Giuseppe Verdi: I Vespri Siciliani

When composing the opera The Sicilian Vespers ordered from Verdi by the Paris Opera in 1852, the composer did not enjoy much creative peace: he had to fight with the French language libretto and its author, Eugène Scribe, who was unwilling to oblige the composer. Against his will, Verdi had to incorporate an extensive ballet scene (“Four Seasons” in Act 3) in the opera in keeping with the period customs applied to French opera at that time. The angered composer, also due to clashes with the leading lady, Miss Sophia Cruvelli, described in a letter addressed to director Roqueplan of the opera the “year spent in France as a completely lost time”. He added that “I could have composed two Italian operas over the same time!” However, the first night in Paris on June 13, 1855 was a success; in Italy, the revolutionary story based on the historic anti-French uprising in Sicily in 1282 had to face censorship restraints and could only be performed with an amended Italian translation of the libretto.

In Bohemia, The Sicilian Vespers was staged only four times: at the Theatre of the Estates in Prague on January 29, 1859 (in German); in Pilsen on December 10, 1953; in Ostrava on January 27, 1961; and in Liberec on April 1, 1967 (all of them in Czech).

Premiere: Mar 23, 2006

Response in the press