Poliuto

Poliuto is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte (1641-42). It was composed in 1838 and first performed on 30 November 1848 at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples. However, a revised version of the work with a French text had been produced earlier at the Paris Opéra under the title Les Martyrs on 10 April 1840.
By January 1838, Donizetti was in negotiations with the Paris Opéra to compose two new works. While in Venice for the premiere of Maria de Rudenz he had met Adolphe Nourrit, who for more than a decade had been the principal tenor in Paris. However, Nourrit's popularity was now in decline and he was in danger of being supplanted in the public's affections by a rising star Gilbert Louis Duprez. Nourrit and Donizetti were in complete agreement that a Grand Opera in the style of Halevy's La Juive would exactly suit the tastes of a French audience and provide Nourrit with the ideal vehicle to restore his career.