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Wikipedia

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi]; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, whose works significantly influenced him.

Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi by Giovanni Boldini, 1886

In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874), and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).

His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his 'middle period': Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata. The bicentenary of his birth in 2013 was widely celebrated in broadcasts and performances.

Life

Childhood and education

 
Verdi's childhood home at Le Roncole

Verdi, the first child of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi (1785–1867) and Luigia Uttini (1787–1851), was born at their home in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro and within the borders of the First French Empire following the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1808. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo and Luigia as "innkeeper" and "spinner" respectively. Additionally, it lists Verdi as being "born yesterday", but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October.[1] Following his mother, Verdi always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, the day he himself believed he was born.[2]

Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833.[2] She is said to have been his closest friend during childhood.[3] From the age of four, Verdi was given private lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi, and at six he attended the local school. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents finally provided him with a spinet.[4] Verdi's gift for music was already apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while, and taking organ lessons. After Baistrocchi's death, Verdi, at the age of eight, became the official paid organist.[5]

 
Antonio Barezzi, Verdi's patron and later father-in-law

The music historian Roger Parker points out that both of Verdi's parents "belonged to families of small landowners and traders, certainly not the illiterate peasants from which Verdi later liked to present himself as having emerged... Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his son's education...something which Verdi tended to hide in later life... [T]he picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by an ambitious father and of a sustained, sophisticated and elaborate formal education."[6]

In 1823, when he was 10, Verdi's parents arranged for the boy to attend school in Busseto, enrolling him in a Ginnasio—an upper school for boys—run by Don Pietro Seletti, while they continued to run their inn at Le Roncole. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, covering the distance of several kilometres on foot.[7] At age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the municipal music school and co-director of the local Società Filarmonica (Philharmonic Society). Verdi later stated: "From the ages of 13 to 18 I wrote a motley assortment of pieces: marches for band by the hundred, perhaps as many little sinfonie that were used in church, in the theatre and at concerts, five or six concertos and sets of variations for pianoforte, which I played myself at concerts, many serenades, cantatas (arias, duets, very many trios) and various pieces of church music, of which I remember only a Stabat Mater."[1] This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, and remains the leading source for his early life and career.[8] Written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood.[9][10]

 
Margherita Barezzi, Verdi's first wife

The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi [it], a wholesale grocer and distiller, who was described by a contemporary as a "manic dilettante" of music. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic. By June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By chance, when he was 13, Verdi was asked to step in as a replacement to play in what became his first public event in his home town; he was an immediate success mostly playing his own music to the surprise of many and receiving strong local recognition.[11]

By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic: "none of us could rival him" reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè. An eight-movement cantata, I deliri di Saul, based on a drama by Vittorio Alfieri, was written by Verdi when he was 15 and performed in Bergamo. It was acclaimed by both Demaldè and Barezzi, who commented: "He shows a vivid imagination, a philosophical outlook, and sound judgment in the arrangement of instrumental parts."[12] In late 1829, Verdi had completed his studies with Provesi, who declared that he had no more to teach him.[13] At the time, Verdi had been giving singing and piano lessons to Barezzi's daughter Margherita; by 1831, they were unofficially engaged.[1]

Verdi set his sights on Milan, then the cultural capital of northern Italy, where he applied unsuccessfully to study at the Conservatory.[1] Barezzi made arrangements for him to become a private pupil of Vincenzo Lavigna [it], who had been maestro concertatore at La Scala, and who described Verdi's compositions as "very promising".[14] Lavigna encouraged Verdi to take out a subscription to La Scala, where he heard Maria Malibran in operas by Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini.[15] Verdi began making connections in the Milanese world of music that were to stand him in good stead. These included an introduction by Lavigna to an amateur choral group, the Società Filarmonica, led by Pietro Massini.[16] Attending the Società frequently in 1834, Verdi soon found himself functioning as rehearsal director (for Rossini's La cenerentola) and continuo player. It was Massini who encouraged him to write his first opera, originally titled Rocester, to a libretto by the journalist Antonio Piazza.[1]

1834–1842: First operas

 
Temistocle Solera, Verdi's first librettist.

List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi

In mid-1834, Verdi sought to acquire Provesi's former post in Busseto but without success. But with Barezzi's help he did obtain the secular post of maestro di musica. He taught, gave lessons, and conducted the Philharmonic for several months before returning to Milan in early 1835.[6] By the following July, he obtained his certification from Lavigna.[17] Eventually in 1835 Verdi became director of the Busseto school with a three-year contract. He married Margherita in May 1836, and by March 1837, she had given birth to their first child, Virginia Maria Luigia on 26 March 1837. Icilio Romano followed on 11 July 1838. Both the children died young, Virginia on 12 August 1838, Icilio on 22 October 1839.[1]

In 1837, the young composer asked for Massini's assistance to stage his opera in Milan.[18] The La Scala impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, agreed to put on Oberto (as the reworked opera was now called, with a libretto rewritten by Temistocle Solera)[19] in November 1839. It achieved a respectable 13 additional performances, following which Merelli offered Verdi a contract for three more works.[20]

While Verdi was working on his second opera Un giorno di regno, Margherita died of encephalitis at the age of 26. Verdi adored his wife and children and was devastated by their early deaths. Un giorno, a comedy, was premiered only a few months later. It was a flop and only given the one performance.[20] Following its failure, it is claimed Verdi vowed never to compose again,[10] but in his Sketch he recounts how Merelli persuaded him to write a new opera.

Verdi was to claim that he gradually began to work on the music for Nabucco, the libretto of which had originally been rejected by the composer Otto Nicolai:[21] "This verse today, tomorrow that, here a note, there a whole phrase, and little by little the opera was written", he later recalled.[22] By the autumn of 1841 it was complete, originally under the title Nabucodonosor. Well received at its first performance on 9 March 1842, Nabucco underpinned Verdi's success until his retirement from the theatre, twenty-nine operas (including some revised and updated versions) later.[10] At its revival in La Scala for the 1842 autumn season it was given an unprecedented (and later unequalled) total of 57 performances; within three years it had reached (among other venues) Vienna, Lisbon, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris and Hamburg; in 1848 it was heard in New York, in 1850 in Buenos Aires. Porter comments that "similar accounts...could be provided to show how widely and rapidly all [Verdi's] other successful operas were disseminated."[23]

1842–1849

 
Francesco Maria Piave whose work with Verdi included Rigoletto and La traviata

A period of hard work for Verdi—with the creation of twenty operas (excluding revisions and translations)—followed over the next sixteen years, culminating in Un ballo in maschera. This period was not without its frustrations and setbacks for the young composer, and he was frequently demoralised. In April 1845, in connection with I due Foscari, he wrote: "I am happy, no matter what reception it gets, and I am utterly indifferent to everything. I cannot wait for these next three years to pass. I have to write six operas, then addio to everything."[24] In 1858 Verdi complained: "Since Nabucco, you may say, I have never had one hour of peace. Sixteen years in the galleys."[25]

After the initial success of Nabucco, Verdi settled in Milan, making a number of influential acquaintances. He attended the Salotto Maffei, Countess Clara Maffei's salons in Milan, becoming her lifelong friend and correspondent.[10] A revival of Nabucco followed in 1842 at La Scala where it received a run of fifty-seven performances,[26] and this led to a commission from Merelli for a new opera for the 1843 season. I Lombardi alla prima crociata was based on a libretto by Solera and premiered in February 1843. Inevitably, comparisons were made with Nabucco; but one contemporary writer noted: "If [Nabucco] created this young man's reputation, I Lombardi served to confirm it."[27]

Verdi paid close attention to his financial contracts, making sure he was appropriately remunerated as his popularity increased. For I Lombardi and Ernani (1844) in Venice he was paid 12,000 lire (including supervision of the productions); Attila and Macbeth (1847), each brought him 18,000 lire. His contracts with the publishers Ricordi in 1847 were very specific about the amounts he was to receive for new works, first productions, musical arrangements, and so on.[28] He began to use his growing prosperity to invest in land near his birthplace. In 1844 he purchased Il Pulgaro, 62 acres (23 hectares) of farmland with a farmhouse and outbuildings, providing a home for his parents from May 1844. Later that year, he also bought the Palazzo Cavalli (now known as the Palazzo Orlandi) on the via Roma, Busseto's main street.[29] In May 1848, Verdi signed a contract for land and houses at Sant'Agata in Busseto, which had once belonged to his family.[30] It was here he built his own house, completed in 1880, now known as the Villa Verdi, where he lived from 1851 until his death.[31]

In March 1843, Verdi visited Vienna (where Gaetano Donizetti was musical director) to oversee a production of Nabucco. The older composer, recognising Verdi's talent, noted in a letter of January 1844: "I am very, very happy to give way to people of talent like Verdi... Nothing will prevent the good Verdi from soon reaching one of the most honourable positions in the cohort of composers."[32] Verdi travelled on to Parma, where the Teatro Regio di Parma was producing Nabucco with Strepponi in the cast. For Verdi the performances were a personal triumph in his native region, especially as his father, Carlo, attended the first performance. Verdi remained in Parma for some weeks beyond his intended departure date. This fuelled speculation that the delay was due to Verdi's interest in Giuseppina Strepponi (who stated that their relationship began in 1843).[33] Strepponi was in fact known for her amorous relationships (and many illegitimate children) and her history was an awkward factor in their relationship until they eventually agreed on marriage.[34]

After successful stagings of Nabucco in Venice (with twenty-five performances in the 1842/43 season), Verdi began negotiations with the impresario of La Fenice to stage I Lombardi, and to write a new opera. Eventually, Victor Hugo's Hernani was chosen, with Francesco Maria Piave as librettist. Ernani was successfully premiered in 1844 and within six months had been performed at twenty other theatres in Italy, and also in Vienna.[35] The writer Andrew Porter notes that for the next ten years, Verdi's life "reads like a travel diary—a timetable of visits...to bring new operas to the stage or to supervise local premieres". La Scala premiered none of these new works, except for Giovanna d'Arco. Verdi "never forgave the Milanese for their reception of Un giorno di regno".[28]

During this period, Verdi began to work more consistently with his librettists. He relied on Piave again for I due Foscari, performed in Rome in November 1844, then on Solera once more for Giovanna d'Arco, at La Scala in February 1845, while in August that year he was able to work with Salvadore Cammarano on Alzira for the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. Solera and Piave worked together on Attila for La Fenice (March 1846).[36]

 
Emanuele Muzio, Verdi's pupil and assistant

In April 1844, Verdi took on Emanuele Muzio, eight years his junior, as a pupil and amanuensis. He had known him since about 1828 as another of Barezzi's protégés.[37] Muzio, who in fact was Verdi's only pupil, became indispensable to the composer. He reported to Barezzi that Verdi "has a breadth of spirit, of generosity, a wisdom".[38] In November 1846, Muzio wrote of Verdi: "If you could see us, I seem more like a friend, rather than his pupil. We are always together at dinner, in the cafes, when we play cards...; all in all, he doesn't go anywhere without me at his side; in the house we have a big table and we both write there together, and so I always have his advice."[39] Muzio was to remain associated with Verdi, assisting in the preparation of scores and transcriptions, and later conducting many of his works in their premiere performances in the US and elsewhere outside Italy. He was chosen by Verdi as one of the executors of his will, but predeceased the composer in 1890.[40]

After a period of illness Verdi began work on Macbeth in September 1846. He dedicated the opera to Barezzi: "I have long intended to dedicate an opera to you, as you have been a father, a benefactor and a friend for me. It was a duty I should have fulfilled sooner if imperious circumstances had not prevented me. Now, I send you Macbeth, which I prize above all my other operas, and therefore deem worthier to present to you."[41] In 1997 Martin Chusid wrote that Macbeth was the only one of Verdi's operas of his "early period" to remain regularly in the international repertoire,[42] although in the 21st century Nabucco has also entered the lists.[43]

Strepponi's voice declined and her engagements dried up in the 1845 to 1846 period, and she returned to live in Milan whilst retaining contact with Verdi as his "supporter, promoter, unofficial adviser, and occasional secretary" until she decided to move to Paris in October 1846. Before she left Verdi gave her a letter that pledged his love. On the envelope, Strepponi wrote: "5 or 6 October 1846. They shall lay this letter on my heart when they bury me."[44]

Verdi had completed I masnadieri for London by May 1847 except for the orchestration. This he left until the opera was in rehearsal, since he wanted to hear "la [Jenny] Lind and modify her role to suit her more exactly".[45] Verdi agreed to conduct the premiere on 22 July 1847 at Her Majesty's Theatre, as well as the second performance. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the first performance, and for the most part, the press was generous in its praise.[46]

 
Salvadore Cammarano, librettist of Alzira, La battaglia di Legnano, and Luisa Miller

For the next two years, except for two visits to Italy during periods of political unrest, Verdi was based in Paris.[47] Within a week of returning to Paris in July 1847, he received his first commission from the Paris Opéra. Verdi agreed to adapt I Lombardi to a new French libretto; the result was Jérusalem, which contained significant changes to the music and structure of the work (including an extensive ballet scene) to meet Parisian expectations.[48] Verdi was awarded the Order of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.[49][n 1] To satisfy his contracts with the publisher Francesco Lucca [it], Verdi dashed off Il Corsaro. Budden comments "In no other opera of his does Verdi appear to have taken so little interest before it was staged."[52]

