Esmeralda (opera) Esmeralda (opera) Esmeralda is an opera in four acts composed by Arthur Goring Thomas to an English-language libretto by Theo Marzials and Alberto Randegger based on Victor Hugo's novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". It premiered in London on 26 March 1883 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Georgina Burns in the title role and Barton McGuckin as her lover, Phoebus. "Esmeralda" was Thomas's first opera to receive a full staging. It was commissioned by the Carl Rosa Opera Company following a very successful performance of excerpts from his opera "The Light of the Harem" in 1879 at the Royal
Clopin Trouillefou Quasimodo's mother. Not only is Clopin the narrator in the story, but he is also the King of the Gypsies, who at the time were being rounded up and murdered in an act of "purification" by Frollo. Clopin appears in the film five times. The first appearance is when Clopin sings "The Bells of Notre Dame," which tells the tale of how Frollo killed Quasimodo's mother, but was stopped by the Archdeacon before he could kill the infant Quasimodo by drowning him in a well. The second appearance is at the Festival of Fools, where he acts as the Lord