The Ask. Ponder. Educate. [X]. event on Jan. 25 featured Southern Utah University professor Douglas Ipson. His presentation was called “A Napoleonic Whodunit: Can an Opera Help Crack a Centuries-old case?”
Ipson explained that, on Oct. 10, 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte was almost ambushed and assassinated while attending an opera, “Les Horaces,” at the Paris Opera House. However, many scholars believe that this is just a conspiracy.
During the opera, there is a scene where three brothers are to give an oath, saying that they will fight for their country. Ipson explained that the oath scene is also based upon a painting called “Oath of Horatii.” This scene was supposedly going to be where the attack took place.
The plan of attack was to stab Bonaparte using daggers, then start a fire in the opera house. If that would have happened, the National Library, which was just across the street from the opera house, would have gone up in flames. Fortunately for both the library — and Bonaparte — the assassination attempt was prevented by the police force of Joseph Fouché, who was the former minister of the police of France.
Many records from that time don’t include this specific night at the opera. However, in his memoir, Fouché affirmed that a plot arose aiming at assassinating Napoleon at the opera house.
Ipson said that the reason this story is questioned so much is because the story of the attempted assassination is based upon “oral history rather than documented history.”
Ipson ended his lecture by mentioning how scholars and historians believe this story to be a conspiracy since there are not too many records of it. However, based on his research, Ipson does not believe the story can be entirely discounted.
“Nothing seems all that far fetched,” said Ipson.
The next A.P.E.X. event will take place on Feb. 8 at 11:30 a.m., and the guest lecturer will be Josh Singh. The title of his presentation is “From Used Cars Salesman to Marvel Entertainment: Building a Career That’s All Yours.”
To learn more about upcoming A.P.E.X. events, visit www.suu.edu/apex.
Author: Christina Schweiss
Photos: Bria Hansen
Editor: Nick Stein
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