On hearing the news of the "Cinque Giornate", the "Five Days" of street fighting that took place between 18 and 22 March 1848 and temporarily drove the Austrians out of Milan, Verdi travelled there, arriving on 5 April.[53] He discovered that Piave was now "Citizen Piave" of the newly proclaimed Republic of San Marco. Writing a patriotic letter to him in Venice, Verdi concluded "Banish every petty municipal idea! We must all extend a fraternal hand, and Italy will yet become the first nation of the world...I am drunk with joy! Imagine that there are no more Germans here!!"[54]

Verdi had been admonished by the poet Giuseppe Giusti for turning away from patriotic subjects, the poet pleading with him to "do what you can to nourish the [sorrow of the Italian people], to strengthen it, and direct it to its goal."[55] Cammarano suggested adapting Joseph Méry's 1828 play La Bataille de Toulouse, which he described as a story "that should stir every man with an Italian soul in his breast".[56] The premiere was set for late January 1849. Verdi travelled to Rome before the end of 1848. He found that city on the verge of becoming a (short-lived) republic, which commenced within days of La battaglia di Legnano's enthusiastically received premiere. In the spirit of the time were the tenor hero's final words, "Whoever dies for the fatherland cannot be evil-minded".[57]

Verdi had intended to return to Italy in early 1848, but was prevented by work and illness, as well as, most probably, by his increasing attachment to Strepponi. Verdi and Strepponi left Paris in July 1849, the immediate cause being an outbreak of cholera,[58] and Verdi went directly to Busseto to continue work on completing his latest opera, Luisa Miller, for a production in Naples later in the year.[59]

1849–1853: Fame

 
Villa Verdi at Sant'Agata, as it looked between 1859 and 1865

Verdi was committed to the publisher Giovanni Ricordi for an opera—which became Stiffelio—for Trieste in the Spring of 1850; and, subsequently, following negotiations with La Fenice, developed a libretto with Piave and wrote the music for Rigoletto (based on Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse) for Venice in March 1851. This was the first of a sequence of three operas (followed by Il trovatore and La traviata) which were to cement his fame as a master of opera.[60] The failure of Stiffelio (attributable not least to the censors of the time taking offence at the taboo subject of the supposed adultery of a clergyman's wife and interfering with the text and roles) incited Verdi to take pains to rework it, although even in the completely recycled version of Aroldo (1857) it still failed to please.[61] Rigoletto, with its intended murder of royalty, and its sordid attributes, also upset the censors. Verdi would not compromise:

What does the sack matter to the police? Are they worried about the effect it will produce?...Do they think they know better than I?...I see the hero has been made no longer ugly and hunchbacked!! Why? A singing hunchback...why not?...I think it splendid to show this character as outwardly deformed and ridiculous, and inwardly passionate and full of love. I chose the subject for these very qualities...if they are removed I can no longer set it to music.[62]

Verdi substituted a Duke for the King, and the public response and subsequent success of the opera all over Italy and Europe fully vindicated the composer.[63] Aware that the melody of the Duke's song "La donna è mobile" ("Woman is fickle") would become a popular hit, Verdi excluded it from orchestral rehearsals for the opera, and rehearsed the tenor separately.[64][n 2]

 
Giuseppina Strepponi, c. 1850s

For several months Verdi was preoccupied with family matters. These stemmed from the way in which the citizens of Busseto were treating Giuseppina Strepponi, with whom he was living openly in an unmarried relationship. She was shunned in the town and at church, and while Verdi appeared indifferent, she was certainly not.[66] Furthermore, Verdi was concerned about the administration of his newly acquired property at Sant'Agata.[67] A growing estrangement between Verdi and his parents was perhaps also attributable to Strepponi[68] (the suggestion that this situation was sparked by the birth of a child to Verdi and Strepponi which was given away as a foundling[69] lacks any firm evidence). In January 1851, Verdi broke off relations with his parents, and in April they were ordered to leave Sant'Agata; Verdi found new premises for them and helped them financially to settle into their new home. It may not be coincidental that all six Verdi operas written in the period 1849–53 (La battaglia, Luisa Miller, Stiffelio, Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata), have, uniquely in his oeuvre, heroines who are, in the opera critic Joseph Kerman's words, "women who come to grief because of sexual transgression, actual or perceived". Kerman, like the psychologist Gerald Mendelssohn, sees this choice of subjects as being influenced by Verdi's uneasy passion for Strepponi.[70]

Verdi and Strepponi moved into Sant'Agata on 1 May 1851.[71] May also brought an offer for a new opera from La Fenice, which Verdi eventually realised as La traviata. That was followed by an agreement with the Rome Opera company to present Il trovatore for January 1853.[72] Verdi now had sufficient earnings to retire, had he wished to.[73] He had reached a stage where he could develop his operas as he wished, rather than be dependent on commissions from third parties. Il trovatore was in fact the first opera he wrote without a specific commission (apart from Oberto).[74] At around the same time he began to consider creating an opera from Shakespeare's King Lear. After first (1850) seeking a libretto from Cammarano (which never appeared), Verdi later (1857) commissioned one from Antonio Somma, but this proved intractable, and no music was ever written.[75][n 3] Verdi began work on Il trovatore after the death of his mother in June 1851. The fact that this is "the one opera of Verdi's which focuses on a mother rather than a father" is perhaps related to her death.[78]

In the winter of 1851–52 Verdi decided to go to Paris with Strepponi, where he concluded an agreement with the Opéra to write what became Les vêpres siciliennes, his first original work in the style of grand opera. In February 1852, the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas fils's play The Lady of the Camellias; Verdi immediately began to compose music for what would later become La traviata.[79]

After his visit to Rome for Il trovatore in January 1853, Verdi worked on completing La traviata, but with little hope of its success, due to his lack of confidence in any of the singers engaged for the season.[80] Furthermore, the management insisted that the opera be given a historical, not a contemporary setting. The premiere in March 1853 was indeed a failure: Verdi wrote: "Was the fault mine or the singers'? Time will tell."[81] Subsequent productions (following some rewriting) throughout Europe over the following two years fully vindicated the composer; Roger Parker has written "Il trovatore consistently remains one of the three or four most popular operas in the Verdian repertoire: but it has never pleased the critics".[82]

1853–1860: Consolidation

In the eleven years up to and including Traviata, Verdi had written sixteen operas. Over the next eighteen years (up to Aida), he wrote only six new works for the stage.[83] Verdi was happy to return to Sant'Agata and, in February 1856, was reporting a "total abandonment of music; a little reading; some light occupation with agriculture and horses; that's all". A couple of months later, writing in the same vein to Countess Maffei he stated: "I'm not doing anything. I don't read. I don't write. I walk in the fields from morning to evening, trying to recover, so far without success, from the stomach trouble caused me by I vespri siciliani. Cursed operas!"[84] An 1858 letter by Strepponi to the publisher Léon Escudier describes the kind of lifestyle that increasingly appealed to the composer: "His love for the country has become a mania, madness, rage, and fury—anything you like that is exaggerated. He gets up almost with the dawn, to go and examine the wheat, the maize, the vines, etc....Fortunately our tastes for this sort of life coincide, except in the matter of sunrise, which he likes to see up and dressed, and I from my bed."[85]

 
Verdi confronting the Naples censor when preparing Un ballo in maschera (caricature by Delfico)

Nonetheless on 15 May, Verdi signed a contract with La Fenice for an opera for the following spring. This was to be Simon Boccanegra. The couple stayed in Paris until January 1857 to deal with these proposals, and also the offer to stage the translated version of Il trovatore as a grand opera. Verdi and Strepponi travelled to Venice in March for the premiere of Simon Boccanegra, which turned out to be "a fiasco" (as Verdi reported, although on the second and third nights, the reception improved considerably).[86]

With Strepponi, Verdi went to Naples early in January 1858 to work with Somma on the libretto of the opera Gustave III, which over a year later would become Un ballo in maschera. By this time, Verdi had begun to write about Strepponi as "my wife" and she was signing her letters as "Giuseppina Verdi".[85] Verdi raged against the stringent requirements of the Neapolitan censor stating: "I'm drowning in a sea of troubles. It's almost certain that the censors will forbid our libretto."[87] With no hope of seeing his Gustavo III staged as written, he broke his contract. This resulted in litigation and counter-litigation; with the legal issues resolved, Verdi was free to present the libretto and musical outline of Gustave III to the Rome Opera. There, the censors demanded further changes; at this point, the opera took the title Un ballo in maschera.[88]

Arriving in Sant'Agata in March 1859 Verdi and Strepponi found the nearby city of Piacenza occupied by about 6,000 Austrian troops who had made it their base, to combat the rise of Italian interest in unification in the Piedmont region. In the ensuing Second Italian War of Independence the Austrians abandoned the region and began to leave Lombardy, although they remained in control of the Venice region under the terms of the armistice signed at Villafranca. Verdi was disgusted at this outcome: "[W]here then is the independence of Italy, so long hoped for and promised?...Venice is not Italian? After so many victories, what an outcome... It is enough to drive one mad" he wrote to Clara Maffei.[89]

Verdi and Strepponi now decided on marriage; they travelled to Collonges-sous-Salève, a village then part of Piedmont. On 29 August 1859 the couple were married there, with only the coachman who had driven them there and the church bell-ringer as witnesses.[90] At the end of 1859, Verdi wrote to his friend Cesare De Sanctis "[Since completing Ballo] I have not made any more music, I have not seen any more music, I have not thought anymore about music. I don't even know what colour my last opera is, and I almost don't remember it." [91] He began to remodel Sant'Agata, which took most of 1860 to complete and on which he continued to work for the next twenty years. This included major work on a square room that became his workroom, his bedroom, and his office.[92]

Politics

 
Painting "Viva Verdi" slogans

Having achieved some fame and prosperity, Verdi began in 1859 to take an active interest in Italian politics. His early commitment to the Risorgimento movement is difficult to estimate accurately; in the words of the music historian Philip Gossett "myths intensifying and exaggerating [such] sentiment began circulating" during the nineteenth century.[93] An example is the claim that when the "Va, pensiero" chorus in Nabucco was first sung in Milan, the audience, responding with nationalistic fervour, demanded an encore. As encores were expressly forbidden by the government at the time, such a gesture would have been extremely significant. But in fact the piece encored was not "Va, pensiero" but the hymn "Immenso Jehova".[94][n 4]

The growth of the "identification of Verdi's music with Italian nationalist politics" perhaps began in the 1840s.[98] In 1848, the nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini (whom Verdi had met in London the previous year) requested Verdi (who complied) to write a patriotic hymn.[99] The opera historian Charles Osborne describes the 1849 La battaglia di Legnano as "an opera with a purpose" and maintains that "while parts of Verdi's earlier operas had frequently been taken up by the fighters of the Risorgimento...this time the composer had given the movement its own opera"[100] It was not until 1859 in Naples, and only then spreading throughout Italy, that the slogan "Viva Verdi" was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Viva Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), (who was then king of Piedmont).[101] After Italy was unified in 1861, many of Verdi's early operas were increasingly re-interpreted as Risorgimento works with hidden Revolutionary messages that perhaps had not been originally intended by either the composer or his librettists.[102]

In 1859, Verdi was elected as a member of the new provincial council, and was appointed to head a group of five who would meet with King Vittorio Emanuele II in Turin. They were enthusiastically greeted along the way and in Turin Verdi himself received much of the publicity. On 17 October Verdi met with Cavour, the architect of the initial stages of Italian unification.[103] Later that year the government of Emilia was subsumed under the United Provinces of Central Italy, and Verdi's political life temporarily came to an end. Whilst still maintaining nationalist feelings, he declined in 1860 the office of provincial council member to which he had been elected in absentia.[104] Cavour however was anxious to convince a man of Verdi's stature that running for political office was essential to strengthening and securing Italy's future.[105] The composer confided to Piave some years later that "I accepted on the condition that after a few months I would resign."[106] Verdi was elected on 3 February 1861 for the town of Borgo San Donnino (Fidenza) to the Parliament of Piedmont-Sardinia in Turin (which from March 1861 became the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy), but following the death of Cavour in 1861, which deeply distressed him, he scarcely attended.[107] Later, in 1874, Verdi was appointed a member of the Italian Senate, but did not participate in its activities.[108][109]

1860–1887: from La forza to Otello

 
Verdi in Russia, 1861–62

In the months following the staging of Ballo, Verdi was approached by several opera companies seeking a new work or making offers to stage one of his existing ones, but refused them all.[110] But when, in December 1860, an approach was made from Saint Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, the offer of 60,000 francs plus all expenses was doubtless a strong incentive. Verdi came up with the idea of adapting the 1835 Spanish play Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino by Angel Saavedra, which became La forza del destino, with Piave writing the libretto. The Verdis arrived in St. Petersburg in December 1861 for the premiere, but casting problems meant that it had to be postponed.[111]

