''Zemire en Azor'' (Zémire and Azor) is a 1784

semi-opera The terms "semi-opera", "dramatic opera" and "English opera" were all applied to Restoration entertainments that combined spoken plays with masque-like episodes employing singing and dancing characters. They usually included machines in the man ...

, a musical play "with spectacles and a ballet" by

Bartholomeus Ruloffs Bartholomeus Ruloffs (October 1741 - 13 May 1801) was a Dutch conductor and composer. Ruloffs was born and died in Amsterdam. His duties as conductor included conducting the city's Felix Meritis concerts.''Music in the Netherlands'' Leo Samama, ...

. It is one of the most successful attempts to create a Dutch-language opera in the 18th century. ''Zemire en Azor'' was, for its time, a box-office success, with thirteen performances. Ruloffs composed new music to a Dutch libretto, which had been translated from French,''Dutch Culture in a European Perspective'' (2004) "A favorable exception is the musical play ''Zemire en Azor'' 'with spectacles and a ballet' by Bartholomeus Ruloffs, one of whose ... ''Zemire en Azor'' was a box-office success, with thirteen performances in 1784, a considerable run for those days. This is original music to a Dutch libretto, albeit one translated from French." based on Marmontel's ''La Belle et la bête'' (''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine T ...

'').

References

External links

Libretto (1783)
in Dutch {{Authority control Dutch-language operas 1784 operas Operas based on fairy tales Works based on Beauty and the Beast Operas