Saint-Saëns: Les Barbares

Les Barbares was premièred at the Paris Opéra (Palais Garnier) in October 1901, having originally been intended for the Roman theatre of Orange, in Provence. Rather than concentrating on bloodshed and slaughter, the plot focuses on the evolution of the relationship between Floria, the chief vestal, and Marcomir, the leader of the Barbarians, with the musical interest of the opera culminating furthermore in their splendid duet at the end of Act II. Saint-Saëns, like Massenet too at that time, shows here his ability to adapt his style to suit his literary inspiration. Les Barbares is in the same vein as Berlioz’s Les Troyens and contemporary with Fauré’s Pénélope The composer does not hesitate to call the work a tragédie lyrique, since it has features of that eighteenth-century genre. We also note an allusion to the 1870 Franco-Prussian war.