Returning via Paris from Russia on 24 February 1862, Verdi met two young Italian writers, the twenty-year-old Arrigo Boito and Franco Faccio. Verdi had been invited to write a piece of music for the 1862 International Exhibition in London, [112] and charged Boito with writing a text, which became the Inno delle nazioni. Boito, as a supporter of the grand opera of Giacomo Meyerbeer and an opera composer in his own right, was later in the 1860s critical of Verdi's "reliance on formula rather than form", incurring the composer's wrath. Nevertheless, he was to become Verdi's close collaborator in his final operas.[113] The St. Petersburg premiere of La forza finally took place in September 1862, and Verdi received the Order of St. Stanislaus.[114]

A revival of Macbeth in Paris in 1865 was not a success, but he obtained a commission for a new work, Don Carlos, based on the play Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller. He and Giuseppina spent late 1866 and much of 1867 in Paris, where they heard, and did not warm to, Giacomo Meyerbeer's last opera, L'Africaine, and Richard Wagner's overture to Tannhäuser.[115] The opera's premiere in 1867 drew mixed comments. While the critic Théophile Gautier praised the work, the composer Georges Bizet was disappointed at Verdi's changing style: "Verdi is no longer Italian. He is following Wagner."[115]

During the 1860s and 1870s, Verdi paid great attention to his estate around Busseto, purchasing additional land, dealing with unsatisfactory (in one case, embezzling) stewards, installing irrigation, and coping with variable harvests and economic slumps.[116] In 1867, both Verdi's father Carlo, with whom he had restored good relations, and his early patron and father-in-law Antonio Barezzi, died. Verdi and Giuseppina decided to adopt Carlo's great-niece Filomena Maria Verdi, then seven years old, as their own child. She was to marry in 1878 the son of Verdi's friend and lawyer Angelo Carrara and her family became eventually the heirs of Verdi's estate.[117]

 
Teresa Stolz as Aida in the 1872 Parma production

Aida was commissioned by the Egyptian government for the opera house built by the Khedive Isma'il Pasha to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The opera house actually opened with a production of Rigoletto. The prose libretto in French by Camille du Locle, based on a scenario by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, was transformed to Italian verse by Antonio Ghislanzoni.[118] Verdi was offered the enormous sum of 150,000 francs for the opera (even though he confessed that Ancient Egypt was "a civilization I have never been able to admire"), and it was first performed in Cairo in 1871.[119] Verdi spent much of 1872 and 1873 supervising the Italian productions of Aida at Milan, Parma and Naples, effectively acting as producer and demanding high standards and adequate rehearsal time.[120] During the rehearsals for the Naples production he wrote his string quartet, the only chamber music by him to survive, and the only major work in the form by an Italian of the 19th century.[121]

In 1869, Verdi had been asked to compose a section for a requiem mass in memory of Rossini. He compiled and completed the requiem, but its performance was abandoned (and its premiere did not take place until 1988).[122] Five years later, Verdi reworked his "Libera Me" section of the Rossini Requiem and made it a part of his Requiem honouring Alessandro Manzoni, who had died in 1873. The complete Requiem was first performed at the cathedral in Milan on the anniversary of Manzoni's death on 22 May 1874.[122] The spinto soprano Teresa Stolz (1834–1902), who had sung in La Scala productions from 1865 onwards, was the soloist in the first and many later performances of the Requiem; in February 1872, she had created Aida in its European premiere in Milan. She became closely associated personally with Verdi (exactly how closely remains conjectural), to Giuseppina Verdi's initial disquiet; but the women were reconciled and Stolz remained a companion of Verdi after Giuseppina's death in 1897 until his own death.[123]

Verdi conducted his Requiem in Paris, London and Vienna in 1875 and in Cologne in 1876.[108] It seemed that it would be his last work. In the words of his biographer John Rosselli, it "confirmed him as the unique presiding genius of Italian music. No fellow composer...came near him in popularity or reputation". Verdi, now in his sixties, initially seemed to withdraw into retirement. He deliberately shied away from opportunities to publicise himself or to become involved with new productions of his works,[124] but secretly he began work on Otello, which Boito (to whom the composer had been reconciled by Ricordi) had proposed to him privately in 1879. The composition was delayed by a revision of Simon Boccanegra which Verdi undertook with Boito, produced in 1881, and a revision of Don Carlos. Even when Otello was virtually completed, Verdi teased "Shall I finish it? Shall I have it performed? Hard to tell, even for me." As news leaked out, Verdi was pressed by opera houses across Europe with enquiries; eventually the opera was triumphantly premiered at La Scala in February 1887.[125]

1887–1901: Falstaff and last years

 
Arrigo Boito and Verdi at Sant'Agata in 1893

Following the success of Otello Verdi commented, "After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little." He had considered a variety of comic subjects but had found none of them wholly suitable and confided his ambition to Boito. The librettist said nothing at the time but secretly began work on a libretto based on The Merry Wives of Windsor with additional material taken from Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2.[126] Verdi received the draft libretto probably in early July 1889 after he had just read Shakespeare's play: "Benissimo! Benissimo!... No one could have done better than you", he wrote back to Boito. But he still had doubts: his age, his health (which he admits to being good) and his ability to complete the project: "If I were not to finish the music?". If the project failed, it would have been a waste of Boito's time, and have distracted him from completing his own new opera. Finally on 10 July 1889 he wrote again: "So be it! So let's do Falstaff! For now, let's not think of obstacles, of age, of illnesses!" Verdi emphasised the need for secrecy, but continued "If you are in the mood, then start to write."[127] Later he wrote to Boito (capitals and exclamation marks are Verdi's own): "What joy to be able to say to the public: HERE WE ARE AGAIN!!! COME AND SEE US!"[128]

The first performance of Falstaff took place at La Scala on 9 February 1893. For the first night, official ticket prices were thirty times higher than usual. Royalty, aristocracy, critics and leading figures from the arts all over Europe were present. The performance was a huge success; numbers were encored, and at the end the applause for Verdi and the cast lasted an hour. That was followed by a tumultuous welcome when the composer, his wife and Boito arrived at the Grand Hotel de Milan.[129] Even more hectic scenes ensued when he went to Rome in May for the opera's premiere at the Teatro Costanzi, when crowds of well-wishers at the railway station initially forced Verdi to take refuge in a tool-shed. He witnessed the performance from the Royal Box at the side of King Umberto and the Queen.[130]

 
Group portrait at Sant'Agata in 1900 with various family and friends. His companion Teresa Stolz is standing at the left, Giulio Ricordi is standing second from the right, with his wife seated below him. Verdi is in the middle, and his adopted daughter, Maria Carrara Verdi, is seated at the far left.

In his last years Verdi undertook a number of philanthropic ventures, publishing in 1894 a song for the benefit of earthquake victims in Sicily, and from 1895 onwards planning, building and endowing a rest-home for retired musicians in Milan, the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, and building a hospital at Villanova sull'Arda, close to Busseto.[131][132] His last major composition, the choral set of Four sacred pieces, was published in 1898. In 1900 he was deeply upset at the assassination of King Umberto and sketched a setting of a poem in his memory but was unable to complete it.[133] While staying at the Grand Hotel, Verdi suffered a stroke on 21 January 1901.[n 5] He gradually grew more feeble over the next week, during which Stolz cared for him, and died on 27 January at the age of 87.[134][135]

 
Verdi's grave at the Casa di Riposo, Milan

Verdi was initially buried in a private ceremony at Milan's Cimitero Monumentale.[136] A month later, his body was moved to the crypt of the Casa di Riposo. On this occasion, "Va, pensiero" from Nabucco was conducted by Arturo Toscanini with a chorus of 820 singers. A huge crowd was in attendance, estimated at 300,000.[137] Boito wrote to a friend, in words which recall the mysterious final scene of Don Carlos, "[Verdi] sleeps like a King of Spain in his Escurial, under a bronze slab that completely covers him."[138]

Personality

Not all of Verdi's personal qualities were amiable. John Rosselli concluded after writing his biography that "I do not very much like the man Verdi, in particular the autocratic rentier-cum-estate owner, part-time composer, and seemingly full-time grumbler and reactionary critic of the later years", yet admits that like other writers, he must "admire him, warts and all...a deep integrity runs beneath his life, and can be felt even when he is being unreasonable or wrong."[139]

Budden suggests that "With Verdi...the man and the artist on many ways developed side by side." Ungainly and awkward in society in his early years, "as he became a man of property and underwent the civilizing influence of Giuseppina,...[he] acquired assurance and authority."[140] He also learnt to keep himself to himself, never discussing his private life and maintaining, when it suited him, legends about his supposed 'peasant' origins, his materialism and his indifference to criticism.[141] Gerald Mendelsohn describes the composer as "an intensely private man who deeply resented efforts to inquire into his personal affairs. He regarded journalists and would-be biographers, as well as his neighbors in Busseto and the operatic public at large, as an intrusive lot, against whose prying attentions he needed constantly to defend himself."[142]

Verdi was never explicit about his religious beliefs. Anti-clerical by nature in his early years,[143] he nonetheless built a chapel at Sant'Agata but is little recorded as attending church. Strepponi wrote in 1871 "I won't say [Verdi] is an atheist, but he is not much of a believer."[144] Rosselli comments that in the Requiem "The prospect of Hell appears to rule...[the Requiem] is troubled to the end," and offers little consolation.[145]

Music and form

Spirit

 
Giuseppe Verdi in Vanity Fair (1879)

The writer Friedrich Schiller (four of whose plays were adapted as operas by Verdi) distinguished two types of artist in his 1795 essay On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry. The philosopher Isaiah Berlin ranked Verdi in the 'naïve' category—"They are not...self-conscious. They do not...stand aside to contemplate their creations and express their own feelings....They are able...if they have genius, to embody their vision fully." (The 'sentimentals' seek to recreate nature and natural feelings on their own terms—Berlin instances Richard Wagner—"offering not peace, but a sword".)[146] Verdi's operas are not written according to an aesthetic theory, or with a purpose to change the tastes of their audiences. In conversation with a German visitor in 1887 he is recorded as saying that, whilst "there was much to be admired in [Wagner's operas] Tannhäuser and Lohengrin...in his recent operas [Wagner] seemed to be overstepping the bounds of what can be expressed in music. For him "philosophical" music was incomprehensible."[147] Although Verdi's works belong, as Rosselli admits "to the most artificial of genres...[they] ring emotionally true: truth and directness make them exciting, often hugely so."[148]

Periods

The earliest study of Verdi's music, published in 1859 by the Italian critic Abramo Basevi, already distinguished four periods in Verdi's music. The early, 'grandiose' period, ended according to Basevi with La battaglia di Legnano (1849), and a 'personal' style began with the next opera Luisa Miller. These two operas are generally agreed today by critics to mark the division between Verdi's 'early' and 'middle' periods. The 'middle' period is felt to end with La traviata (1853) and Les vêpres siciliennes (1855), with a 'late' period commencing with Simon Boccanegra (1857) running through to Aida (1871). The last two operas, Otello and Falstaff, together with the Requiem and the Four Sacred Pieces, then represent a 'final' period.[149]

Early period

Verdi was to claim in his Sketch that during his early training with Lavigna "I did nothing but canons and fugues...No-one taught me orchestration or how to handle dramatic music."[150] He is known to have written a variety of music for the Busseto Philharmonic society, including vocal music, band music and chamber works,[151] (and including an alternative overture to Rossini's Barber of Seville)[152] but few of these works survive. (He may have given instructions before his death to destroy his early works).[153]

 
Macbeth meets the witches (Act I, scene 1)

Verdi uses in his early operas (and, in his own stylized versions, throughout his later work) the standard elements of Italian opera content of the period, referred to by the opera writer Julian Budden as the 'Code Rossini', after the composer who established through his work and popularity the accepted templates of these forms; they were also used by the composers dominant during Verdi's early career, Bellini, Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. Amongst the essential elements are the aria, the duet, the ensemble, and the finale sequence of an act.[154] The aria format, centred on a soloist, typically involved three sections; a slow introduction, marked typically cantabile or adagio, a tempo di mezzo which might involve chorus or other characters, and a cabaletta, an opportunity for bravura singing for the soloist. The duet was similarly formatted. Finales, covering climactic sequences of action, used the various forces of soloists, ensemble and chorus, usually culminating with an exciting stretto section. Verdi was to develop these and the other formulae of the generation preceding him with increasing sophistication during his career. [155][156]

The operas of the early period show Verdi learning by doing and gradually establishing mastery over the different elements of opera. Oberto is poorly structured, and the orchestration of the first operas is generally simple, sometimes even basic.[157] The musicologist Richard Taruskin suggested "the most striking effect in the early Verdi operas, and the one most obviously allied to the mood of the Risorgimento, was the big choral number sung—crudely or sublimely, according to the ear of the beholder—in unison. The success of "Va, pensiero" in Nabucco (which Rossini approvingly denoted as "a grand aria sung by sopranos, contraltos, tenors and basses"), was replicated in the similar "O Signor, dal tetto natio" in I lombardi and in 1844 in the chorus "Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia" in Ernani, the battle hymn of the conspirators seeking freedom.[158][159] In I due Foscari Verdi first uses recurring themes identified with main characters; here and in future operas the accent moves away from the 'oratorio' characteristics of the first operas towards individual action and intrigue.[157]

