La Nonne Sanglante

La Nonne Sanglante was an opera in five acts with a score by Charles Gounod and a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne, which had already been offered to six composers in ten years including Jacques Halévy and Giacomo Meyerbeer . Yet Gounod had learned from his experiences with Sapho and Ulysse that the public at large did not always break down doors to attend performances of esthetically perfect works. A mass appeal had to be made, if a popular success were to be achieved. Scribe…