Demimonde whom Captain Rawdon Crawley lusts after in his younger days. Becky Sharp is perceived as a demimondaine before she is presented at court, and then becomes one when she travels through Europe after her husband abandons her. Possibly the most famous portrayal of the demimonde, albeit from before the word was coined, is in Verdi's opera "La traviata" (1853). The opera, in turn, was inspired by Alexandre Dumas the younger's "La Dame aux Camélias;" Marguerite Gautier, the heroine of the book and subsequent play, was based on Marie Duplessis, 1840s Paris courtesan and mistress to a number of prominent men,
Notre Dame (opera) Notre Dame (opera) Notre Dame is a romantic opera by Franz Schmidt, to a libretto by himself and Leopold Wilk (1876-1944), a professional chemist and amateur poet. It is based loosely on the novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" by Victor Hugo. The opera was written between 1904 and 1906. Schmidt approached the opera by writing the orchestral parts of the score first, adding the vocal parts in later. He incorporated some material from an unfinished fantasia for piano and orchestra. "Notre Dame" was first performed in Vienna on 1 April 1914. The principal female role of Esmeralda was created by