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
The Nightingale and the Rose (opera) The Nightingale and the Rose (opera) The Nightingale and the Rose (Russian: "Соловей и роза" – "Solovey i roza") is a chamber opera in one act (five scenes) by Russian composer Elena Firsova (Op. 46, 1990–1991) written to her own English libretto after Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name together with poetry by Christina Rossetti. The opera was written at the request of Paul Esterházy, the director of the Ulm Theatre in Germany. Firsova created the libretto combining the text from Oscar Wilde's fairy-tale, taken from the collection "The Happy Prince and Other Stories" (1888), with four poems by