Los diamantes de la corona

Los diamantes de la corona is a zarzuela in three acts by the composer Francisco Asenjo Barbieri with a libretto by Francisco Camprodón. The opera is taken from the original French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges which was set to music by Auber in 1841. Barbieri's work was first performed at the Teatro del Circo in Madrid on 15 September 1854.

Auber's work retained popularity at the Opéra-Comique from its première there in 1841 (receiving 180 performances in its first eight seasons), with over 370 performances up to the fire of 1887.

The dramatist and poet Francisco Camprodón Lafont, first declining the composers Joaquín Gaztambide and José Inzenga, offered his adaptation to Barbieri, who had already achieved his first major zarzuela success with Jugar con fuego in 1851, and was in the process of creating a new theatre in Madrid.

A recording was made at the Teatro Monumental Madrid in 1957 by Columbia, with Pilar Lorengar, María Dolores Alite, Ginés Torrano, Manuel Ausensi, Gerardo Monreal and Rafael Campos, with Ataúlfo Argenta conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica the Coros Cantores de Madrid. This was re-issued in 1997.

The work was staged in the Teatro de la Zarzuela Madrid in the 2009-2010 and 2014-2015 seasons, which transferred to Lisbon.

The action takes place in Portugal during 1777, in and around Coimbra in the first two acts and in Lisbon in the final act.

Queen Maria of Portugal (Catalina) has not yet come of age and the Conde de Campomayor is therefore her regent. To alleviate the poverty of the people, the queen decides to use the jewels of the royal collection to change into money, but secretly swapping the real jewels for fakes.

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