Giovanna d'Arco (Joan of Arc) is an operatic dramma lirico with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, who had prepared the libretti for Nabucco and I Lombardi.

By the middle of the 19th century, the story of Joan of Arc had served as the basis for many operas, including those of Nicola Vaccai (1827) and Giovanni Pacini (1830), both of which were strongly reminiscent of Schiller's play.

Solera was asked by Verdi's publisher, Giovanni Ricordi, for assurances that his libretto violated no copyright, noting that he had heard of a French treatment of the subject.

[3] Due to Merelli's underhand negotiations to acquire the rights to the score from Ricordi, the composer vowed never to deal with the impresario nor set foot on the stage of La Scala again.

[6] For the opera's first production in Rome, three months after the Milan premiere, the papal censor required that the plot be cleared of any direct religious connotations.

The title was changed to Orietta di Lesbo, the setting was shifted to the Greek island and the heroine, now of Genoese descent, became a leader of the Lesbians against the Turks.

[10] For the next 20 years Giovanna d'Arco had steady success in Italy, with stagings in Florence, Lucca, and Senigallia in 1845, Turin and Venice in 1846, Mantua in 1848, and Milan in 1851, 1858, and 1865.

Scene 2: A forest By a giant oak tree, Giacomo prays for the safety of his daughter Giovanna, who before she falls asleep by a nearby shrine offers prayers to be chosen to lead the French forces.

Meanwhile, the sleeping Giovanna has visions in which angels ask her to become a soldier and lead France to victory (Tu sei bella, the Demons' Waltz).

Scene 1: Near Reims Commander Talbot of the English army tries to convince his discouraged soldiers that their imminent surrender to the French is not due to forces of evil.

Giacomo arrives and offers up his daughter, believing her to be under the influence of the Devil: Franco son io ("I am French, but in my heart…") and So che per via dei triboli ("I know that original sin").

He denounces her to the villagers (Aria: Comparire il ciel m'ha stretto – "Heaven has forced me to appear") and they are persuaded, although the King refuses to listen.

She has visions of battlefield victories and begs God to stand by her, explaining how she has shown her obedience by forsaking her worldly love for the King as the voices had commanded.

[3] Parker says that the musical emphasis was on Joan herself and includes some "powerfully original ensembles", but says that the choruses were "probably intended as a sequel to the grand choral tableau works Verdi and Solera had previously created together.

"[19] Baldini found merit in Giovanna's cavatina in the Prologue where she prays to be chosen to lead the forces: Sempre all'alba ed alla sera ("always at dawn and in the evening").

Budden also calls it a work of "brilliant patches", says that "the best things in it surpass anything that Verdi had written up to that time", and finds the soprano part to be of "rare distinction" and the solo numbers and many of the ensembles to be of "high caliber".