Paul Morphy's Count Isouard, Duke of Brunswick

yes , but i like this game very much

great game, thanks for the post!

The story related above is somewhat true, but, although it captures the spirit, is somewhat inaccurate. 

                                        The Italian Opera House, Paris, circa 1850

The following is Fred Edge's own revelations on the subject. (But he isn't the only source of information since some of this was also published in newspapers of the time.)

    H. R. H. the Duke of Brunswick is a thorough devotee to Caïssa; we never saw him but the was playing chess with someone or other. We were frequent visitors to his box at the Italian Opera; he had got a chess-board even there, and played throughout the performance. The Duke's box is right on the stage; so close, indeed, that you might kiss the prima donna without any trouble. Morphy sat with his back to the stage, and the Duke and Count Isouard facing him. Now it must not be supposed that he was comfortable. Decidedly otherwise; for I have already stated that he is passionately fond of music, and, under the circumstances, wished chess at Pluto. The game began and went on: his antagonists had heard Norma so often that they could, probably, sing it through without prompting; they did not even listen to most of it, but went on disputing each other as to their next move. Then Madame Pencho, who represented the Druidical priestess, kept looking towards the box, wondering what was the cause of the excitement inside; little dreaming that Caïssa was the only Casta Diva the inmates cared about. And those tremendous fellows, the "supes," who "did" the Druids, how they marched down the stage, chaunting [sic] fire and bloodshed against the Roman host, who, they appeared to think, were inside the Duke's box.
    ~Paul Morphy, Chess Champion by an Englishman (Edge); pp. 154-155

However, as Edge stated above, "We were frequent visitors to his box at the Italian Opera."  The passage above describes a performance of Norma by Vincenzo Bellini. This opera was performed in October. The famous Opera Game itself was played in one of their subsequent visits (in November) during which Gioacchino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia was performed. 

    On their first visit in October they played chess throughout the entire performance of Norma....
    On the second of November they heard The Barber of Seville, during which Morphy played his most famous game, the Duke again consulting with Count Isouard.
    ~Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess by David Lawson; pp. 159-160