but with the aria "Rachel, quand du seigneur" for which he may also have suggested the text. The production was notable for its lavishness, including the on-stage organ in Act I, the enormous supporting cast, and the unprecedentedly elaborate decor. Two teams of scenic artists took responsibility over the stage decorations, Charles Séchan, Léon Feuchère, Jules Diéterle and Édouard Desplechin designing Acts I, II, IV and V, and René-Humanité Philastre and Charles-Antoine Cambon providing the materials for Act III. La Juive enjoyed an international success comparable to that of Meyerbeer's popular grand operas. It made its American premiere at the Théâtre d'Orléans on 13 February 1844. The work was also used for the inaugural performance at the newly constructed Palais Garnier in Paris on 5 January 1875 (the title role was sung by Gabrielle Krauss; the scenery was recreated after the original designs by Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Édouard Desplechin, Chéret, Charles-Antoine Cambon, and Auguste Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon). La Juive received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 16 January 1885 with Amalie Materna as Rachel. Richard Wagner, who admired La Juive, may have borrowed from it the Act I organ effect, for his 1868 opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Moreover, Eléazar's tapping at his goldsmith's work is echoed by Hans Sachs's cobbling during Die Meistersinger. Having last been performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1890 with Lilli Lehmann as Rachel, La Juive was revived in 1919 as a vehicle for the Met's star tenor, Enrico Caruso. Eléazar was the last role Caruso added to his repertoire, as well as the last he ever sang in performance, on 24 December 1920; he died in August, 1921. Giovanni Martinelli succeeded Caruso in the role at the Met and both he and Caruso recorded the opera's best known aria, "Rachel! Quand du seigneur". After the 1919 revival with Caruso, the Metropolitan Opera programmed La Juive fairly regularly until 1936, when it was dropped from the repertory, not to be heard at the Met again for 67 years. The opera fell out of favor in Europe around the same time and has rarely been performed since. American tenor Richard Tucker was a champion of La Juive and lobbied for a Met revival with himself as Eléazar. He first sang the role in concert performances in London in 1964. In 1973, he appeared in the opera twice with the