'Intenditi con Dio!... Ah! Se tu sei fra gli angeli' (Paolo) (Fosca)

Antônio Carlos Gomes, a Brazilian working in Italy, followed the success of Il Guarany with Fosca, on a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni — the librettist of Aida — after Luigi Capranica's novel La festa delle Marie. It opened at La Scala on 16 February 1873, with Gounod in the audience. Critics respected it; the public did not, the reception caught in the quarrel then dividing partisans of bel canto from admirers of Wagner. Gomes reworked the score thoroughly and the new version, given at La Scala on 7 February 1878, succeeded. He is said to have considered it his best work.