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Giuseppe Verdi.

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Giuseppe Verdi. Stiffelio. Libretto [in three acts] by Francesco Maria Piave. Edited by Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell. (The Works of Giuseppe Verdi. Ser. 1: Operas, vol. 16.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Milan: Ricordi, c2003. Pref. (Philip Gossett) in Eng., Ital., p. vii-viii, xli-xlii; acknowledgments, p. ix, xliii; introd., p. xi-xxxix, xlv-lxxv; 6 facsims.; instruments of the orchestra, cast of characters, 1 p.; index of numbers, 1 p.; score, 412 p.; appendix, p. 413-23. Critical commentary (bound separately), viii, 164 p. Cloth. ISBN 0-226-85319-5 (University of Chicago Press); 88-7592-706-5 (Ricordi); ISMN M-041-38872-4 (score with commentary in English); M-041-36090-4 (score with commentary in Italian). $285 (set).]

Giuseppe Verdi's Stiffelio premiered in Trieste on 16 November 1850. The text that was performed, however, did not reflect the opera as Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave had originally conceived it, for the religious and moral issues in the tale of a minister with an adulterous wife did not pass the government censors. Even as the composer and librettist began to consider revisions to the original score in 1851, an unauthorized, revamped version of Stiffelio entitled Guglielmo Wellingrode began to appear on stages in Rome and Florence. The composer, however, never sanctioned this adaptation; in fact, he considered it to be a distortion of the original work. Despite his protests, both works continued to be performed. Stiffelio, for instance, saw an important production in Venice in January 1852, followed by the publication of a complete vocal score by Ricordi in June and a revival in Trieste in November. After the November 1855 production of Guglielmo Wellingrode in Naples, an angry Verdi ordered his publisher, Casa Ricordi, to cease distribution of the opera in any form until he could revise it properly.

Indeed, the composer did not abandon the opera that he had created alongside Rigoletto (which had premiered in Venice on 11 March 1851). After several abandoned attempts, he and Piave revisited Stiffelio seriously in 1856. While the librettist provided a new plot...

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