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Giovanna d'Arco is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, loosely based on the story of Joan of Arc as depicted in the play The Maid of Orleans by Friedrich Schiller, and set to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. Verdi wrote the music during the autumn and winter of 1844–45; the opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on 15 February 1845. While contemporary critics were rather dismissive, it was "ecstatically received" by audiences, and given a respectable run of seventeen performances.
This picture is the title page from a variant of the first-edition vocal score of Giovanna d'Arco, published around 1846. Soprano Erminia Frezzolini sang the title role at the first performance, opposite her husband, tenor Antonio Poggi, who played the role of Charles VII of France. The "GM" scrawled at the lower left of the illustration may be the initials of the set designer, Girolamo Magnani, while "Barinetti" at the lower right refers to Luigi Barinetti, the illustrator.Illustration credit: Luigi Barinetti; restored by Adam Cuerden