Grisélidis

by Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912).
Conte lyrique in a prologue and three acts. 1901.
Libretto by Armand Sylvestre and Eugène Morand.
First performance by the Paris Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart on 20th November 1901.

Leaving for the crusades, the Marquis de Saluces accepts the wager offered by the Devil on the fidelity of his wife Grisélidis. Tempted by the Devil in various guises, Grisélidis resists, endures trials with relative patience and is finally re-united with her husband.

Massenet's fairy-tale opera provides a varied bass rôle for the Devil, who appears as a Levantine slave-trader and as an old man, as well as in his own person.