The following year, the opera had its Italian premiere at Milan's Teatro Carcano where it achieved considerable success with multiple performances over two seasons.

After early successes in his native island of Zakynthos which included a short operatic scena, Il pellegrino di Castiglia (The Pilgrim of Castile), Carrer moved to Milan in 1850 where his orchestral works found considerable favour.

The premiere evening also included what the Teatro Carcano's historian termed an "extraordinary amusement", a separate performance of songs accompanied by Johann Decker-Schenk on his newly invented pedal guitar.

Both operas also have a mysterious gypsy fortune teller who directs the heroine to gather magic herbs in a "horrid place" to concoct a potion which will free her from her forbidden love.

The libretto of Isabella d'Aspeno shares several of its characters' names and its setting with The House of Aspen, a play by Sir Walter Scott written in 1799 and published in 1829.