Opera in four acts to a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, from the dramatic poem La Coupe et les Lèvres by Alfred de Musset. First performance: Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 21 April, 1889. Other versions in three acts.

The success of Le Villi convinced the publisher Giulio Ricordi to welcome Puccini to his stable, give him a fixed monthly salary of 200 liras and commission him a second opera, Edgar.

This composition occupied Puccini for four years, years in which his work was intertwined with the beginning of his relationship with Elvira Bonturi and the birth of their son Antonio.

The first performance was not the success that Puccini and Ricordi expected: it is significant that the premiere was followed by two further performances only.

Soon after, stimulated by Ricordi, Puccini began to revise the score in view of a possible revival, which was to take place only in September 1891 at the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, with great success.

This representation in Lucca served Puccini in defining a new three-act structure, completely abolishing the fourth and greatly reducing the second: the second version was staged in 1892 in Ferrara, Turin, Madrid and Brescia.

The third version was prepared for the “Puccini Festival” organized in 1905 in Buenos Aires, but the result was again disappointing.