Busseto, March 16, 1850. Giuseppe Verdi writes to his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, about future plans for La Fenice. The letter includes the following aside: “I have not been able to read your Crispino: I will read it. In the meantime, I congratulate you on the outcome.” The libretto mentioned in passing by Verdi is Crispino e la comare, a melodramma fantasticogiocoso in four acts based on an 1825 play by Salvatore Fabbrichesi, Il medico e la morte, ossia Le cinque giornate di maestro Crespino ciabattino. It was set to music by Luigi and Federico Ricci and premiered at the Teatro San Benedetto on February 28 of that year. The opera had been a great success, and Piave must have enthusiastically rushed to inform Verdi, enclosing a copy of the libretto. Critics had not been unanimous in praising Crispino e la comare after the world premiere, but the audience had given it an enthusiastic reception.

It is with this opera that Luigi and Federico Ricci, who had previously collaborated on Il colonnello, Il disertore per amore (1836), and L'amante di richiamo (1846), achieved their greatest success. And it is with this opera, more important, that they earned a place in posterity. While even the most fortunate of Luigi's operas from the 1830s faded after midcentury, the success of Crispino e la comare was long-lived. Within a couple of years of its premiere, most Italian cities had produced it, typically to great public acclaim.