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April 16 – Giacomo Meyerbeer's grand opera Le prophète is premièred (after a decade in preparation) by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier with Pauline Viardot (who has collaborated extensively in the production) in the mezzo-soprano role, her first with the Opera. Stage effects include electric light, ballet on roller skates and the use of saxhorns. The audience includes Napoleon III (new Emperor of France), Berlioz, the terminally illChopin, and Turgenev. Its world tour begins on July 24 in London.[1][2]
September 22 – Johann Strauss I fails to turn up to a banquet in honour of Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, where he is expected to perform a new work. His absence is explained by the fact that he had contracted scarlet fever from one of his illegitimate children while working on the new composition; he dies a few days later in Vienna aged 45.
