Specially commissioned for the Great Exhibition of Paris of 1855, I Vespri Siciliani is set at the time of the French occupation of Sicily in the 13th century and concerns the Sicilians' efforts to liberate their land. The vesper bell is rung to mark the wedding of Duchess Elena (a Sicilian patriot) to Arrigo (son of the French governor of the island) and acts as a signal for the slaughter of the unarmed French by Sicilian patriots.