I love the dream sequence in Méliès film, and the climax where Barbe-bleu (played by Méliès) gets impaled.

This is a clip from a 2003 production of Offenbach's opera Barbe-Blue (first performed 1866 but revived in Paris in 1888). There doesn't seem to be much correspondence between the plot of Offenbach's version and Méliès film (although interestingly the colour scheme in this production has some resemblance to the hand colouring of Méliès films). However I think the clip illustrates the types of theatrical staging Méliès was drawing on, influenced by opera and the French theatrical genre of the Féerie (a sort of cousin of the pantomime).

(The spectacular opéra-féérie's Offenbach produced were a great influence on Méliès. His 1875 production 'Le Voyage dans la Lune' is cited as an influence on Méliès best known film).