Picture of the day

La reine de Chypre (The Queen of Cyprus) is an 1841 grand opera in five acts composed by Fromental Halévy to a French-language libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. The libretto was praised by Richard Wagner, who called it "noble, feeling and even new and elevating", although he was critical of Halévy's lapses towards what he called "unsophisticated orchestration". Although he felt the opera did not reach the level of the composer's La Juive, Wagner wrote "the Opéra may congratulate itself on the birth of this work, for it is decidedly the best that has appeared on its boards since Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots". George Sand, who was also at the premiere, was less impressed, writing in a letter to Eugène Delacroix: "You did well, old friend, not to go to the Opera. It was boring to death in spite of the magnificence and pomp of the spectacle. I trust your truffles gave you more inspiration than La Reine de Chypre gave to M. Halévy." This illustration, executed in watercolour, gouache and pencil, depicts Charles-Antoine Cambon's set design for Act 5, Scene 2, of the opera's premiere.Illustration credit: Charles-Antoine Cambon; restored by Adam Cuerden