page_title: Les vêpres siciliennes
section_title: Verdi's Italian-language version
hierarchical_section_title: Les vêpres siciliennes / Verdi's Italian-language version
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait photograph of French opera singer Marc Bonnehée (1828-1886)
context_page_description: Les vêpres siciliennes is a grand opera in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838. Les vêpres followed immediately after Verdi's three great mid-career masterpieces, Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata of 1850 to 1853 and was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 13 June 1855.
  Today the opera is performed both in the original French and in its post-1861 Italian version as I vespri siciliani. The story is based on a historical event, the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, using material drawn from the medieval Sicilian tract Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia.
context_section_description: An Italian libretto was quickly prepared under Verdi's supervision by the poet Ettore Caimi. The composer was aware that in Italy at that time, it would have been impossible to place the story in Sicily, as he notes to his publisher Giulio Ricordi in April 1855: "I shall ... (change) the subject so as to render it acceptable for Italian theatres". Based on Scribe's suggestions for changing the location - "I suggested that the Duke of Alba should just pack his bags once more and move to Lisbon" - it became Portugal in 1640 while under Spanish control. Therefore, the title was changed to Giovanna de Guzman.  Overall, Verdi was not happy with the translation, which Budden regards as "one of the worst ever perpetrated. However, some improvements were made when the opera reverted to its translated Italian title after 1861.
  After 1861, in the post-unification era, the opera reverted to its translated Italian title, I vespri siciliani and it is sometimes performed under that title and in that version today.
caption: Baritone
  Marc Bonnehée
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