Set design by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Humanité René Philastre for the second act in the première production of Les Burgraves

Les Burgraves is a historical play by Victor Hugo, first performed by the Comédie-Française on 7 March 1843.[1][2] It takes place along the Rhine and features the return of Emperor Barbarossa. The play failed commercially and was the last of Hugo's plays to be produced in his lifetime.[3] It was the subject of an orchestral overture by the composer Guillaume Lekeu in 1890.

The play is associated thematically with Hugo's Le Rhin, an essayistic book about the Rhine; both were inspired by a trip along the river Hugo took with Juliette Drouet.[4] Les Burgraves was published with a preface indicating that its depiction of a united Germany was part of a larger vision of a united Europe in which France would play a central role.[5]

References

  1. ^ Robb, Graham (1999). Victor Hugo: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 231. ISBN 0-393-31899-0.
  2. ^ Frey, John Andrew (1999). A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-313-29896-3.
  3. ^ Frey, John Andrew (1999). A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-313-29896-3.
  4. ^ Affron, Charles (1971). A Stage For Poets: Studies in the Theatre of Hugo and Musset. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 66. ISBN 0691062013.
  5. ^ Metzidakis, Angelo (1994–1995). "Victor Hugo and the Idea of the United States of Europe". Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 23 (1/2): 72–84. JSTOR 23537320. Retrieved 21 October 2020.

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