In which opera is the heroine a Druid priestess?
Druid well-informed popular European culture in the early 19th century: in 1817 Giovanni Pacini brought druids to the stage in Trieste with an opera to a libretto by Felice Romani about a druid priestess, "La Sacerdotessa d'Irminsul" ("The Priestess of Irminsul"). The most famous druidic opera, Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma" was a fiasco at La Scala, when it premiered the day after Christmas, 1831; but in 1833 it was a hit in London. For its libretto, Felice Romani reused some of the pseudo-druidical background of "La Sacerdotessa" to provide colour to a standard theatrical conflict of love and duty. The story was
Priestess of Avalon Priestess of Avalon Priestess of Avalon is a 2001 novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, completed posthumously by Diana L. Paxson. It follows detailing the life of Helena, first wife of Western Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and mother of Constantine. The novel begins by showing her birth, with a druid giving a prophecy of her life. It proceeds to show her as a young girl named Eilan, who becomes a priestess on the Isle of Avalon. As a young woman, the British priestess Eilan, known to the Romans as Helena, falls in love with the charismatic Roman Constantius. The