Euphrosine

Euphrosine, ou Le tyran corrigé (Euphrosine, or The Tyrant Reformed) is an opera, designated as a 'comédie mise en musique', by the French composer Étienne Nicolas Méhul with a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman. It was the first of Méhul's operas to be performed and established his reputation as a leading composer of his time. The premiere was given by the Comédie-Italienne at the first Salle Favart in Paris on 4 September 1790.

Euphrosine was not the first opera that Méhul had written. The Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) had accepted his work Cora in 1789, but rehearsals had been abandoned on 8 August of that year, probably because of the Académie's financial difficulties. Méhul turned instead to the Opéra-Comique, offering the theatre a new opera, Euphrosine, with a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman, who would collaborate with the composer on many more works in the 1790s.

The premiere, on 4 September 1790, was a huge success, praised by critics such as the composer André Grétry. The original version was the first ever opéra comique to have five acts, but Méhul and Hoffman later trimmed it down to three acts in 1792-1793 and completely revised the third act in order to get rid of the comic elements in 1795 (after Euphrosine, Méhul preferred to compose works which were either comedies or tragedies, but not a mixture of the two).

The opera is set in Provence at the time of the Crusades. The tyrant Coradin is the guardian of three orphaned girls, including Euphrosine, who live in his castle. Euphrosine decides to persuade Coradin to marry her so she can reform his character. But the Countess of Arles is jealous of Euphrosine and turns Coradin against her, encouraging him to give her poison. The doctor warns Euphrosine about the plot against her life and she merely pretends to die of the poison. Believing he has killed Euphrosine, Coradin is suddenly seized with remorse. He asks the doctor to prepare him some more poison so he can commit suicide. At this point Euphrosine enters, alive and well, and forgives Coradin, who agrees to marry her.

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