Le dernier sorcier (The Last Sorcerer) is a chamber opera in two acts with music composed by Pauline Viardot to a French libretto by Ivan Turgenev.

The relationship had continued over the years with Turgenev having extensive stays in Paris, always living close to Viardot and her husband, Louis.

Turgenev and Viardot's collaboration in Baden-Baden produced three operas designed to be performed by her students: Trop de femmes, Le dernier sorcier and L'ogre.

According to Turgenev scholar Nicholas Žekulin, Le dernier sorcier was already mentioned in correspondence in 1859, but does not appear to have been performed until it was revised for Baden-Baden.

Pierre-Jules Hetzel (who reviewed the production of Trop de femmes for the Journal des débats, September 13, 1867), a few politicians, and the German Empress Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach also attended.

[1] For those performances, the libretto was translated into German by Richard Pohl and the score was arranged for a full orchestra by Eduard Lassen.

According to Žekulin, this may have been due to the "ponderous" German translation and the arrangement for a full symphony orchestra which overwhelmed what was originally composed as a chamber piece.

After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, the Viardot family left Baden-Baden for London where they stayed until 1871, with Turgenev, once again living nearby.

[1] The work was largely forgotten until January 2005 when the University of Calgary staged its North American premiere using an English translation of the French libretto by Žekulin and the version of the score for chamber orchestra that had been used at the 1869 gala performance in the Théâtre du Thiergarten, which Žekulin reconstructed from Viardot's papers at Harvard University.

[8] As part of the commemorations for the centenary of Viardot's death, the opera was given another staging in July 2010 (using Žekulin's 2005 version of the score) at the convent of the Minims in Pourrières.

Krakamiche returns, moans his fate ("Ah la sotte existence") and has a comic duet with his servant Perlimpinpin ("Eh bien!

The Queen returns and tells Stella of her impending meeting with Lelio ("Sur les yeux de ton père").

Lelio cannot wait to use the magic flower to approach Stella ("Stornello" or "Pourrais-je jamais aimer une autre femme?").

He and Stella sing to one another ("C'est moi, ne craignez rien"), but Krakamiche can not see him, in part because he thinks he found the correct words.

In an unaccompanied quartet, Krakamiche, Stella, Lelio, and Perlimpinpin sing of their futures ("Adieu témoins de ma misère!").

They leave, and the Queen waves her wand, making Krakamiche's hut disappear as the elves rejoice over the return of their forest ("Salut!