul Claudel wrote the libretto based on his own play about the life of Christopher Columbus, Le Livre de Christophe Colomb. The opera was first performed at the Staatsoper, Berlin, on 5 May 1930 in a German translation by Rudolph Stephan Hoffmann. Milhaud thoroughly revised the work and produced a second version around 1955. The opera is on a large scale and requires many resources for its staging. As in many of his other works, Milhaud employs polytonality in parts of the score.