Le Prophète is one of Meyerbeer's major works written for the Paris stage. It premiered there at the Theâtre de L'Opéra on April 16, 1849, to public and critical acclaim. The libretto is by Eugène Scribe, that master of the effective French drama, and its basis is the history of one John of Leyden, a fanatic who took control of the city of Münster in 1534. Jean of Leyden was crowned the emperor of Germany by his followers and held the city against the local bishop for over a year. The direct source for the libretto seems to have come from an account of the event by Voltaire in his Essai sur les moeurs. This opera has been called one of Meyerbeer's strangest. It is the portrait of a fraud and demagogue, of a man who begins his career with no religious or political interests whatsoever, but becomes the "Prophet" and leader of the radical and rebelling Anabaptists. His charisma leads their forces to victory until finally his own people betray him. The religious and political subject matter make this a truly French Romantic grand opera of the nineteenth century. The relationships between the characters turn the story into a powerful psychological drama as well. John of Leyden's love for his fiancée Berthe and his love and betrayal of his mother are central forces in his evolvement.

The opera took Meyerbeer and Scribe 14 years to complete. The earliest sketches were begun in 1835, and Meyerbeer began to concentrate exclusively on his new opera in 1838. By 1841 the score was complete enough to begin planning the first production, but Meyerbeer couldn't get the singers that he wanted for the lead roles. Toward the end of 1847, the opera finally went into production, but it took two years of more revisions and adjustments in the production before the premiere took place.

At its premiere, critics likened the portrait of the Anabaptists to French socialists of the time and thought that the revolutions of 1848 had inspired the libretto. Hunger riots in Paris, the fall of the Citizen King, the May revolution—all these were fresh in the public's memory. In truth, revolutionaries are depicted negatively in the opera. Although rebelling against the injustices of the feudal system, the Anabaptists are licentious, greedy, and bloodthirsty, and their leaders are false. Meyerbeer developed the relationships between Jean, his mother, and his fiancée to enrich the story and to soften its effect.

Meyerbeer takes up the entire first two acts with the exposition of the plot. The historical circumstances and the relationships between the characters are all outlined before the "Prophet" comes to power in Act Three. The high point of the opera is the coronation scene in Act Four, as Jean's fanatical followers crown him emperor in the local cathedral and he has his mother kneel before him in submission.

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