From this period onwards Verdi also develops his instinct for "tinta" (literally 'colour'), a term which he used for characterising elements of an individual opera score—Parker gives as an example "the rising 6th that begins so many lyric pieces in Ernani".[160] Macbeth, even in its original 1847 version, shows many original touches; characterization by key (the Macbeths themselves generally singing in sharp keys, the witches in flat keys),[160] a preponderance of minor key music, and highly original orchestration. In the 'dagger scene' and the duet following the murder of Duncan, the forms transcend the 'Code Rossini' and propel the drama in a compelling fashion.[161] Verdi was to comment in 1868 that Rossini and his followers missed "the golden thread that binds all the parts together and, rather than a set of numbers without coherence, makes an opera". Tinta was for Verdi this "golden thread", an essential unifying factor in his works.[162]

Middle period

 
Stage set by Giuseppe Bertoja for the premiere of Rigoletto (Act 1, Scene 2)

The writer David Kimbell states that in Luisa Miller and Stiffelio (the earliest operas of this period) there appears to be a "growing freedom in the large scale structure...and an acute attention to fine detail".[42] Others echo those feelings. Julian Budden expresses the impact of Rigoletto and its place in Verdi's output as follows: "Just after 1850 at the age of 38, Verdi closed the door on a period of Italian opera with Rigoletto. The so-called ottocento in music is finished. Verdi will continue to draw on certain of its forms for the next few operas, but in a totally new spirit."[163] One example of Verdi's wish to move away from "standard forms" appears in his feelings about the structure of Il trovatore. To his librettist, Cammarano, Verdi plainly states in a letter of April 1851 that if there were no standard forms—"cavatinas, duets, trios, choruses, finales, etc. ... and if you could avoid beginning with an opening chorus....", he would be quite happy.[164]

Two external factors had their impacts on Verdi's compositions of this period. One is that with increasing reputation and financial security he no longer needed to commit himself to the productive treadmill, had more freedom to choose his own subjects, and had more time to develop them according to his own ideas. In the years 1849 to 1859 he wrote eight new operas, compared with fourteen in the previous ten years.[74]

Another factor was the changed political situation; the failure of the 1848 revolutions led both to some diminution of the Risorgimento ethos (at least initially) and a significant increase in theatre censorship.[74] This is reflected both in Verdi's choices of plots dealing more with personal relationships than political conflict, and in a (partly consequent) dramatic reduction in the operas of this period in the number of choruses (of the type which had first made him famous)—not only are there on average 40% fewer choruses in the 'middle' period operas compared to the 'early' period', but whereas virtually all the 'early' operas commence with a chorus, only one (Luisa Miller) of the 'middle' period operas begin this way. Instead, Verdi experiments with a variety of means, e.g. a stage band (Rigoletto), an aria for bass (Stiffelio), a party scene (La traviata). Chusid also notes Verdi's increasing tendency to replace full-scale overtures with shorter orchestral introductions.[165] Parker comments that La traviata, the last opera of the 'middle' period, is "again a new adventure. It gestures towards a level of 'realism'...the contemporary world of waltzes pervades the score, and the heroine's death from disease is graphically depicted in the music."[166] Verdi's increasing command of musical highlighting of changing moods and relationships is exemplified in Act III of Rigoletto, where Duke's flippant song "La donna è mobile" is followed immediately by the quartet "Bella figlia dell'amore", contrasting the rapacious Duke and his inamorata with the (concealed) indignant Rigoletto and his grieving daughter. Taruskin asserts this is "the most famous ensemble Verdi ever composed".[167]

Late period

 
Les vêpres siciliennes: poster for the premiere (1855)

Chusid notes Strepponi's description of the operas of the 1860s and 1870s as being "modern" whereas Verdi described the pre-1849 works as "the cavatina operas", as further indication that "Verdi became increasingly dissatisfied with the older, familiar conventions of his predecessors that he had adopted at the outset of his career,"[168] Parker sees a physical differentiation of the operas from Les vêpres siciliennes (1855) to Aida (1871) is that they are significantly longer, and with larger cast-lists, than previous works. They also reflect a shift towards the French genre of grand opera, notable in more colorful orchestration, counterpointing of serious and comic scenes, and greater spectacle.[169] The opportunities of transforming Italian opera by utilising such resources appealed to him. For a commission from the Paris Opéra he expressly demanded a libretto from Eugène Scribe, the favorite librettist of Meyerbeer, telling him: "I want—in fact, I must have—a grandiose, impassioned and original subject." The result was Les vêpres siciliennes, and the scenarios of Simon Boccanegra (1857), Un ballo in maschera (1859), La forza del destino (1862), Don Carlos (1867) and Aida (1871) all meet the same criteria. Porter notes that Un ballo marks an almost complete synthesis of Verdi's style with the grand opera hallmarks, such that "huge spectacle is not mere decoration but essential to the drama...musical and theatrical lines remain taut [and] the characters still sing as warmly, passionately and personally as in Il trovatore."[170]

When the composer Ferdinand Hiller asked Verdi whether he preferred Aida or Don Carlos, Verdi replied that Aida had "more bite and (if you'll forgive the word), more theatricality".[171] During the rehearsals for the Naples production of Aida Verdi amused himself by writing his only string quartet, a sprightly work which shows in its last movement that he had not lost the skill for fugue-writing that he had learned with Lavigna.[172]

Final works

 
Verdi conducting the Paris Opera premiere of Aida in 1880

Verdi's three last major works continued to show new development in conveying drama and emotion. The first to appear, in 1874 was his Requiem, scored for operatic forces but by no means an "opera in ecclesiastical dress" (the words in which Hans von Bülow condemned it before even hearing it).[173] Although in the Requiem Verdi puts to use many of the techniques he learned in opera, its musical forms and emotions are not those of the stage.[174] Verdi's tone painting at the opening of the Requiem is vividly described by the Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti, writing in 1941: "in [the words] murmured by an invisible crowd over the slow swaying of a few simple chords, you straightaway sense the fear and sadness of a vast multitude before the mystery of death. In the [following] Et lux perpetuum the melody spreads it wings...before falling back on itself...you hear a sigh for consolation and eternal peace."[175]

By the time Otello premièred in 1887, more than 15 years after Aida, the operas of Verdi's (predeceased) contemporary Richard Wagner had begun their ascendancy in popular taste, and many sought or identified Wagnerian aspects in Verdi's latest composition.[176] Budden points out that there is little in the music of Otello that relates either to the verismo opera of the younger Italian composers, and little if anything which can be construed as a homage to the New German School.[177] Nonetheless there is still much originality, building on the strengths which Verdi had already demonstrated; the powerful storm which opens the opera in medias res, the recollection of the love duet of Act I in Otello's dying words (more an aspect of tinta than leitmotif), imaginative touches of harmony in Iago's "Era la notte" (Act II).[178]

Finally, six years later, appeared Falstaff, Verdi's only comedy apart from the early, ill-fated Un giorno di regno. In this work Roger Parker writes that:

"The listener is bombarded by a stunning diversity of rhythms, orchestral textures, melodic motifs and harmonic devices. Passages that in earlier times would have furnished material for an entire number here crowd in on each other, shouldering themselves unceremoniously to the fore in bewildering succession".[179] Rosselli comments: "In Otello Verdi had miniaturized the forms of romantic Italian opera; in Falstaff he miniaturized himself...[M]oments...crystallize a feeling...as though an aria or duet had been precipitated into a phrase."[180]

Legacy

 
Luigi Secchi's 1913 statue of Verdi in Busseto

Reception

Although Verdi's operas brought him a popular following, not all contemporary critics approved of his work. The English critic Henry Chorley allowed in 1846 that "he is the only modern man...having a style—for better or worse", but found all his output unacceptable. "[His] faults [are] grave ones, calculated to destroy and degrade taste beyond those of any Italian composer in the long list" wrote Chorley, whilst conceding that "howsoever incomplete may have been his training, howsoever mistaken his aspirations may have proved...he has aspired."[181] But by the time of Verdi's death, 55 years later, his reputation was assured, and the 1910 edition of Grove's Dictionary pronounced him "one of the greatest and most popular opera composers of the nineteenth century".[182]

Verdi had no pupils apart from Muzio and no school of composers sought to follow his style which, however much it reflected his own musical direction, was rooted in the period of his own youth. By the time of his death, verismo was the accepted style of young Italian composers. [183] The New York Metropolitan Opera frequently staged Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata during this period and featured Aida in every season from 1898 to 1945. Interest in the operas reawakened in mid-1920s Germany and this sparked a revival in England and elsewhere. From the 1930s onward there began to appear scholarly biographies and publications of documentation and correspondence.[184]

In 1959 the Instituto di Studi Verdiani (from 1989 the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani) was founded in Parma and became a leading centre for research and publication of Verdi studies,[185] and in the 1970s the American Institute for Verdi Studies was founded at New York University.[186][187]

Nationalism in the operas

Historians have debated how political Verdi's operas were. In particular, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (known as Va, pensiero) from the third act of the opera Nabucco was used an anthem for Italian patriots, who were seeking to unify their country and free it from foreign control in the years up to 1861 (the chorus's theme of exiles singing about their homeland, and its lines such as O mia patria, si bella e perduta / "O my country, so lovely and so lost" were thought to have resonated with many Italians).[188] Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy, the slogan "Viva VERDI" was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Long live Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), referring to Victor Emmanuel II.[189][190] Marco Pizzo argues that after 1815, music became a political tool, and many songwriters expressed ideals of freedom and equality. Pizzo claims that Verdi was part of this movement, for his operas were inspired by the love of country, the struggle for Italian independence, and speak to the sacrifice of patriots and exiles.[191] George Martin claims Verdi was "the greatest artist" of the Risorgimento. "Throughout his work its values, its issues recur constantly, and he expressed them with great power".[192]

But Mary Ann Smart argues that music critics at the time seldom mentioned any political themes.[193][194] Likewise, Roger Parker argues that the political dimension of Verdi's operas was exaggerated by nationalistic historians looking for a hero in the late 19th century.[195]

From the 1850s onwards, Verdi's operas displayed few patriotic themes because of the heavy censorship by the absolutist regime in power. Verdi later became disillusioned by politics, but he was personally active part in the political world of events of the Risorgimento and was elected to the first Italian parliament in 1861.[196]

Memorials and cultural portrayals

 
The final scene of the opera Risorgimento! (2011) by Lorenzo Ferrero. Verdi, one of the characters in the opera, stands just left of centre.

Three Italian conservatories, the Milan Conservatory[197] and those in Turin[198] and Como,[199] are named after Verdi, as are many Italian theatres.

Verdi's hometown of Busseto displays Luigi Secchi's statue of a seated Verdi in 1913, next to the Teatro Verdi built in his honour in the 1850s.[200] It is one of many statues to the composer in Italy.[201] The Giuseppe Verdi Monument, a 1906 marble memorial, sculpted by Pasquale Civiletti, is located in Verdi Square in Manhattan, New York City. The monument includes a statue of Verdi himself and life-sized statues of four characters from his operas, (Aida, Otello, and Falstaff from the operas of the same names, and Leonora from La forza del destino).[202]

Verdi has been the subject of a number of film and stage works. These include the 1938 film directed by Carmine Gallone, Giuseppe Verdi, starring Fosco Giachetti;[203] the 1982 miniseries, The Life of Verdi, directed by Renato Castellani, where Verdi was played by Ronald Pickup, with narration by Burt Lancaster in the English version;[204] and the 1985 play After Aida, by Julian Mitchell (1985).[205] He is a character in the 2011 opera Risorgimento! by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero, written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification of 1861.[206]

Verdi today

Verdi's operas are frequently staged around the world.[43] All of his operas are available in recordings in a number of versions,[207] and on DVD – Naxos Records offers a complete boxed set.[208]

Modern productions may differ substantially from those originally envisaged by the composer. Jonathan Miller's 1982 version of Rigoletto for English National Opera, set in the world of modern American mafiosi, received critical plaudits.[209] But the same company's staging in 2002 of Un ballo in maschera as A Masked Ball, directed by Calixto Bieito, including "satanic sex rituals, homosexual rape, [and] a demonic dwarf", got a general critical thumbs down.[210]

Meanwhile, the music of Verdi can still evoke a range of cultural and political resonances. Excerpts from the Requiem were featured at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.[137] On 12 March 2011 during a performance of Nabucco at the Opera di Roma celebrating 150 years of Italian unification, the conductor Riccardo Muti paused after "Va pensiero" and turned to address the audience (which included the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi) to complain about cuts in state funding of culture; the audience then joined in a repeat of the chorus.[211][212] In 2014, the pop singer Katy Perry appeared at the Grammy Award wearing a dress designed by Valentino, embroidered with the music of "Dell'invito trascorsa è già l'ora" from the start of La traviata.[213] The bicentenary of Verdi's birth in 2013 was celebrated in numerous events around the world, both in performances and broadcasts.[214]

