'The Jewess')[1] is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra de Paris, on 23 February 1835.

In addition to this, there could be choral interludes, ballet and scenic effects which took advantage of the entire range of possibilities available at the Paris Opera.

Because of the story of an impossible love between a Christian man and a Jewish woman, the work has been seen by some as a plea for religious tolerance, in much the same spirit as Nathan the Wise, which premiered in 1779,[2][3] Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots which premiered in 1836, a year after La Juive, as well as the 1819 novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott which deals with the same theme.

Reviews of the initial performances show that journalists of the period responded to the liberalism and to the perceived anti-clericalism of Scribe's text rather than to any specifically Jewish theme.

[4] Some believe that the libretto of La Juive was designed to provoke audiences to reassess the status of Jews in French society.

The performances of the soprano Cornélie Falcon in the title role and the dramatic tenor Adolphe Nourrit as Eléazar were particularly noted.

Nourrit had significant influence on the opera: Eléazar, originally conceived as a bass part, was rewritten for him, and it appears that it was largely his idea to end act 4 not with a traditional ensemble, but with the aria "Rachel, quand du seigneur" for which he may also have suggested the text.

The production was notable for its lavishness, including the on-stage organ in Act I, the enormous supporting cast, and the unprecedentedly elaborate decor.

The work was also used for the inaugural performance at the newly constructed Palais Garnier in Paris on 5 January 1875 (the title role was sung by Gabrielle Krauss; the scenery was recreated after the original designs by Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Édouard Desplechin, Chéret, Charles-Antoine Cambon, and Auguste Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon).

La Juive received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 16 January 1885 with Amalie Materna as Rachel.

Richard Wagner, who admired La Juive, may have borrowed from it the Act I organ effect, for his 1868 opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Having last been performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1890 with Lilli Lehmann as Rachel, La Juive was revived in 1919 as a vehicle for the Met's star tenor, Enrico Caruso.

After the 1919 revival with Caruso, the Metropolitan Opera programmed La Juive semi-regularly until 1936, when it was dropped from the repertory, not to be heard at the Met again for 67 years.

American tenor Richard Tucker was a champion of La Juive and lobbied for a Met revival with himself as Eléazar.

When he was young, the Jew Eléazar had lived in Italy near Rome and witnessed the condemnation and executions of his sons as heretics by Count Brogni.

During his journey, Eléazar found a baby near death, abandoned inside a burnt-out house which turned out to be the home of the Count.

Bandits had set fire to the house, attempting to kill the entire family of Brogni but unaware that the Count himself was in Rome at the time.

Princess Eudoxie enters to order from Eléazar a valuable jewel as a present for her husband, at which point Samuel (Prince Léopold) hides.

[2] A large tent supported by Gothic columns Eléazar and Rachel are brought to the gallows where they will be thrown into a cauldron of boiling water.