The manuscript contains many passages that are reminiscent of the style of his compositions teacher Ferdinando Paer, who admittedly helped Liszt with orchestration.

Don Sanche premiered at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra on 17 October 1825 with Rodolphe Kreutzer conducting.

Rudolf Kreutzer was the director, the noble and celebrated tenor, Adolf Nourrit sang the principal part; all the cooperators did their best to secure success, and the public followed the first piece of the youthful composer with growing interest.

Then the latter, a tall and stately figure, with an overflowing of amiability, took in his arms the young composer, still small for his fourteen years, and carried him before the audience, whose jubilation was without bounds.

Franz, on the contrary, was only glad on his father's account; his manner was serious, almost forbidding; that Nourrit, in spite of his struggling, should have carried him before the public, like a child, gnawed to his inmost heart.

[3] However, in 1903 the scholar Jean Chantavoine found the manuscript score of the opera bound in two volumes in the library of Palais Garnier.

[2] To date, the score of the opera has not been published, and only a handful of microfilms of the manuscript are in circulation in various libraries of Europe and the United States.

The knight Don Sanche, arrives but a page bars his way at the gate, as only couples may enter this castle where love is a precondition.

Don Sanche relates what lies heavily on his heart: he cannot join the happy inmates of the castle because the one he loves, the beauteous Princess Elzire is cruel and does not return his affections.

The light march of the page and the chorus does not promise much hope for the desperate knight and Don Sanche almost plays with the thought of suicide.

Alidor is left alone and, as the sky becomes overclouded, he gives an order to the spirits to summon a storm before Elzire approaches with her retinue.

As the thunder subsides, Elzire and Zelis, her lady-in-waiting, seek refuge in the Castle of Love but they too are stopped by the page.

The page has a saving idea: he mentions Don Sanche as a possible means of entering the castle, since the young man is madly in love with the Princess.

The chorus announces the approach of the evil knight Romualde, who wastes no time in asking for the hand of the Princess, even threatening her with force.

In a sudden decision, The Princess tells Zelis to request entry into the Castle of Love as she is willing to give her own life to Don Sanche in exchange for his.

It turns out that the part of the evil Romualde has been played by Alidor the magician and that the combat and the mortal wound were all a test of love.