La Haine

La Haine (Hatred) is a drama in five acts and eight tableaux by Victorien Sardou, premiered at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris on 3 December 1874. Jacques Offenbach, director of the theatre, composed extensive incidental music for chorus and orchestra to accompany the play. Background Offenbach had composed songs and incidental music for eleven classical and modern dramas for the Comédie Française in the early 1850s, gaining valuable experience in writing for the theatre. Sardou and Offenbach created their first joint work in 1872 with the opéra-bouffe-féerie Le Roi Carotte, which ran for 195 performances, and this encouraged the two to renew their collaboration. By 1874, Jacques Offenbach had become the director of the Théâtre de la Gaîté. To follow a revival of Orphée aux Enfers on 7 February, he decided to mount Sardou's drame using the under-used theatrical troupe at the theatre.