Les vêpres siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers, but today better-known in its post-1861 Italian version as I Vespri Siciliani) is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe. It is based on a historical event, the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, using material drawn from the medieval Sicilian tract Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia. It was fi...
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Les vêpres siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers, but today better-known in its post-1861 Italian version as I Vespri Siciliani) is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe. It is based on a historical event, the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, using material drawn from the medieval Sicilian tract Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia. It was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 13 June 1855.
As was later to happen with Verdi's Don Carlos, which was also based on a French libretto, an Italian libretto was quickly prepared under Verdi's supervision by the poet Ettore Caimi with the title, Giovanna de Guzman . Verdi was aware that in Italy at that time, it would have been impossible to place the story in Sicily but, based on Scribe's suggestions for changing the location, it became Portugal in 1640 while under Spanish control.
This version was first performed at the Teatro Regio in...
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