The first publication of Le trouvere in full score, and the first of Verdi's French operas to appear in The Works of Giuseppe Verdi series. By the time Le trouvere premiered at the Paris Opera in 1857, Giuseppe Verdi had first-hand knowledge of the unique demands of French theater. He had adapted his earlier work I Lombardi alla prima crociata (La Scala, 1843) as Jerusalem in 1847, and in 1855 he composed Les vepres siciliennes, especially for the Opera. Il trovatore, set in Spain against the backdrop of civil unrest, was especially suited to Parisian tastes, which required spectacular performances with plenty of choreography. Verdi expanded the score with a four-part ballet in the third act and rewrote the ending, where he introduced a reprise of his celebrated "Miserere," which is first heard at the start of the fourth act. By all accounts, the resulting work displayed extraordinary musical and dramatic efficacy and, after a successful premiere, Le trouvere remained in the Opera repertory through the opening decades of the twentieth century.

There is no extant autograph manuscript for Le trouvere. This critical edition is based primarily on a manuscript full score used at the premiere and during rehearsals, preserved at the Bibliotheque de l'Opera in Paris. Editor David Lawton's introduction to this edition discusses the origins, rehearsals, and reception of Le trouvere, the numerous sources preserved in French, Belgian, Italian, and British archives, and performance issues including staging, vocal style, and orchestral considerations.