Verdi: I Lombardi

Verdi was commissioned to write I Lombardi as a direct result of the success of Nabucco the year before. When the opera was first produced at La Scala, Milan in 1843, Verdi's operas were becoming increasingly popular not only in Italy but also abroad.

The opera is set at the time of the first Crusade and tells of the rivalry of two brothers, Arvino and Pagano, for the love of Viclinda, Pagano in an attempt to abduct Viclinda and kill his brother, in error murders his father. He is exiled to the Holy Land to live as a hermit. Giselda, Arvino's daughter, has gone with her father on the Crusade, but is captured by Acciano, tyrant of Antioch. She falls in love with his on Oronte. They escape, but Oronte is wounded and dies. The hermit leads the attack on Jerusalem and then reveals his identity to Arvino, dying forgiven in his brother's arms.

Producer Gabriele Lavia and designer Giovanni Agostinucci have devised sets of Spartan grandeur, using the motif of a blood-red cross as a double-edged symbol for the Crusades.