About the work
Aroldo is a four-act opera by Giuseppe Verdi, created in 1856–57 together with librettist Francesco Maria Piave out of the censorship-troubled 1850 opera Stiffelio. It premiered on 16 August 1857 at the Teatro Nuovo in Rimini, conducted by Angelo Mariani.
Plot
In place of the contemporary Protestant minister of Stiffelio, the opera's hero is Aroldo, a knight returning from the Crusades who discovers his wife Mina's infidelity. After a challenge to a duel, separation, and a newly composed fourth act featuring a shipwreck near Loch Lomond in Scotland, the couple is finally reconciled.
Cultural significance
The reworked opera was a considerable success at its premiere and was staged widely across Italy afterward, but it fell into relative neglect after 1870, especially once the original score of Stiffelio was rediscovered in 1968 and has since become the preferred version in performance.