Luisa Miller is an opera in three
acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on
the play Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) by the German dramatist Friedrich
von Schiller. Verdi's initial idea for a new
opera was rejected by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. He attempted to negotiate
his way out of this obligation and, when that failed, Cammarano came up with
the idea of adapting the Schiller play, with which Verdi was familiar. The
process was set in motion, with Verdi still living and working on initial ideas
from Paris, where he had been living for almost two years before moving back to
his home town of Busseto in the summer of 1849. It was from there that he wrote
the music and traveled to Naples for rehearsals. The first performance was
given on 8 December 1849.
This was Verdi's 15th opera and
it is regarded as the beginning of the composer's "middle period".