Captain Phoebus Captain Phoebus "Capitaine" Phœbus de Châteaupers is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". He is the Captain of the King Louis XI's Archers. His name comes from Phoebus, the Greek god of the sun (also called Apollo). In the original novel, Phoebus is an antagonist. Despite being of noble birth and very handsome, he is also vain, untrustworthy, and a womanizer. He saves Esmeralda from Quasimodo and she falls in love with him. Phoebus makes a convincing show of returning her affections, but merely wants a night of
Arthur Goring Thomas 1879, with such success that Carl Rosa commissioned him to write "Esmeralda" (libretto by Theophile Marzials and Alberto Randegger), dedicated to Pauline Viardot, produced at Drury Lane on 26 March 1883. (Creator cast: Georgina Burns (Esmeralda): Barton McGuckin (Phoebus): William Ludwig (Frollo): Leslie Crotty (Quasimodo): Clara Perry (Fleur-de-Lys): Leah Don (Lois): J.H. Stilliard (Chevreuse): Ben Davies (Gringoire): G.H. Snazelle (Clopin).) This contained the very successful aria "O, vision entrancing". Two years later the opera was given (in German) at Cologne and Hamburg, and in 1890 (in French) at Covent Garden. On 16 April 1885, at Drury Lane, Rosa produced Thomas's