A great historical portrait and representation of religious fanaticism in France in 1572, which led to the assassination of some 3000 Protestants by Catholics in Paris during the night of Saint-Barthélémy: this is the context in which Meyerbeer sets the love story between the Protestant Raoul and the Catholic Valentine, in his ‘grand opera’ Les Huguenots. The contrast between public and private life and imposing scenes of crowds and intimate moments, is precisely the essence of the composer’s dramaturgy. Although, in its time, this work enjoyed unparalleled popularity (it was the first work to be performed more than one thousand times at the Paris Opera), it later sank into oblivion. Marc Minkowski and Olivier Py give us a chance to rediscover this masterly condemnation of religious intolerance, composed by one of the greatest reformers of the opera genre.