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"Hurrah! Hosanna! Alleluia! Today’s the day! Paris has its Théâtre-Lyrique once more! [...] By seven o’clock a huge crowd had formed opposite the theatre and on the boulevard. Municipal guards were there on horseback, organising the approaching carriages into single file. It was like the Place de l’Opéra on a gala night." (Arnold Mortier, ‘5 May 1876’, Les Soirées parisiennes.) There was great excitement and general rejoicing on that first night of Dimitri, which was to be Joncières’s most successful opera. The work had been announced in the press months ahead and word of mouth had done the rest. Parisians were doubly excited: curious to see the new opera and eager to attend the new Théâtre-Lyrique – in the form of the Théâtre Lyrique National, replacing the defunct Théâtre de la Gaîté, in the rue Papin – which (most recently at the Salle de l’Athénée) had been closed to the public since 1872.

From the CD-Book Dimitri de Joncières (Palazzetto Bru Zane, collection Opéra français, 2014). Translation: Mary Pardoe.