and so am I". By the time of the premiere, considerable changes had been made to the three-act Stiffelio, the prime one being an added fourth act with new material, described by conductor Mariani to Ricordi as "a stupendous affair; you'll find in it a storm, a pastoral chorus, and an Angelus Dei treated in canon and beautifully wrought". Lina became Mina; Stiffelio, as discussed, was now Aroldo; Stankar morphed into Egberto; Jorg, the bass role, emerged as Briano. Performance history 19th century Rimini became the location of the premiere, although when Aroldo was ready to be staged, Verdi had chosen Bologna for its location, but Ricordi, his publisher and friend, suggested that it be staged in Rimini. The premiere performance was an enormous success and the composer was called onto the stage 27 times. In the seasons which followed the premiere, it appeared in the autumn 1857 season first in Bologna, then Turin, Treviso, and Verona. The winter carnival season of 1858 saw productions in Venice at La Fenice, Cremona, Parma (which chose it over the original Simon Boccanegra), Florence, and Rome. In 1859, it was given in Malta and then, in the following two years, Aroldo appeared on stages in Genoa, Trieste, Lisbon, and Palermo at the Teatro Massimo Bellini. In the Spring of 1864 it was seen in Turin again and then, in the years up to 1870, performances were recorded as having occurred in Pavia, Como, Modena, and, once again, in Venice. Its success varied considerably, especially in Milan in 1859, where "it was a fiasco. It was the public, not the censors, who found it unacceptable". 20th century and beyond Today, Aroldo is one of Verdi's very rarely performed operas, "especially since the rediscovery in 1968 of its parent work Stiffelio ". A major revival occurred at the Wexford Festival in 1959 and it was not performed in the US until 4 May 1963 at the Academy of Music in New York. In February 1964 it was given its first performance in London. The opera was presented in a concert version by the Opera Orchestra of New York in April 1979 (with Montserrat Caballé and Juan Pons), from which was produced the first recording. But the New York Grand Opera claims to have given the first New York staged performance, in 1993. In 1985—1986 the Teatro La Fenice in Venice mounted the two operas back