Success at the Paris Opéra had a strong allure for Italian composers in the first half of the nineteenth century, not least for Giuseppe Verdi, whose ambition of matching Giacomo Meyerbeer's triumphs there is well known. Having just arrived in Paris from London in late July of 1847, Verdi hoped for some time to relax with Giuseppina Strepponi and become acquainted with the musical scene, but almost immediately, he was approached by the directors at the Paris Opéra with a request to compose a new opera for the Fall season. Verdi accepted and proceeded with the project immediately, reworking one of his early successes, I lombardi, into Jérusalem, which he completed in less than two months. Five years later, he signed a contract to produce, in collaboration with librettist Eugène Scribe, an entirely original work, Les Vêpres siciliennes. This time, Verdi planned his project very carefully and hoped to land “a decisive coup” by which he meant “to succeed or to be done forever.” Although he scored a success when Les Vêpres siciliennes was produced in 1855, it was still no match in public popularity with Meyerbeer's works. At last, in 1867, three years after Meyerbeer's death, Don Carlos firmly established Verdi among the top composers of French grand opera.