I Due Foscari: Tragedia Lirica [in Three Acts] Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave

I due Foscari enjoys pride of place among Verdi's early operas for its commanding music and striking use of recurring themes to identify the principal characters. Here, the young composer can be seen experimenting with new means of musical and dramatic expression.

This critical edition, based on Verdi's autograph score and autograph corrections in the first manuscript copy, offers the full score--including powerful passages later excised by Roman censors and appendices containing sketches, fragments, rejected passages, and a substitute cabaletta for Jacopo's cavatina. With an introduction and detailed critical commentary, this edition provides performers, conductors, students, and scholars with a superior version of the colorful drama.

Andreas Giger is the Louise and Kenneth L. Kinney Professor of Opera at Louisiana State University. He is author of Verdi and the French AestheticVerse, Stanza, and Melody in Nineteenth-Century Opera.