, Verdi’s ninth opera and the second of five that he composed for Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, had its premiere on 17 March 1846. Verdi was inspired to compose an opera on the subject of Attila by two rather unusual sources,Attila,König der Hunnen, a curious play by a now-forgotten German playwright, Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner, and Madame de Staël’s discussion of it in her magisterial work on Germany, De l’Allemagne.

This present reduction is based on the cri...