By the time Le trouvère premiered at the Paris Opéra 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 Jérusalem in 1847, and in 1855 he composed Les vêpres siciliennes, especially for the Opéra. 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 trouvère remained in the Opéra repertory through the opening decades of the twentieth century.

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