Notes

  1. ^ In 1880 he was upgraded to Grand Officer of the Legion, after the Paris premiere of Aida.[50] In 1894, after the Paris premiere of Falstaff he was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion.[51]
  2. ^ Taruskin comments: "Its eventual success was almost too great, since many...ascribe...to [the opera] or even to Verdi the song's trivial gaiety without realizing that its brashness was a calculated ironic foil."[65]
  3. ^ After Falstaff, Boito commented to Verdi "Now, maestro, we must set to work on King Lear" (for which Boito had prepared a draft), but Giuseppina was horrified at this prospect: "For heaven's sake, Boito, Verdi is too old, too tired"[76] In 1896, Verdi offered his Lear materials to Pietro Mascagni who asked "Maestro, why didn't you put it into music?" According to Mascagni, "softly and slowly he replied, 'the scene in which King Lear finds himself on the heath scared me'".[77]
  4. ^ Although the story of the encore of "Va pensiero" has been demonstrated to be untrue, research indicates that the chorus did indeed have a resonance for supporters of the Risorgimento,[95][96] and beyond: as recently as 2009 it was proposed to adopt the chorus as Italy's national anthem.[97]
  5. ^ The hotel's website (accessed 14 June 2015) contains a brief history of the composer's stay

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f Parker n.d., §2.
  2. ^ a b Rosselli 2000, p. 12.
  3. ^ Phillips-Matz 2004, p. 4.
  4. ^ Rosselli 2000, p. 14.
  5. ^ Phillips-Matz 1993, pp. 17–21.
  6. ^ a b Parker 1998, p. 933.
  7. ^ Phillips-Matz 1993, pp. 20–21.
  8. ^ Kimbell 1981, p. 92.
  9. ^ Parker 2007, pp. 2–3.
  10. ^ a b c d Parker n.d., §3.
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  163. ^ Budden 1984a, p. 510.
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  180. ^ Rosselli 2000, p. 182.
  181. ^ Chorley 1972, pp. 182, 185–6.
  182. ^ Mazzucato 1910, p. 247.
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  184. ^ Harwood 2004, p. 272.
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  210. ^ Matt Slater, "Revamped opera fails to shock", BBC News website, 22 February 2002, accessed 28 June 2015.
  211. ^ James Bone, "Against Silvio Berlusconi's idea of culture", The Australian, 24 March 2011, accessed 28 June 2015.
  212. ^ See "Va, pensiero", YouTube, accessed 28 June 2015.
  213. ^ "Katy Perry's Verdi dress steals show at Grammys", 28 January 2014, on Classic FM website, accessed 28 June 2015
  214. ^ Charlotte Runcie, "Verdi: How his 200th birthday is being celebrated", Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2013, accessed 13 July 2015

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External links

giuseppe, verdi, verdi, redirects, here, other, uses, verdi, disambiguation, giuseppe, fortunino, francesco, verdi, italian, dʒuˈzɛppe, ˈverdi, october, 1813, january, 1901, italian, composer, best, known, operas, born, near, busseto, provincial, family, moder. Verdi redirects here For other uses see Verdi disambiguation Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi Italian dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi 9 or 10 October 1813 27 January 1901 was an Italian composer best known for his operas He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini whose works significantly influenced him Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi by Giovanni Boldini 1886 In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy He also participated briefly as an elected politician The chorus Va pensiero from his early opera Nabucco 1842 and similar choruses in later operas were much in the spirit of the unification movement and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals An intensely private person Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements As he became professionally successful he was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region He surprised the musical world by returning after his success with the opera Aida 1871 with three late masterpieces his Requiem 1874 and the operas Otello 1887 and Falstaff 1893 His operas remain extremely popular especially the three peaks of his middle period Rigoletto Il trovatore and La traviata The bicentenary of his birth in 2013 was widely celebrated in broadcasts and performances Contents 1 Life 1 1 Childhood and education 1 2 1834 1842 First operas 1 3 1842 1849 1 4 1849 1853 Fame 1 5 1853 1860 Consolidation 1 6 Politics 1 7 1860 1887 from La forza to Otello 1 8 1887 1901 Falstaff and last years 2 Personality 3 Music and form 3 1 Spirit 3 2 Periods 3 2 1 Early period 3 2 2 Middle period 3 2 3 Late period 3 2 4 Final works 4 Legacy 4 1 Reception 4 2 Nationalism in the operas 4 3 Memorials and cultural portrayals 4 4 Verdi today 5 Notes 6 References 6 1 Citations 6 2 Sources 7 External linksLife EditChildhood and education Edit Verdi s childhood home at Le Roncole Verdi the first child of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi 1785 1867 and Luigia Uttini 1787 1851 was born at their home in Le Roncole a village near Busseto then in the Departement Taro and within the borders of the First French Empire following the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1808 The baptismal register prepared on 11 October 1813 lists his parents Carlo and Luigia as innkeeper and spinner respectively Additionally it lists Verdi as being born yesterday but since days were often considered to begin at sunset this could have meant either 9 or 10 October 1 Following his mother Verdi always celebrated his birthday on 9 October the day he himself believed he was born 2 Verdi had a younger sister Giuseppa who died aged 17 in 1833 2 She is said to have been his closest friend during childhood 3 From the age of four Verdi was given private lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster Baistrocchi and at six he attended the local school After learning to play the organ he showed so much interest in music that his parents finally provided him with a spinet 4 Verdi s gift for music was already apparent by 1820 21 when he began his association with the local church serving in the choir acting as an altar boy for a while and taking organ lessons After Baistrocchi s death Verdi at the age of eight became the official paid organist 5 Antonio Barezzi Verdi s patron and later father in lawThe music historian Roger Parker points out that both of Verdi s parents belonged to families of small landowners and traders certainly not the illiterate peasants from which Verdi later liked to present himself as having emerged Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his son s education something which Verdi tended to hide in later life T he picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by an ambitious father and of a sustained sophisticated and elaborate formal education 6 In 1823 when he was 10 Verdi s parents arranged for the boy to attend school in Busseto enrolling him in a Ginnasio an upper school for boys run by Don Pietro Seletti while they continued to run their inn at Le Roncole Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays covering the distance of several kilometres on foot 7 At age 11 Verdi received schooling in Italian Latin the humanities and rhetoric By the time he was 12 he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo director of the municipal music school and co director of the local Societa Filarmonica Philharmonic Society Verdi later stated From the ages of 13 to 18 I wrote a motley assortment of pieces marches for band by the hundred perhaps as many little sinfonie that were used in church in the theatre and at concerts five or six concertos and sets of variations for pianoforte which I played myself at concerts many serenades cantatas arias duets very many trios and various pieces of church music of which I remember only a Stabat Mater 1 This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life in 1879 and remains the leading source for his early life and career 8 Written understandably with the benefit of hindsight it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood 9 10 Margherita Barezzi Verdi s first wifeThe other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi it a wholesale grocer and distiller who was described by a contemporary as a manic dilettante of music The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic By June 1827 he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi By chance when he was 13 Verdi was asked to step in as a replacement to play in what became his first public event in his home town he was an immediate success mostly playing his own music to the surprise of many and receiving strong local recognition 11 By 1829 30 Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation Giuseppe Demalde An eight movement cantata I deliri di Saul based on a drama by Vittorio Alfieri was written by Verdi when he was 15 and performed in Bergamo It was acclaimed by both Demalde and Barezzi who commented He shows a vivid imagination a philosophical outlook and sound judgment in the arrangement of instrumental parts 12 In late 1829 Verdi had completed his studies with Provesi who declared that he had no more to teach him 13 At the time Verdi had been giving singing and piano lessons to Barezzi s daughter Margherita by 1831 they were unofficially engaged 1 Verdi set his sights on Milan then the cultural capital of northern Italy where he applied unsuccessfully to study at the Conservatory 1 Barezzi made arrangements for him to become a private pupil of Vincenzo Lavigna it who had been maestro concertatore at La Scala and who described Verdi s compositions as very promising 14 Lavigna encouraged Verdi to take out a subscription to La Scala where he heard Maria Malibran in operas by Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini 15 Verdi began making connections in the Milanese world of music that were to stand him in good stead These included an introduction by Lavigna to an amateur choral group the Societa Filarmonica led by Pietro Massini 16 Attending the Societa frequently in 1834 Verdi soon found himself functioning as rehearsal director for Rossini s La cenerentola and continuo player It was Massini who encouraged him to write his first opera originally titled Rocester to a libretto by the journalist Antonio Piazza 1 1834 1842 First operas Edit Temistocle Solera Verdi s first librettist List of compositions by Giuseppe VerdiIn mid 1834 Verdi sought to acquire Provesi s former post in Busseto but without success But with Barezzi s help he did obtain the secular post of maestro di musica He taught gave lessons and conducted the Philharmonic for several months before returning to Milan in early 1835 6 By the following July he obtained his certification from Lavigna 17 Eventually in 1835 Verdi became director of the Busseto school with a three year contract He married Margherita in May 1836 and by March 1837 she had given birth to their first child Virginia Maria Luigia on 26 March 1837 Icilio Romano followed on 11 July 1838 Both the children died young Virginia on 12 August 1838 Icilio on 22 October 1839 1 In 1837 the young composer asked for Massini s assistance to stage his opera in Milan 18 The La Scala impresario Bartolomeo Merelli agreed to put on Oberto as the reworked opera was now called with a libretto rewritten by Temistocle Solera 19 in November 1839 It achieved a respectable 13 additional performances following which Merelli offered Verdi a contract for three more works 20 While Verdi was working on his second opera Un giorno di regno Margherita died of encephalitis at the age of 26 Verdi adored his wife and children and was devastated by their early deaths Un giorno a comedy was premiered only a few months later It was a flop and only given the one performance 20 Following its failure it is claimed Verdi vowed never to compose again 10 but in his Sketch he recounts how Merelli persuaded him to write a new opera Verdi was to claim that he gradually began to work on the music for Nabucco the libretto of which had originally been rejected by the composer Otto Nicolai 21 This verse today tomorrow that here a note there a whole phrase and little by little the opera was written he later recalled 22 By the autumn of 1841 it was complete originally under the title Nabucodonosor Well received at its first performance on 9 March 1842 Nabucco underpinned Verdi s success until his retirement from the theatre twenty nine operas including some revised and updated versions later 10 At its revival in La Scala for the 1842 autumn season it was given an unprecedented and later unequalled total of 57 performances within three years it had reached among other venues Vienna Lisbon Barcelona Berlin Paris and Hamburg in 1848 it was heard in New York in 1850 in Buenos Aires Porter comments that similar accounts could be provided to show how widely and rapidly all Verdi s other successful operas were disseminated 23 1842 1849 Edit Francesco Maria Piave whose work with Verdi included Rigoletto and La traviata A period of hard work for Verdi with the creation of twenty operas excluding revisions and translations followed over the next sixteen years culminating in Un ballo in maschera This period was not without its frustrations and setbacks for the young composer and he was frequently demoralised In April 1845 in connection with I due Foscari he wrote I am happy no matter what reception it gets and I am utterly indifferent to everything I cannot wait for these next three years to pass I have to write six operas then addio to everything 24 In 1858 Verdi complained Since Nabucco you may say I have never had one hour of peace Sixteen years in the galleys 25 After the initial success of Nabucco Verdi settled in Milan making a number of influential acquaintances He attended the Salotto Maffei Countess Clara Maffei s salons in Milan becoming her lifelong friend and correspondent 10 A revival of Nabucco followed in 1842 at La Scala where it received a run of fifty seven performances 26 and this led to a commission from Merelli for a new opera for the 1843 season I Lombardi alla prima crociata was based on a libretto by Solera and premiered in February 1843 Inevitably comparisons were made with Nabucco but one contemporary writer noted If Nabucco created this young man s reputation I Lombardi served to confirm it 27 Verdi paid close attention to his financial contracts making sure he was appropriately remunerated as his popularity increased For I Lombardi and Ernani 1844 in Venice he was paid 12 000 lire including supervision of the productions Attila and Macbeth 1847 each brought him 18 000 lire His contracts with the publishers Ricordi in 1847 were very specific about the amounts he was to receive for new works first productions musical arrangements and so on 28 He began to use his growing prosperity to invest in land near his birthplace In 1844 he purchased Il Pulgaro 62 acres 23 hectares of farmland with a farmhouse and outbuildings providing a home for his parents from May 1844 Later that year he also bought the Palazzo Cavalli now known as the Palazzo Orlandi on the via Roma Busseto s main street 29 In May 1848 Verdi signed a contract for land and houses at Sant Agata in Busseto which had once belonged to his family 30 It was here he built his own house completed in 1880 now known as the Villa Verdi where he lived from 1851 until his death 31 Giuseppina Strepponi c 1845 In March 1843 Verdi visited Vienna where Gaetano Donizetti was musical director to oversee a production of Nabucco The older composer recognising Verdi s talent noted in a letter of January 1844 I am very very happy to give way to people of talent like Verdi Nothing will prevent the good Verdi from soon reaching one of the most honourable positions in the cohort of composers 32 Verdi travelled on to Parma where the Teatro Regio di Parma was producing Nabucco with Strepponi in the cast For Verdi the performances were a personal triumph in his native region especially as his father Carlo attended the first performance Verdi remained in Parma for some weeks beyond his intended departure date This fuelled speculation that the delay was due to Verdi s interest in Giuseppina Strepponi who stated that their relationship began in 1843 33 Strepponi was in fact known for her amorous relationships and many illegitimate children and her history was an awkward factor in their relationship until they eventually agreed on marriage 34 After successful stagings of Nabucco in Venice with twenty five performances in the 1842 43 season Verdi began negotiations with the impresario of La Fenice to stage I Lombardi and to write a new opera Eventually Victor Hugo s Hernani was chosen with Francesco Maria Piave as librettist Ernani was successfully premiered in 1844 and within six months had been performed at twenty other theatres in Italy and also in Vienna 35 The writer Andrew Porter notes that for the next ten years Verdi s life reads like a travel diary a timetable of visits to bring new operas to the stage or to supervise local premieres La Scala premiered none of these new works except for Giovanna d Arco Verdi never forgave the Milanese for their reception of Un giorno di regno 28 During this period Verdi began to work more consistently with his librettists He relied on Piave again for I due Foscari performed in Rome in November 1844 then on Solera once more for Giovanna d Arco at La Scala in February 1845 while in August that year he was able to work with Salvadore Cammarano on Alzira for the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples Solera and Piave worked together on Attila for La Fenice March 1846 36 Emanuele Muzio Verdi s pupil and assistant In April 1844 Verdi took on Emanuele Muzio eight years his junior as a pupil and amanuensis He had known him since about 1828 as another of Barezzi s proteges 37 Muzio who in fact was Verdi s only pupil became indispensable to the composer He reported to Barezzi that Verdi has a breadth of spirit of generosity a wisdom 38 In November 1846 Muzio wrote of Verdi If you could see us I seem more like a friend rather than his pupil We are always together at dinner in the cafes when we play cards all in all he doesn t go anywhere without me at his side in the house we have a big table and we both write there together and so I always have his advice 39 Muzio was to remain associated with Verdi assisting in the preparation of scores and transcriptions and later conducting many of his works in their premiere performances in the US and elsewhere outside Italy He was chosen by Verdi as one of the executors of his will but predeceased the composer in 1890 40 After a period of illness Verdi began work on Macbeth in September 1846 He dedicated the opera to Barezzi I have long intended to dedicate an opera to you as you have been a father a benefactor and a friend for me It was a duty I should have fulfilled sooner if imperious circumstances had not prevented me Now I send you Macbeth which I prize above all my other operas and therefore deem worthier to present to you 41 In 1997 Martin Chusid wrote that Macbeth was the only one of Verdi s operas of his early period to remain regularly in the international repertoire 42 although in the 21st century Nabucco has also entered the lists 43 Strepponi s voice declined and her engagements dried up in the 1845 to 1846 period and she returned to live in Milan whilst retaining contact with Verdi as his supporter promoter unofficial adviser and occasional secretary until she decided to move to Paris in October 1846 Before she left Verdi gave her a letter that pledged his love On the envelope Strepponi wrote 5 or 6 October 1846 They shall lay this letter on my heart when they bury me 44 Verdi had completed I masnadieri for London by May 1847 except for the orchestration This he left until the opera was in rehearsal since he wanted to hear la Jenny Lind and modify her role to suit her more exactly 45 Verdi agreed to conduct the premiere on 22 July 1847 at Her Majesty s Theatre as well as the second performance Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the first performance and for the most part the press was generous in its praise 46 Salvadore Cammarano librettist of Alzira La battaglia di Legnano and Luisa MillerFor the next two years except for two visits to Italy during periods of political unrest Verdi was based in Paris 47 Within a week of returning to Paris in July 1847 he received his first commission from the Paris Opera Verdi agreed to adapt I Lombardi to a new French libretto the result was Jerusalem which contained significant changes to the music and structure of the work including an extensive ballet scene to meet Parisian expectations 48 Verdi was awarded the Order of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour 49 n 1 To satisfy his contracts with the publisher Francesco Lucca it Verdi dashed off Il Corsaro Budden comments In no other opera of his does Verdi appear to have taken so little interest before it was staged 52 On hearing the news of the Cinque Giornate the Five Days of street fighting that took place between 18 and 22 March 1848 and temporarily drove the Austrians out of Milan Verdi travelled there arriving on 5 April 53 He discovered that Piave was now Citizen Piave of the newly proclaimed Republic of San Marco Writing a patriotic letter to him in Venice Verdi concluded Banish every petty municipal idea We must all extend a fraternal hand and Italy will yet become the first nation of the world I am drunk with joy Imagine that there are no more Germans here 54 Verdi had been admonished by the poet Giuseppe Giusti for turning away from patriotic subjects the poet pleading with him to do what you can to nourish the sorrow of the Italian people to strengthen it and direct it to its goal 55 Cammarano suggested adapting Joseph Mery s 1828 play La Bataille de Toulouse which he described as a story that should stir every man with an Italian soul in his breast 56 The premiere was set for late January 1849 Verdi travelled to Rome before the end of 1848 He found that city on the verge of becoming a short lived republic which commenced within days of La battaglia di Legnano s enthusiastically received premiere In the spirit of the time were the tenor hero s final words Whoever dies for the fatherland cannot be evil minded 57 Verdi had intended to return to Italy in early 1848 but was prevented by work and illness as well as most probably by his increasing attachment to Strepponi Verdi and Strepponi left Paris in July 1849 the immediate cause being an outbreak of cholera 58 and Verdi went directly to Busseto to continue work on completing his latest opera Luisa Miller for a production in Naples later in the year 59 1849 1853 Fame Edit Villa Verdi at Sant Agata as it looked between 1859 and 1865Verdi was committed to the publisher Giovanni Ricordi for an opera which became Stiffelio for Trieste in the Spring of 1850 and subsequently following negotiations with La Fenice developed a libretto with Piave and wrote the music for Rigoletto based on Victor Hugo s Le roi s amuse for Venice in March 1851 This was the first of a sequence of three operas followed by Il trovatore and La traviata which were to cement his fame as a master of opera 60 The failure of Stiffelio attributable not least to the censors of the time taking offence at the taboo subject of the supposed adultery of a clergyman s wife and interfering with the text and roles incited Verdi to take pains to rework it although even in the completely recycled version of Aroldo 1857 it still failed to please 61 Rigoletto with its intended murder of royalty and its sordid attributes also upset the censors Verdi would not compromise What does the sack matter to the police Are they worried about the effect it will produce Do they think they know better than I I see the hero has been made no longer ugly and hunchbacked Why A singing