La reine de Saba
Role Voice type Premiere Cast , 28 February 1862 ( Conductor : Pierre-Louis Dietsch )
Balkis , the queen soprano Pauline Guéymard-Lauters
Bénoni mezzo-soprano Bernardine Hamaekers
Sarahil mezzo-soprano Tarby
Adoniram , sculptor and architect of the first temple tenor Louis Guéymard
Soliman , the biblical Solomon bass Jules-Bernard Belval
Amrou tenor Raphaël-Auguste Grisy
Phanor baritone Mécène Marié de l'Isle
Méthousaël bass Théodore-Jean-Joseph Coulon
Sadoc bass Frèret
Roles
La reine de Saba (The Queen of Sheba) is a grand opera in four or five acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré inspired by Gérard de Nerval's La Reine de Saba, in Le voyage en Orient. It was premiered at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera on February 28, 1862. The magnificent first production was directed by Eugène Cormon, with costumes designed by Alfred Albert and Paul Lormier, and scenery by Édouard Desplechin (Act I), Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry (Acts II and IV, scene 2), Hugues Martin (Act III), and Joseph Nolau and Auguste Alfred Rubé (Act IV, scene 1).