I masnadieri (The Bandits or The Robbers) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, based on the play Die Räuber by Friedrich von Schiller.

The London impresario Benjamin Lumley had presented Ernani in 1845 and, as a result of its success, commissioned an opera from the composer which became I masnadieri.

[1] However, while Verdi had specified Fraschini, Budden notes that the management were not able to guarantee his presence and, besides, Muzio's "ear to the ground for news of the London opera season" had discovered that the preferred tenor there was Italo Gardoni, who did sing the premiere.

Apart from this being somewhat standard practice, another reason is noted by Gabiele Baldini in The Story of Giuseppe Verdi: the composer wanted to hear "la Lind and modify her role to suit her more exactly.

The travelers having reached Paris, Verdi heard rumours that Lind was not willing to learn new roles and, therefore, Muzio was sent across the English Channel ahead of the composer, who waited for an assurance that the soprano was in London and willing to proceed.

[2][4] Lumley had assembled a cast of the highest international standard, specifically the Swedish coloratura soprano Jenny Lind, who came to create the role of Amalia, the opera's heroine.

[5] Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the first performance, together with the Duke of Wellington and every member of the British aristocracy and fashionable society who was able to gain admission.

Overall, the premiere was a triumphant success for the composer himself, and the press was for the most part generous in its praise, although the critic Henry Chorley was to describe it as "the worst opera that has been given in our time at Her Majesty's Theatre.

[7] He stresses the fact that Maffei's strengths lay in the field of translation, mostly from the German and English literature, and Baldini sums him up as "neither a poet nor a good man of letters ... who found himself at the centre of cultural currents to which he was contributing nothing really vital".

A staged production in 1972 at the Rome Opera was recorded that November, with some outstanding singers of the era who included Boris Christoff, Gianni Raimondi, Renato Bruson and Ilva Ligabue.

[13] Other 1970s examples include a September 1976 performance in the Coliseo Albia in Bilbao, with Matteo Manuguerra and Cristina Deutekom appearing in major roles.

In Australia in June/July 1980 at the Sydney Opera House Richard Bonynge conducted performances - which featured Joan Sutherland as Amalia.

The next year the Royal Opera Covent Garden presented a new production featuring Delligatti, René Pape, Franco Farina and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

During a break from his studies at Dresden University, Carlo, the elder and favourite son of Count Massimiliano Moor, has fallen amongst thieves, literally.

He has become a member of a notorious gang of highwaymen and cut-throats who terrorise the local community by robbery, extortion and rowdy singing at all hours of the day and night.

But already Carlo has tired of living a life of depravity and longs to return home to be with Amalia, his gentle cousin and lifelong sweetheart (O mio castel paterno / "O castle of my fathers").

Now only the elderly, infirm Count stands between Francesco and the family title and estates, and he has devised a plan to hasten his father's death (La sua lampada vitale / "The lamp of his life burns low").

He forces Arminio, one of the castle servants, to disguise himself as a soldier recently arrived with tragic 'news' of Carlo's death, and sings his cabaletta, Tremate, o miseri / "Tremble, you wretches, you shall see me in my true terrible aspect".

Amalia pretends a change of heart and embraces him so that she can seize his dagger and fend him off before making her escape into the nearby forest.

He considers suicide, but decides that he must accept his dreadful fate and live on in loneliness and misery, reviled by all decent people.

Francesco wakes after terrifying, guilt-ridden nightmares (Pareami che sorto da lauto convito / "I fancied that, having risen from a sumptuous banquet, I was sleeping ...").

He cannot allow the woman he loves to be dragged down into his world of degradation and disgrace and he cannot escape his own evil fate; he resolves this paradox by stabbing Amalia to death.

I masnadieri is scored for piccolo, flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, cimbasso, timpani, bass drum cymbals, harp, and strings.

For example, he notes that "the arbiters of taste in London still found Verdi's music disagreeably violent and in making the tenor the focus of dramatic interest he failed to exploit popularity enjoyed in the city by Jenny Lind",[22] but he goes on to state that "Verdi fashion[ed] his music as much to match the talents of his performers as the requirements of his dramatic theme.