Giovanna D’Arco

Abstract The genesis of Giovanna d’Arco is one of the least documented among all Verdi’s operas. It seems probable that the contract arose out of an understanding with Merelli that Verdi should compose another opera for La Scala in 1845 to make up for the loss of his services in the previous year.* The librettist would be Solera as a matter of course; and his engagement would be Merelli’s responsibility not the composer’s.t Verdi himself had complete faith in the poet’s judgment and sense of theatrical effect and may even have left to him the choice of subject. Too often it is assumed that Giovanna d’Arco marks the beginning of Verdi’s love affair with the plays of Schiller, which was to prove so fruitful in later years. But a letter of Solera’s to the publisher Ricordi suggests otherwise. Remembering the fine that he had had to pay when Nabucco was given in Paris, Ricordi had written anxiously to the poet asking him to make sure that his libretto involved no breach of copyright, since he had heard of a contemporary French play ... Solera replied firmly: