La mort d'Abel

It was first performed in a three-act version at the Salle Montansier by the Académie Impériale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) on 23 March 1810 under the title Abel.

[2] The French Emperor Napoleon did not share the enthusiasm for putting Bible stories on stage, regarding any potential offence to religious sensibilities as a threat to the understanding he had reached with the Catholic Church.

"[3] Hoffman based his libretto on the play Der Tod Abels (1758) by the Swiss poet Salomon Gessner, but added elements derived from the Hell scenes of Milton's Paradise Lost.

[2] Hoffman, the librettist, also blamed the muted audience response on underhanded behaviour by the authors of a rival Biblical opera, La mort d'Adam, which had appeared the previous year.

Lesueur and his librettist Nicolas-François Guillard had then added elements from it to their own opera La mort d'Adam (including Abel and the demons).

They blamed the librettist for a lack of internal variety in this act, comparing it unfavourably with the depiction of the underworld in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

The revival received little critical notice in newspapers and journals, but it provoked the young Hector Berlioz to write an exceptionally enthusiastic letter to Kreutzer, beginning, "O genius!

"[8] Scene: A pleasant picturesque site After a long overture depicting night and dawn, the curtain opens on Adam, lamenting the quarrel between his sons Cain and Abel (Aria: "Charmant séjour, lieux solitaires").

Abel arrives and joins Adam in a prayer hoping that Cain will soon change his mind (Duet: "Unissons-nous pour le rendre sensible").

But the united pleas of his family finally persuade him to accept reconciliation with his brother (Sextet with chorus: "Ô moment plein de charmes").