hunchback why not I think it splendid to show this character as outwardly deformed and ridiculous and inwardly passionate and full of love I chose the subject for these very qualities if they are removed I can no longer set it to music 62 La donna e mobile source source track track track Enrico Caruso performs La donna e mobile from Rigoletto Problems playing this file See media help Verdi substituted a Duke for the King and the public response and subsequent success of the opera all over Italy and Europe fully vindicated the composer 63 Aware that the melody of the Duke s song La donna e mobile Woman is fickle would become a popular hit Verdi excluded it from orchestral rehearsals for the opera and rehearsed the tenor separately 64 n 2 Giuseppina Strepponi c 1850s For several months Verdi was preoccupied with family matters These stemmed from the way in which the citizens of Busseto were treating Giuseppina Strepponi with whom he was living openly in an unmarried relationship She was shunned in the town and at church and while Verdi appeared indifferent she was certainly not 66 Furthermore Verdi was concerned about the administration of his newly acquired property at Sant Agata 67 A growing estrangement between Verdi and his parents was perhaps also attributable to Strepponi 68 the suggestion that this situation was sparked by the birth of a child to Verdi and Strepponi which was given away as a foundling 69 lacks any firm evidence In January 1851 Verdi broke off relations with his parents and in April they were ordered to leave Sant Agata Verdi found new premises for them and helped them financially to settle into their new home It may not be coincidental that all six Verdi operas written in the period 1849 53 La battaglia Luisa Miller Stiffelio Rigoletto Il trovatore and La traviata have uniquely in his oeuvre heroines who are in the opera critic Joseph Kerman s words women who come to grief because of sexual transgression actual or perceived Kerman like the psychologist Gerald Mendelssohn sees this choice of subjects as being influenced by Verdi s uneasy passion for Strepponi 70 Verdi and Strepponi moved into Sant Agata on 1 May 1851 71 May also brought an offer for a new opera from La Fenice which Verdi eventually realised as La traviata That was followed by an agreement with the Rome Opera company to present Il trovatore for January 1853 72 Verdi now had sufficient earnings to retire had he wished to 73 He had reached a stage where he could develop his operas as he wished rather than be dependent on commissions from third parties Il trovatore was in fact the first opera he wrote without a specific commission apart from Oberto 74 At around the same time he began to consider creating an opera from Shakespeare s King Lear After first 1850 seeking a libretto from Cammarano which never appeared Verdi later 1857 commissioned one from Antonio Somma but this proved intractable and no music was ever written 75 n 3 Verdi began work on Il trovatore after the death of his mother in June 1851 The fact that this is the one opera of Verdi s which focuses on a mother rather than a father is perhaps related to her death 78 In the winter of 1851 52 Verdi decided to go to Paris with Strepponi where he concluded an agreement with the Opera to write what became Les vepres siciliennes his first original work in the style of grand opera In February 1852 the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas fils s play The Lady of the Camellias Verdi immediately began to compose music for what would later become La traviata 79 After his visit to Rome for Il trovatore in January 1853 Verdi worked on completing La traviata but with little hope of its success due to his lack of confidence in any of the singers engaged for the season 80 Furthermore the management insisted that the opera be given a historical not a contemporary setting The premiere in March 1853 was indeed a failure Verdi wrote Was the fault mine or the singers Time will tell 81 Subsequent productions following some rewriting throughout Europe over the following two years fully vindicated the composer Roger Parker has written Il trovatore consistently remains one of the three or four most popular operas in the Verdian repertoire but it has never pleased the critics 82 1853 1860 Consolidation Edit In the eleven years up to and including Traviata Verdi had written sixteen operas Over the next eighteen years up to Aida he wrote only six new works for the stage 83 Verdi was happy to return to Sant Agata and in February 1856 was reporting a total abandonment of music a little reading some light occupation with agriculture and horses that s all A couple of months later writing in the same vein to Countess Maffei he stated I m not doing anything I don t read I don t write I walk in the fields from morning to evening trying to recover so far without success from the stomach trouble caused me by I vespri siciliani Cursed operas 84 An 1858 letter by Strepponi to the publisher Leon Escudier describes the kind of lifestyle that increasingly appealed to the composer His love for the country has become a mania madness rage and fury anything you like that is exaggerated He gets up almost with the dawn to go and examine the wheat the maize the vines etc Fortunately our tastes for this sort of life coincide except in the matter of sunrise which he likes to see up and dressed and I from my bed 85 Verdi confronting the Naples censor when preparing Un ballo in maschera caricature by Delfico Nonetheless on 15 May Verdi signed a contract with La Fenice for an opera for the following spring This was to be Simon Boccanegra The couple stayed in Paris until January 1857 to deal with these proposals and also the offer to stage the translated version of Il trovatore as a grand opera Verdi and Strepponi travelled to Venice in March for the premiere of Simon Boccanegra which turned out to be a fiasco as Verdi reported although on the second and third nights the reception improved considerably 86 With Strepponi Verdi went to Naples early in January 1858 to work with Somma on the libretto of the opera Gustave III which over a year later would become Un ballo in maschera By this time Verdi had begun to write about Strepponi as my wife and she was signing her letters as Giuseppina Verdi 85 Verdi raged against the stringent requirements of the Neapolitan censor stating I m drowning in a sea of troubles It s almost certain that the censors will forbid our libretto 87 With no hope of seeing his Gustavo III staged as written he broke his contract This resulted in litigation and counter litigation with the legal issues resolved Verdi was free to present the libretto and musical outline of Gustave III to the Rome Opera There the censors demanded further changes at this point the opera took the title Un ballo in maschera 88 Arriving in Sant Agata in March 1859 Verdi and Strepponi found the nearby city of Piacenza occupied by about 6 000 Austrian troops who had made it their base to combat the rise of Italian interest in unification in the Piedmont region In the ensuing Second Italian War of Independence the Austrians abandoned the region and began to leave Lombardy although they remained in control of the Venice region under the terms of the armistice signed at Villafranca Verdi was disgusted at this outcome W here then is the independence of Italy so long hoped for and promised Venice is not Italian After so many victories what an outcome It is enough to drive one mad he wrote to Clara Maffei 89 Verdi and Strepponi now decided on marriage they travelled to Collonges sous Saleve a village then part of Piedmont On 29 August 1859 the couple were married there with only the coachman who had driven them there and the church bell ringer as witnesses 90 At the end of 1859 Verdi wrote to his friend Cesare De Sanctis Since completing Ballo I have not made any more music I have not seen any more music I have not thought anymore about music I don t even know what colour my last opera is and I almost don t remember it 91 He began to remodel Sant Agata which took most of 1860 to complete and on which he continued to work for the next twenty years This included major work on a square room that became his workroom his bedroom and his office 92 Politics Edit Painting Viva Verdi slogans Having achieved some fame and prosperity Verdi began in 1859 to take an active interest in Italian politics His early commitment to the Risorgimento movement is difficult to estimate accurately in the words of the music historian Philip Gossett myths intensifying and exaggerating such sentiment began circulating during the nineteenth century 93 An example is the claim that when the Va pensiero chorus in Nabucco was first sung in Milan the audience responding with nationalistic fervour demanded an encore As encores were expressly forbidden by the government at the time such a gesture would have been extremely significant But in fact the piece encored was not Va pensiero but the hymn Immenso Jehova 94 n 4 The growth of the identification of Verdi s music with Italian nationalist politics perhaps began in the 1840s 98 In 1848 the nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini whom Verdi had met in London the previous year requested Verdi who complied to write a patriotic hymn 99 The opera historian Charles Osborne describes the 1849 La battaglia di Legnano as an opera with a purpose and maintains that while parts of Verdi s earlier operas had frequently been taken up by the fighters of the Risorgimento this time the composer had given the movement its own opera 100 It was not until 1859 in Naples and only then spreading throughout Italy that the slogan Viva Verdi was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele ReD Italia Viva Victor Emmanuel King of Italy who was then king of Piedmont 101 After Italy was unified in 1861 many of Verdi s early operas were increasingly re interpreted as Risorgimento works with hidden Revolutionary messages that perhaps had not been originally intended by either the composer or his librettists 102 In 1859 Verdi was elected as a member of the new provincial council and was appointed to head a group of five who would meet with King Vittorio Emanuele II in Turin They were enthusiastically greeted along the way and in Turin Verdi himself received much of the publicity On 17 October Verdi met with Cavour the architect of the initial stages of Italian unification 103 Later that year the government of Emilia was subsumed under the United Provinces of Central Italy and Verdi s political life temporarily came to an end Whilst still maintaining nationalist feelings he declined in 1860 the office of provincial council member to which he had been elected in absentia 104 Cavour however was anxious to convince a man of Verdi s stature that running for political office was essential to strengthening and securing Italy s future 105 The composer confided to Piave some years later that I accepted on the condition that after a few months I would resign 106 Verdi was elected on 3 February 1861 for the town of Borgo San Donnino Fidenza to the Parliament of Piedmont Sardinia in Turin which from March 1861 became the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy but following the death of Cavour in 1861 which deeply distressed him he scarcely attended 107 Later in 1874 Verdi was appointed a member of the Italian Senate but did not participate in its activities 108 109 1860 1887 from La forza to Otello Edit Verdi in Russia 1861 62 In the months following the staging of Ballo Verdi was approached by several opera companies seeking a new work or making offers to stage one of his existing ones but refused them all 110 But when in December 1860 an approach was made from Saint Petersburg s Imperial Theatre the offer of 60 000 francs plus all expenses was doubtless a strong incentive Verdi came up with the idea of adapting the 1835 Spanish play Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino by Angel Saavedra which became La forza del destino with Piave writing the libretto The Verdis arrived in St Petersburg in December 1861 for the premiere but casting problems meant that it had to be postponed 111 Returning via Paris from Russia on 24 February 1862 Verdi met two young Italian writers the twenty year old Arrigo Boito and Franco Faccio Verdi had been invited to write a piece of music for the 1862 International Exhibition in London 112 and charged Boito with writing a text which became the Inno delle nazioni Boito as a supporter of the grand opera of Giacomo Meyerbeer and an opera composer in his own right was later in the 1860s critical of Verdi s reliance on formula rather than form incurring the composer s wrath Nevertheless he was to become Verdi s close collaborator in his final operas 113 The St Petersburg premiere of La forza finally took place in September 1862 and Verdi received the Order of St Stanislaus 114 Grand March from Aida source source The Grand March from the Act 2 of Aida Problems playing this file See media help A revival of Macbeth in Paris in 1865 was not a success but he obtained a commission for a new work Don Carlos based on the play Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller He and Giuseppina spent late 1866 and much of 1867 in Paris where they heard and did not warm to Giacomo Meyerbeer s last opera L Africaine and Richard Wagner s overture to Tannhauser 115 The opera s premiere in 1867 drew mixed comments While the critic Theophile Gautier praised the work the composer Georges Bizet was disappointed at Verdi s changing style Verdi is no longer Italian He is following Wagner 115 During the 1860s and 1870s Verdi paid great attention to his estate around Busseto purchasing additional land dealing with unsatisfactory in one case embezzling stewards installing irrigation and coping with variable harvests and economic slumps 116 In 1867 both Verdi s father Carlo with whom he had restored good relations and his early patron and father in law Antonio Barezzi died Verdi and Giuseppina decided to adopt Carlo s great niece Filomena Maria Verdi then seven years old as their own child She was to marry in 1878 the son of Verdi s friend and lawyer Angelo Carrara and her family became eventually the heirs of Verdi s estate 117 Teresa Stolz as Aida in the 1872 Parma production Aida was commissioned by the Egyptian government for the opera house built by the Khedive Isma il Pasha to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 The opera house actually opened with a production of Rigoletto The prose libretto in French by Camille du Locle based on a scenario by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette was transformed to Italian verse by Antonio Ghislanzoni 118 Verdi was offered the enormous sum of 150 000 francs for the opera even though he confessed that Ancient Egypt was a civilization I have never been able to admire and it was first performed in Cairo in 1871 119 Verdi spent much of 1872 and 1873 supervising the Italian productions of Aida at Milan Parma and Naples effectively acting as producer and demanding high standards and adequate rehearsal time 120 During the rehearsals for the Naples production he wrote his string quartet the only chamber music by him to survive and the only major work in the form by an Italian of the 19th century 121 In 1869 Verdi had been asked to compose a section for a requiem mass in memory of Rossini He compiled and completed the requiem but its performance was abandoned and its premiere did not take place until 1988 122 Five years later Verdi reworked his Libera Me section of the Rossini Requiem and made it a part of his Requiem honouring Alessandro Manzoni who had died in 1873 The complete Requiem was first performed at the cathedral in Milan on the anniversary of Manzoni s death on 22 May 1874 122 The spinto soprano Teresa Stolz 1834 1902 who had sung in La Scala productions from 1865 onwards was the soloist in the first and many later performances of the Requiem in February 1872 she had created Aida in its European premiere in Milan She became closely associated personally with Verdi exactly how closely remains conjectural to Giuseppina Verdi s initial disquiet but the women were reconciled and Stolz remained a companion of Verdi after Giuseppina s death in 1897 until his own death 123 Verdi conducted his Requiem in Paris London and Vienna in 1875 and in Cologne in 1876 108 It seemed that it would be his last work In the words of his biographer John Rosselli it confirmed him as the unique presiding genius of Italian music No fellow composer came near him in popularity or reputation Verdi now in his sixties initially seemed to withdraw into retirement He deliberately shied away from opportunities to publicise himself or to become involved with new productions of his works 124 but secretly he began work on Otello which Boito to whom the composer had been reconciled by Ricordi had proposed to him privately in 1879 The composition was delayed by a revision of Simon Boccanegra which Verdi undertook with Boito produced in 1881 and a revision of Don Carlos Even when Otello was virtually completed Verdi teased Shall I finish it Shall I have it performed Hard to tell even for me As news leaked out Verdi was pressed by opera houses across Europe with enquiries eventually the opera was triumphantly premiered at La Scala in February 1887 125 1887 1901 Falstaff and last years Edit Arrigo Boito and Verdi at Sant Agata in 1893 Following the success of Otello Verdi commented After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines I have at last the right to laugh a little He had considered a variety of comic subjects but had found none of them wholly suitable and confided his ambition to Boito The librettist said nothing at the time but secretly began work on a libretto based on The Merry Wives of Windsor with additional material taken from Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2 126 Verdi received the draft libretto probably in early July 1889 after he had just read Shakespeare s play Benissimo Benissimo No one could have done better than you he wrote back to Boito But he still had doubts his age his health which he admits to being good and his ability to complete the project If I were not to finish the music If the project failed it would have been a waste of Boito s time and have distracted him from completing his own new opera Finally on 10 July 1889 he wrote again So be it So let s do Falstaff For now let s not think of obstacles of age of illnesses Verdi emphasised the need for secrecy but continued If you are in the mood then start to write 127 Later he wrote to Boito capitals and exclamation marks are Verdi s own What joy to be able to say to the public HERE WE ARE AGAIN COME AND SEE US 128 The first performance of Falstaff took place at La Scala on 9 February 1893 For the first night official ticket prices were thirty times higher than usual Royalty aristocracy critics and leading figures from the arts all over Europe were present The performance was a huge success numbers were encored and at the end the applause for Verdi and the cast lasted an hour That was followed by a tumultuous welcome when the composer his wife and Boito arrived at the Grand Hotel de Milan 129 Even more hectic scenes ensued when he went to Rome in May for the opera s premiere at the Teatro Costanzi when crowds of well wishers at the railway station initially forced Verdi to take refuge in a tool shed He witnessed the performance from the Royal Box at the side of King Umberto and the Queen 130 Group portrait at Sant Agata in 1900 with various family and friends His companion Teresa Stolz is standing at the left Giulio Ricordi is standing second from the right with his wife seated below him Verdi is in the middle and his adopted daughter Maria Carrara Verdi is seated at the far left In his last years Verdi undertook a number of philanthropic ventures publishing in 1894 a song for the benefit of earthquake victims in Sicily and from 1895 onwards planning building and endowing a rest home for retired musicians in Milan the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti and building a hospital at Villanova sull Arda close to Busseto 131 132 His last major composition the choral set of Four sacred pieces was published in 1898 In 1900 he was deeply upset at the assassination of King Umberto and sketched a setting of a poem in his memory but was unable to complete it 133 While staying at the Grand Hotel Verdi suffered a stroke on 21 January 1901 n 5 He gradually grew more feeble over the next week during which Stolz cared for him and died on 27 January at the age of 87 134 135 Verdi s grave at the Casa di Riposo Milan Verdi was initially buried in a private ceremony at Milan s Cimitero Monumentale 136 A month later his body was moved to the crypt of the Casa di Riposo On this occasion Va pensiero from Nabucco was conducted by Arturo Toscanini with a chorus of 820 singers A huge crowd was in attendance estimated at 300 000 137 Boito wrote to a friend in words which recall the mysterious final scene of Don Carlos Verdi sleeps like a King of Spain in his Escurial under a bronze slab that completely covers him 138 Personality EditNot all of Verdi s personal qualities were amiable John Rosselli concluded