Maritana

Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball (1792–1873). The opera is based on the 1844 play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir, which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don César de Bazan (the character of Don César de Bazan first appeared in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas). The opera premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 15 November 1845.

The first of six operas by Wallace, the work is often cited as an inspiration for a plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Yeomen of the Guard in which a man weds a woman while awaiting execution in prison, escapes and, while he is disguised, the couple falls in love.

Maritana was first produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane under Alfred Bunn's management on 15 November 1845, conducted by Julius Benedict. It was then produced the following year in Dublin and soon in Philadelphia (1848), then in Vienna and New York (1854, 1857, 1865 and 1868). In 1873, Maritana became the first opera produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. It was revived in Dublin in 1877, and in London at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1880, in an Italian version by Mattei. A 1902 production was seen at Covent Garden. It was produced again at the London Lyceum in 1925 and at Sadler's Wells in 1931, remaining popular until the middle of the 20th century.

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