To laud the Sphinx of Egypt, the narrator dedicates his entire song to him and mentions a legend (which is in fact used as a pretext to go far back in time). According to this legend, the Sphinx sees every people in the history of the Levant pass before him every night. From tableau to tableau, the narrator describes these nightly apparitions, thus crossing centuries, from the days of the Pharaohs to Napoleon’s empire, showing the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs Christians, etc. The legend is followed by regrets. The narrator mourns these great and epic peoples, then ventures into eschatological considerations, predicting that the Sphinx will survive the Apocalypse…

Shadow theatre

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Monument

Ancient history

End of the world

Egypt

Civilization

Epic

Fantasy

Amédée Vignola, Le Sphinx, second tableau (Le Pharaon [The Pharaoh]), etching.

French

Épopée lyrique en 16 tableaux

Pharaoh

Army

Patriarch

Cambyses II

Alexander The Great

Cleopatra

Queen

Julius Caesar

Emperor

Marc Anthony

Octavian

Virgin Mary

Jesus

Slave

Napoleon

Sung play

Addressed story

Le Sphinx

The Sphinx

Addressing the Great Saint Bernard Pass directly, the narrator tells the story of the region, from the first hunters to the passage of Bonaparte’s armies. The silence in the peaks of the mountains is broken by the arrival of the first nomadic people, then by the clamour of the wars which have shaped the history of Europe (Hannibal, the Roman emperor; Attila; Marignano). Saint Bernard founded a refuge and a monastic order in the Pass, to rescue lost travellers. The retreat of the Swiss army against Bonaparte’s troops introduces the final tableau, which celebrates Peace and Charity.