TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

La battaglia di Legnano is the only opera by Verdi to have any direct bearing on the Risorgimento – the Italian liberation movement. Only superficially is the action concerned with the conflict betwen the Lombard League and Frederick Barbarossa, the Hohenstaufen emperor. Among the opera’s highlights are its patriotic choruses, with which Verdi stirred up opinion in favour of a united Italy.