Credit: Giuseppe Barberis and Carlo Cornaglia; restored by Adam Cuerden
Poster for Verdi's opera Don Carlo from the première of the 1884 four-act Italian version at La Scala. Based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller, the opera's story is based on conflicts in the life of Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545–1568), after his betrothed Elisabeth of Valois was married instead to his father Philip II of Spain as part of the peace treaty ending the Italian War of 1551–1559 between the Houses of Habsburg and Valois. It was commissioned and produced by the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra (Paris Opera) and given its premiere at the Salle Le Peletier as Don Carlos on 11 March 1867. Many productions after that removed the first act, however, and Verdi eventually produced an official Italian-language abridgement, which removed the ballet and the first act, at Milan in 1884 (from whence this image derives). There also exists a full five-act Italian version from 1886.