La caravane du Caire

La Caravane du Caire is an opera or opéra-ballet in three acts by André Grétry, set to a libretto by Étienne Morel de Chédeville. Tradition has it that either the libretto was partially written or the idea of it was allegedly suggested by the Count of Provence, who would go down in history as Louis XVIII.

The opera was first performed at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 30 October 1783 and had its public premiere at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, the period venue of the Paris Opera, on 15 January 1784. It was the most successful of Grétry's large-scale works that are lighter in tone: it received over 500 performances at the Paris Opera up to 1829, being billed every year between 1785 and 1791, and, except for 1818, between 1806 and 1828, besides enjoying further irregular stagings during the Revolutionary period.