The 3-act opera ATTILA is among Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813-1901) early works, having been written in 1846. The opera is based on the 1809 play Attila, Knig der Hunnen (Attila, King of the Huns), written by Zacharias Werner. Envisioning the use of large choral tableaux as he had done in both NABUCCO and I LOMBARDI, he enlisted the librettist Temistocle Solera for the project, but Solera abandoned the project after completing the acts one and two, forcing Verdi to return to his older colleague Francesco Maria Piave for the final act, resulting in a final rift between the two as Verdi’s conceptions of the opera genre had moved beyond Piave’s. While the original Romantic play and subject was considered very Teutonic for an Italian opera, Verdi envisioned a story rooted in Italian patriotism, and the audience heard that theme when it premiered on March 17, 1846, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The story begins with Attila’s victorious hordes destroying the 5th century city of Aquileia, but survivors of that city enact revenge on the Hun with the help of the Roman miliary before Attila can continue his march on Rome. While the work disappeared from the repertoire for some despite its initial popular reception, it has found more regular productions since the mid-20th century to the present. Reprint edition.