Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher

The long and complex history of Franz Liszt’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher began in 1845 with the writing of a piece for voice and piano on a text by Alexandre Dumas père, subtitled romance dramatique by the composer and published in 1846 contemporarily by Schott in Mainz and Bernard Latte in Paris. The romance was given its first performance by the soprano Elisabeth Ugalde Beaucé on 26 April 1846 in the Henri Herz hall in Paris, during a «grand concert vocal et instrumental» offered by the journal Le Monde musical to its subscribers. In the same period the printed edition was promoted by the newspapers of the time.