Héléna (opera) Héléna (opera) Héléna is an opera in three acts by the French composer Étienne Méhul. It premiered at the Opéra-Comique, Paris on 1 March 1803. The libretto is by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly. It enjoyed 36 performances in the space of 20 months before disappearing from the theatre's repertoire. Bouilly was accused of basing the plot too closely on Cherubini's "Les deux journées". According to the musicologist Elizabeth Bartlet, "several scholars have pointed out [that] Beethoven's trumpet call in "Fidelio" was inspired by Méhul's "Héléna"". Constantin, Count of Arles, has been accused of killing his father. He flees with his wife Héléna
Andromaque (opera) Andromaque (opera) Andromaque is an opera in three acts by the composer André Ernest Modeste Grétry. The French libretto is an adaptation of Jean Racine's play "Andromaque" by Louis-Guillaume Pitra (1735-1818). It was first performed on 6 June 1780 by the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opera) in the second Salle du Palais-Royal. It was the only opera Grétry wrote in the form of a "tragédie lyrique". Grétry was regarded as the leading composer of "opéra comique" of his time and "Andromaque" was his only tragic opera for the Académie Royale de Musique. During the 1770s, Christoph Willibald von Gluck