Royer and Gautier and their mistresses were also frequent visitors to Heine's summer house in Montmorency.
The prologue, a pastiche with music by Adam, Daniel Auber, Fromental Halévy, and Michele Carafa, and a libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, was highly topical, with references to the new railway from Paris to Tours (a technical wonder of the time) and the Boulevard du Crime (nickname of the Boulevard du Temple, for the numerous melodramas about sensational crimes performed in many of the theatres located there).
Alphonse Daudet | Alphonse Mucha | Alphonse Merrheim | Alphonse de Lamartine | Bob Royer | Alphonse Juin | Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr | Charles Royer | Alphonse Royer | Alphonse Milne-Edwards | Alphonse Legros | Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou | Louis-Alphonse Boyer | Camille Alphonse Faure | Augustin Royer | Alphonse Poaty-Souchlaty | Alphonse Loubat | Alphonse Le Gastelois | Alphonse James de Rothschild | Alphonse Boudard | Alphonse A. Kolb | Claude Alphonse Delangle | Camille Alphonse Trézel | Alphonse Yanghat | Alphonse Toussenel | Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato | Alphonse Sagebien | Alphonse Roy | Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle | Alphonse Poitevin |
It was the one opera which he regarded as the most suitable for being translated into French and, taking Scribe's advice, Verdi agreed that a French libretto was to be prepared by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, who had written the libretto for Donizetti's most successful French opera, La favorite.