Ossian, ou Les bardes

Did You Know?

• The opera is set in an imaginary Scotland in the third century AD.
• The plot involves the Scandinavian leader Duntalmo imposing the worship of Odin on the Caledonians.
• The bard and warrior Ossian ultimately marries Rosmala after the Caledonians defeat the Scandinavians.

Performance history

Le Sueur may have started work on the opera around 1795. It debuted at the Paris Opera on July 10, 1804, to great acclaim, especially from Emperor Napoleon, a fan of the Ossian poems. So impressed was Napoleon that he asked the composer to sit with him in the imperial box during the third act. The next day, he sent Le Sueur a gold box engraved with a dedication and containing the cross of the Légion d'honneur. Over the next twelve years, the opera was performed nearly seventy times.

The work

The opera is on an epic scale and incorporates experimental elements, such as act 4's visions of heroes and bards in a cave behind a backlit gauze curtain. The score requires 12 harps for the bards' hymn to the rising sun. Musicologist David Charlton notes that Les bardes turns away from the classical aesthetic of Gluck and prefigures grand opera. The work influenced Le Sueur's most famous pupil, Hector Berlioz.