Jérusalem

Jérusalem is a grand opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz which was partly translated and adapted from Verdi's original 1843 Italian opera, I Lombardi alla prima crociata. It was Verdi's first commission from the Paris Opera and there are significant changes in the location and action of the French version, especially given the need to locate them in a French context. The first performan... more

Jérusalem is a grand opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz which was partly translated and adapted from Verdi's original 1843 Italian opera, I Lombardi alla prima crociata. It was Verdi's first commission from the Paris Opera and there are significant changes in the location and action of the French version, especially given the need to locate them in a French context. The first performance was given at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on November 26, 1847. In 1850, the French text was translated into Italian by Calisto Bassi and performed as Gerusalemme at La Scala, Milan on 26 December. However, "it failed to supersede I Lombardi in the effections of Italian audiences" The US premiere was given at the Théâtre d'Orleans in New Orleans on 24 January 1850 while it took nearly one hundred and fifty years for the opera to given its UK premiere by Opera North on 31 March 1990 at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. In Italy,... less