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The pivotal piece of the opera is the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of August 23, 1572, when a Roman Catholic mob murdered thousands of French Protestants during a three-day orgy of violence in Paris and later in provincial cities. The massacre marked the decisive end of France’s Third War of Religion, and the twilight of Huguenot influence in France. (A group of French Huguenots settled in New Paltz about 100 years later, establishing the first European settlement in the Hudson valley.) “It’s about societies that hate each other, and how those hatreds are quite impersonal,” says Strassberger.

This article is so full of inaccuracies as to be humourous. The supposed “... pivotal piece of the opera is the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre” - actually the massacre is a backdrop to the story; the actual massacre takes place offstage (though a few characters are killed onstage). The opera was performed in New York (albeit in concert form) in 1969 and 2001. The story more concerns the struggle between faith and love in its characters than the religious struggle (although the latter is the backdrop and figures in the plot). It is well-known why the piece is never-staged: it's a five-hour opera, and requires hundreds of performers including 7 world-class vocalists well-schooled in French style to perform well. All that said, historically it is a very important opera and contains reams of great (although very difficult to perform) music.

Found this interesting note-

http://www.reformation.org/bart.html

“August 24, 1572, was the date of the infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France. On that day, over 400 years ago, began one of the most horrifying holocausts in history.”

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“The French Protestants were called Huguenots: President George Washington had a Huguenot ancestor, as did at least 5 other Presidents: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, James Garfield, and Theodore Roosevelt.

A Huguenot refugee named Apollos de Revoire settled in Boston, and had a son who signed his name Paul Revere! Remember his famous midnight ride? Three members of the Continental Congress - Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Elias Boudinot were Huguenots.

Other great names include Francis Marrion, General George Patton, Clair Chennault, Admiral Dewey, Du Ponts, Henry Thoreau, Longfellow etc., etc.”

From:

http://www.reformation.org/bart.html

“The Huguenots won a short period of relief from persecution with the ascension of Henry IV to the throne. The Edict of Nantes gave full freedom to his Protestants subjects. The signing of this Edict inaugurated an era of peace and great prosperity for France. However, for granting his subjects liberty of conscience, the king was stabbed to death by a Jesuit named Ravaillac. This Edict of Toleration was revoked in 1685, and a new storm of persecution ensued. The exodus began again with over a million Huguenots fleeing France to avoid certain torture and death.

The descendants of the survivors that reached America were determined that this tragedy should not occur here. Many of them were prominent in the founding of the country. They knew that an armed citizenry in France would have prevented this tragedy from ever happening—and as a result—they gave us the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution. They knew that freedom of religion and an armed citizenry go hand in hand.”