Edgar is a knight in love with two women. One stands for the divine, the ideal: Fidelia. The other is the profane, more lustful kind: Tigrana. With Tigrana behaving like a gypsy Puccini’s second opera is a bit of a cross between Bizet’s Carmen and Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Its sound however is distinctly Puccini, even though it is not his best work.
After the premiere in 1889 in the Scala, Milan, Puccini revised the work several times and it was never to his satisfaction. Exasperated, he described this opera like warmed-up soup (hey! what is wrong with that?!?). When Gramophone magazine reviewed a recording from 2005 with Placido Domingo, it said it was a tasty meal.