It is difficult, even impossible, to demonstrate that somethingdoesn’t exist and never has existed. What if tomorrow we find anelusive source that has escaped detection? So it is with documentationpertaining to Giuseppe Verdi’s Re Lear. Informationabout the libretto of the projected opera and correspondence concerning itscreation has gradually emerged over the past century and now seemsrelatively complete. As early as 1843, Verdi mentioned the Shakespeareanplay as a possible operatic subject. In 1845 he brought it to the attentionof Francesco Maria Piave. Toward the end of the decade (probably early in1849), Verdi wrote Re Lear as the first item in a list ofpossible operatic subjects on a page of his Copialettere.He worked seriously on the project in 1850, sending Salvadore Cammarano onFebruary 28 a lengthy prose outline (selva) of a possibleopera on Lear, in which he laid out the scenic structure ashe envisioned it. Cammarano gave the project some thought and drafted notes,but for Verdi other work with Piave intervened (Stiffelioand Rigoletto). When Cammarano and Verdi began tocollaborate anew toward the end of 1850, they decided to pursue Iltrovatore instead, leaving Re Lear for thefuture. The librettist’s untimely death during the summer of 1852,while he and Verdi were preparing Il trovatore, blockedthat avenue.

It was to Antonio Somma (1809–65) that Verdi then turned. A lawyer byprofession, Somma was also a playwright, a journalist, and—from 1840through 1847—the director of the Teatro Grande of Trieste. Aftersettling in Venice in 1849, he became one of Verdi’s close friendsthere, along with Antonio Gallo and Cesare Vigna. Since Somma was notenormously experienced as a librettist, Verdi gave him his usual advice tocollaborators: keep it short, because “the public easily becomesbored” (Carteggio Verdi—Somma [henceforthCVS]4: May 22, 1853); avoid too many scene changes(CVS 6: June 29, 1853); and, most important,“I’ll say nothing of the verses, which are always beautifuland worthy of you”—Verdi’s standard concession to theself-esteem of his librettists—“but, with all the respect Ifeel for your talent, I will tell you that the form doesn’t lenditself to music.