About the work
Otto Nicolai created his story of the exiled Lord Artur Norton in several versions: first as the Italian opera "Il proscritto" (Milan, 1841), then substantially reworked as the German "Die Heimkehr des Verbannten" (Vienna, 1844), and revised a third time shortly before his death for Berlin. The libretto after Frédéric Soulié's play "Le proscrit" was written by Gaetano Rossi, who had offered it to Verdi before Nicolai took it on.
Plot
Leonore stands between two men: Lord Artur Norton, believed dead, who returns from exile, and her fiancé Count Edmund of Pembroke, who is also Norton's political rival. Loving both and unwilling to betray either, she poisons herself in the end to reconcile the feuding men.
Cultural significance
The Milan premiere failed in 1841 because the leading soprano – Nicolai's former fiancée – merely marked her role instead of singing it; the Vienna version of 1844, by contrast, received around forty performances within three years at the Kärntnertortheater. The work shows Nicolai fusing Italian bel canto tradition with an increasingly German musical idiom.