Giuseppe Verdi Verdi and Giuseppina decided to adopt Carlo's great-niece Filomena Maria Verdi, then seven years old, as their own child. She was to marry in 1878 the son of Verdi's friend and lawyer Angelo Carrara and her family became eventually the heirs of Verdi's estate. "Aida" was commissioned by the Egyptian government for the opera house built by the Khedive Isma'il Pasha to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The opera house actually opened with a production of "Rigoletto". The prose libretto in French by Camille du Locle, based on a scenario by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, was
Oberto (opera) conversation about the music of the opera between soprano Giuseppina Strepponi and Giorgio Ronconi in which she praised it. Merelli then offered to put on "Oberto" during the 1839 season and, after its premiere, "Oberto" was given a respectable 13 additional performances. As noted by Roger Parker, the opera, while having a somewhat limited success at La Scala, did receive revivals over the following three years, during which Verdi took the opportunity to compose new numbers or supply new or revised music to fit particular voices. It appeared in Turin and Milan in 1840, the latter in the autumn after