For many years in the first half of the twentieth century, The Jewels of the Madonna was in the regular international repertory. However, in the latter part of that same century, Wolf-Ferrari's one real foray into verismo (his forte was comic opera) was deemed "vulgar" and its flaws willingly enumerated. The opera's dramatic power, however, is its leading virtue, due in great part to the colorful, effect-laden score. Melodies inspired by Neapolitan folk music and music portraying naturalistic states enrich the opera. The orchestra needed is one of the largest opera orchestras Wolf-Ferrari wrote for, with numerous and varied percussion instruments; the score includes guitars, mandolins, specific Neapolitan instruments, and even a wind machine!

Also noteworthy is that the composer himself came up with the story, though he did not write the libretto. It took over three years for the opera to be completed, through two different librettists, an important plot change (originally, Gennaro kills Maliella in Act 3), and various starts and stops. Years later, another version of the opera was made with a greatly altered libretto. The changes make those of the two different versions of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera look very mild in comparison. This second version, however, never supplanted the first one.

On December 23, 1911, The Jewels of the Madonna received its premiere at the Kurfürstenoper in Berlin, and as with many of his operas, not with its Italian libretto, but in a German version (Der Schmuck der Madonna by Hans Liebstöckl). The first performance in Italian took place weeks later on January 16, 1912, in the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. In early March of that year, the Metropolitan Opera mounted a production, with Toscanini conducting, and kindly invited the composer to the first performances so he could hear his opera sung in Italian.

© Neil Cardew-Fanning, Rovi