`  :I've never heard Louise Bertin's ``Esmeralda`` (as you might have guessed from the title, it's based on Victor Hugo's ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame``; I think Hugo himself might even have written the libretto). I don't think it's ever been recorded. Since I like a lot of French opera of that period, it sounds intriguing.  This is what Berlioz writes in his memoirs (and you have to remember Berlioz was an extremely exacting critic who didn't flatter people he didn't think deserved it): ``Mademoiselle Louise Bertin...has been remarkably successful both in literature and music. She is one of the ablest women of our time. Her musical talent, to my mind, is rather rational than emotional; but it is a real talent notwithstanding, and, in spite of a certain want of decision, and of the occasionally childish form of her melodies, her opera of 'Esmeralda', to Victor Hugo's words, is of great interest, and certainly contains very fine passages...Several pieces...were warmly applauded at the general rehearsal. Nevertheless this work, by a woman who never wrote one word of criticism on any human being, good, bad, or indifferent, and whose sole crime consisted of belonging to a family that owned a powerful journal...this work, I say, so far superior to many that succeed daily, or are at any rate accepted, broke down utterly. It was received at the Opéra with unexampled hisses, groans and cries. At the second attempt, indeed, they were obliged to drop the curtain in the middle of an act, and stop the performance.``  `