What is "maritana"

Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball (1792–1873). The opera is based on the 1844 play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir, which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don César de Bazan. (The character of Don César de Bazan first appeared in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas.)

The first of six operas by Wallace, the work is often cited as an inspiration for a plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Yeomen of the Guard in which a man weds a woman while awaiting execution in prison, escapes and, while he is disguised, the couple falls in love.