Les Vêpres siciliennes

Les Vêpres siciliennes is a grand opera in five acts that had its premiere on 13 June 1855 at the opéra with a score by Giuseppe Verdi and a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier. It was presented in time to serve as a feature of the first Paris Exposition , although Verdi had encountered a number of problems with the poem. He had been hoping for a French text that would be clear, concise, and dramatic, but Scribe was used to writing for a large stage, and he developed a…