after writing his biography that I do not very much like the man Verdi in particular the autocratic rentier cum estate owner part time composer and seemingly full time grumbler and reactionary critic of the later years yet admits that like other writers he must admire him warts and all a deep integrity runs beneath his life and can be felt even when he is being unreasonable or wrong 139 Budden suggests that With Verdi the man and the artist on many ways developed side by side Ungainly and awkward in society in his early years as he became a man of property and underwent the civilizing influence of Giuseppina he acquired assurance and authority 140 He also learnt to keep himself to himself never discussing his private life and maintaining when it suited him legends about his supposed peasant origins his materialism and his indifference to criticism 141 Gerald Mendelsohn describes the composer as an intensely private man who deeply resented efforts to inquire into his personal affairs He regarded journalists and would be biographers as well as his neighbors in Busseto and the operatic public at large as an intrusive lot against whose prying attentions he needed constantly to defend himself 142 Verdi was never explicit about his religious beliefs Anti clerical by nature in his early years 143 he nonetheless built a chapel at Sant Agata but is little recorded as attending church Strepponi wrote in 1871 I won t say Verdi is an atheist but he is not much of a believer 144 Rosselli comments that in the Requiem The prospect of Hell appears to rule the Requiem is troubled to the end and offers little consolation 145 Music and form EditSpirit Edit See also List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Verdi in Vanity Fair 1879 The writer Friedrich Schiller four of whose plays were adapted as operas by Verdi distinguished two types of artist in his 1795 essay On Naive and Sentimental Poetry The philosopher Isaiah Berlin ranked Verdi in the naive category They are not self conscious They do not stand aside to contemplate their creations and express their own feelings They are able if they have genius to embody their vision fully The sentimentals seek to recreate nature and natural feelings on their own terms Berlin instances Richard Wagner offering not peace but a sword 146 Verdi s operas are not written according to an aesthetic theory or with a purpose to change the tastes of their audiences In conversation with a German visitor in 1887 he is recorded as saying that whilst there was much to be admired in Wagner s operas Tannhauser and Lohengrin in his recent operas Wagner seemed to be overstepping the bounds of what can be expressed in music For him philosophical music was incomprehensible 147 Although Verdi s works belong as Rosselli admits to the most artificial of genres they ring emotionally true truth and directness make them exciting often hugely so 148 Periods Edit The earliest study of Verdi s music published in 1859 by the Italian critic Abramo Basevi already distinguished four periods in Verdi s music The early grandiose period ended according to Basevi with La battaglia di Legnano 1849 and a personal style began with the next opera Luisa Miller These two operas are generally agreed today by critics to mark the division between Verdi s early and middle periods The middle period is felt to end with La traviata 1853 and Les vepres siciliennes 1855 with a late period commencing with Simon Boccanegra 1857 running through to Aida 1871 The last two operas Otello and Falstaff together with the Requiem and the Four Sacred Pieces then represent a final period 149 Early period Edit Verdi was to claim in his Sketch that during his early training with Lavigna I did nothing but canons and fugues No one taught me orchestration or how to handle dramatic music 150 He is known to have written a variety of music for the Busseto Philharmonic society including vocal music band music and chamber works 151 and including an alternative overture to Rossini s Barber of Seville 152 but few of these works survive He may have given instructions before his death to destroy his early works 153 Macbeth meets the witches Act I scene 1 Verdi uses in his early operas and in his own stylized versions throughout his later work the standard elements of Italian opera content of the period referred to by the opera writer Julian Budden as the Code Rossini after the composer who established through his work and popularity the accepted templates of these forms they were also used by the composers dominant during Verdi s early career Bellini Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante Amongst the essential elements are the aria the duet the ensemble and the finale sequence of an act 154 The aria format centred on a soloist typically involved three sections a slow introduction marked typically cantabile or adagio a tempo di mezzo which might involve chorus or other characters and a cabaletta an opportunity for bravura singing for the soloist The duet was similarly formatted Finales covering climactic sequences of action used the various forces of soloists ensemble and chorus usually culminating with an exciting stretto section Verdi was to develop these and the other formulae of the generation preceding him with increasing sophistication during his career 155 156 The operas of the early period show Verdi learning by doing and gradually establishing mastery over the different elements of opera Oberto is poorly structured and the orchestration of the first operas is generally simple sometimes even basic 157 The musicologist Richard Taruskin suggested the most striking effect in the early Verdi operas and the one most obviously allied to the mood of the Risorgimento was the big choral number sung crudely or sublimely according to the ear of the beholder in unison The success of Va pensiero in Nabucco which Rossini approvingly denoted as a grand aria sung by sopranos contraltos tenors and basses was replicated in the similar O Signor dal tetto natio in I lombardi and in 1844 in the chorus Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia in Ernani the battle hymn of the conspirators seeking freedom 158 159 In I due Foscari Verdi first uses recurring themes identified with main characters here and in future operas the accent moves away from the oratorio characteristics of the first operas towards individual action and intrigue 157 From this period onwards Verdi also develops his instinct for tinta literally colour a term which he used for characterising elements of an individual opera score Parker gives as an example the rising 6th that begins so many lyric pieces in Ernani 160 Macbeth even in its original 1847 version shows many original touches characterization by key the Macbeths themselves generally singing in sharp keys the witches in flat keys 160 a preponderance of minor key music and highly original orchestration In the dagger scene and the duet following the murder of Duncan the forms transcend the Code Rossini and propel the drama in a compelling fashion 161 Verdi was to comment in 1868 that Rossini and his followers missed the golden thread that binds all the parts together and rather than a set of numbers without coherence makes an opera Tinta was for Verdi this golden thread an essential unifying factor in his works 162 Middle period Edit Stage set by Giuseppe Bertoja for the premiere of Rigoletto Act 1 Scene 2 The writer David Kimbell states that in Luisa Miller and Stiffelio the earliest operas of this period there appears to be a growing freedom in the large scale structure and an acute attention to fine detail 42 Others echo those feelings Julian Budden expresses the impact of Rigoletto and its place in Verdi s output as follows Just after 1850 at the age of 38 Verdi closed the door on a period of Italian opera with Rigoletto The so called ottocento in music is finished Verdi will continue to draw on certain of its forms for the next few operas but in a totally new spirit 163 One example of Verdi s wish to move away from standard forms appears in his feelings about the structure of Il trovatore To his librettist Cammarano Verdi plainly states in a letter of April 1851 that if there were no standard forms cavatinas duets trios choruses finales etc and if you could avoid beginning with an opening chorus he would be quite happy 164 Two external factors had their impacts on Verdi s compositions of this period One is that with increasing reputation and financial security he no longer needed to commit himself to the productive treadmill had more freedom to choose his own subjects and had more time to develop them according to his own ideas In the years 1849 to 1859 he wrote eight new operas compared with fourteen in the previous ten years 74 Another factor was the changed political situation the failure of the 1848 revolutions led both to some diminution of the Risorgimento ethos at least initially and a significant increase in theatre censorship 74 This is reflected both in Verdi s choices of plots dealing more with personal relationships than political conflict and in a partly consequent dramatic reduction in the operas of this period in the number of choruses of the type which had first made him famous not only are there on average 40 fewer choruses in the middle period operas compared to the early period but whereas virtually all the early operas commence with a chorus only one Luisa Miller of the middle period operas begin this way Instead Verdi experiments with a variety of means e g a stage band Rigoletto an aria for bass Stiffelio a party scene La traviata Chusid also notes Verdi s increasing tendency to replace full scale overtures with shorter orchestral introductions 165 Parker comments that La traviata the last opera of the middle period is again a new adventure It gestures towards a level of realism the contemporary world of waltzes pervades the score and the heroine s death from disease is graphically depicted in the music 166 Verdi s increasing command of musical highlighting of changing moods and relationships is exemplified in Act III of Rigoletto where Duke s flippant song La donna e mobile is followed immediately by the quartet Bella figlia dell amore contrasting the rapacious Duke and his inamorata with the concealed indignant Rigoletto and his grieving daughter Taruskin asserts this is the most famous ensemble Verdi ever composed 167 Late period Edit Les vepres siciliennes poster for the premiere 1855 Chusid notes Strepponi s description of the operas of the 1860s and 1870s as being modern whereas Verdi described the pre 1849 works as the cavatina operas as further indication that Verdi became increasingly dissatisfied with the older familiar conventions of his predecessors that he had adopted at the outset of his career 168 Parker sees a physical differentiation of the operas from Les vepres siciliennes 1855 to Aida 1871 is that they are significantly longer and with larger cast lists than previous works They also reflect a shift towards the French genre of grand opera notable in more colorful orchestration counterpointing of serious and comic scenes and greater spectacle 169 The opportunities of transforming Italian opera by utilising such resources appealed to him For a commission from the Paris Opera he expressly demanded a libretto from Eugene Scribe the favorite librettist of Meyerbeer telling him I want in fact I must have a grandiose impassioned and original subject The result was Les vepres siciliennes and the scenarios of Simon Boccanegra 1857 Un ballo in maschera 1859 La forza del destino 1862 Don Carlos 1867 and Aida 1871 all meet the same criteria Porter notes that Un ballo marks an almost complete synthesis of Verdi s style with the grand opera hallmarks such that huge spectacle is not mere decoration but essential to the drama musical and theatrical lines remain taut and the characters still sing as warmly passionately and personally as in Il trovatore 170 When the composer Ferdinand Hiller asked Verdi whether he preferred Aida or Don Carlos Verdi replied that Aida had more bite and if you ll forgive the word more theatricality 171 During the rehearsals for the Naples production of Aida Verdi amused himself by writing his only string quartet a sprightly work which shows in its last movement that he had not lost the skill for fugue writing that he had learned with Lavigna 172 Final works Edit Verdi conducting the Paris Opera premiere of Aida in 1880 Verdi s three last major works continued to show new development in conveying drama and emotion The first to appear in 1874 was his Requiem scored for operatic forces but by no means an opera in ecclesiastical dress the words in which Hans von Bulow condemned it before even hearing it 173 Although in the Requiem Verdi puts to use many of the techniques he learned in opera its musical forms and emotions are not those of the stage 174 Verdi s tone painting at the opening of the Requiem is vividly described by the Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti writing in 1941 in the words murmured by an invisible crowd over the slow swaying of a few simple chords you straightaway sense the fear and sadness of a vast multitude before the mystery of death In the following Et lux perpetuum the melody spreads it wings before falling back on itself you hear a sigh for consolation and eternal peace 175 By the time Otello premiered in 1887 more than 15 years after Aida the operas of Verdi s predeceased contemporary Richard Wagner had begun their ascendancy in popular taste and many sought or identified Wagnerian aspects in Verdi s latest composition 176 Budden points out that there is little in the music of Otello that relates either to the verismo opera of the younger Italian composers and little if anything which can be construed as a homage to the New German School 177 Nonetheless there is still much originality building on the strengths which Verdi had already demonstrated the powerful storm which opens the opera in medias res the recollection of the love duet of Act I in Otello s dying words more an aspect of tinta than leitmotif imaginative touches of harmony in Iago s Era la notte Act II 178 Finally six years later appeared Falstaff Verdi s only comedy apart from the early ill fated Un giorno di regno In this work Roger Parker writes that The listener is bombarded by a stunning diversity of rhythms orchestral textures melodic motifs and harmonic devices Passages that in earlier times would have furnished material for an entire number here crowd in on each other shouldering themselves unceremoniously to the fore in bewildering succession 179 Rosselli comments In Otello Verdi had miniaturized the forms of romantic Italian opera in Falstaff he miniaturized himself M oments crystallize a feeling as though an aria or duet had been precipitated into a phrase 180 Legacy Edit Luigi Secchi s 1913 statue of Verdi in Busseto Reception Edit Although Verdi s operas brought him a popular following not all contemporary critics approved of his work The English critic Henry Chorley allowed in 1846 that he is the only modern man having a style for better or worse but found all his output unacceptable His faults are grave ones calculated to destroy and degrade taste beyond those of any Italian composer in the long list wrote Chorley whilst conceding that howsoever incomplete may have been his training howsoever mistaken his aspirations may have proved he has aspired 181 But by the time of Verdi s death 55 years later his reputation was assured and the 1910 edition of Grove s Dictionary pronounced him one of the greatest and most popular opera composers of the nineteenth century 182 Verdi had no pupils apart from Muzio and no school of composers sought to follow his style which however much it reflected his own musical direction was rooted in the period of his own youth By the time of his death verismo was the accepted style of young Italian composers 183 The New York Metropolitan Opera frequently staged Rigoletto Trovatore and Traviata during this period and featured Aida in every season from 1898 to 1945 Interest in the operas reawakened in mid 1920s Germany and this sparked a revival in England and elsewhere From the 1930s onward there began to appear scholarly biographies and publications of documentation and correspondence 184 In 1959 the Instituto di Studi Verdiani from 1989 the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani was founded in Parma and became a leading centre for research and publication of Verdi studies 185 and in the 1970s the American Institute for Verdi Studies was founded at New York University 186 187 Nationalism in the operas Edit Historians have debated how political Verdi s operas were In particular the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves known as Va pensiero from the third act of the opera Nabucco was used an anthem for Italian patriots who were seeking to unify their country and free it from foreign control in the years up to 1861 the chorus s theme of exiles singing about their homeland and its lines such as O mia patria si bella e perduta O my country so lovely and so lost were thought to have resonated with many Italians 188 Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy the slogan Viva VERDI was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D Italia Long live Victor Emmanuel King of Italy referring to Victor Emmanuel II 189 190 Marco Pizzo argues that after 1815 music became a political tool and many songwriters expressed ideals of freedom and equality Pizzo claims that Verdi was part of this movement for his operas were inspired by the love of country the struggle for Italian independence and speak to the sacrifice of patriots and exiles 191 George Martin claims Verdi was the greatest artist of the Risorgimento Throughout his work its values its issues recur constantly and he expressed them with great power 192 But Mary Ann Smart argues that music critics at the time seldom mentioned any political themes 193 194 Likewise Roger Parker argues that the political dimension of Verdi s operas was exaggerated by nationalistic historians looking for a hero in the late 19th century 195 From the 1850s onwards Verdi s operas displayed few patriotic themes because of the heavy censorship by the absolutist regime in power Verdi later became disillusioned by politics but he was personally active part in the political world of events of the Risorgimento and was elected to the first Italian parliament in 1861 196 Memorials and cultural portrayals Edit The final scene of the opera Risorgimento 2011 by Lorenzo Ferrero Verdi one of the characters in the opera stands just left of centre Main article Memorials to Giuseppe Verdi Three Italian conservatories the Milan Conservatory 197 and those in Turin 198 and Como 199 are named after Verdi as are many Italian theatres Verdi s hometown of Busseto displays Luigi Secchi s statue of a seated Verdi in 1913 next to the Teatro Verdi built in his honour in the 1850s 200 It is one of many statues to the composer in Italy 201 The Giuseppe Verdi Monument a 1906 marble memorial sculpted by Pasquale Civiletti is located in Verdi Square in Manhattan New York City The monument includes a statue of Verdi himself and life sized statues of four characters from his operas Aida Otello and Falstaff from the operas of the same names and Leonora from La forza del destino 202 Verdi has been the subject of a number of film and stage works These include the 1938 film directed by Carmine Gallone Giuseppe Verdi starring Fosco Giachetti 203 the 1982 miniseries The Life of Verdi directed by Renato Castellani where Verdi was played by Ronald Pickup with narration by Burt Lancaster in the English version 204 and the 1985 play After Aida by Julian Mitchell 1985 205 He is a character in the 2011 opera Risorgimento by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification of 1861 206 Verdi today Edit Verdi s operas are frequently staged around the world 43 All of his operas are available in recordings in a number of versions 207 and on DVD Naxos Records offers a complete boxed set 208 Modern productions may differ substantially from those originally envisaged by the composer Jonathan Miller s 1982 version of Rigoletto for English National Opera set in the world of modern American mafiosi received critical plaudits 209 But the same company s staging in 2002 of Un ballo in maschera as A Masked Ball directed by Calixto Bieito including satanic sex rituals homosexual rape and a demonic dwarf got a general critical thumbs down 210 Meanwhile the music of Verdi can still evoke a range of cultural and political resonances Excerpts from the Requiem were featured at the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales in 1997 137 On 12 March 2011 during a performance of Nabucco at the Opera di Roma celebrating 150 years of Italian unification the conductor Riccardo Muti paused after Va pensiero and turned to address the audience which included the then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to complain about cuts in state funding of culture the audience then joined in a repeat of the chorus 211 212 In 2014 the pop singer Katy Perry appeared at the Grammy Award wearing a dress designed by Valentino embroidered with the music of Dell invito trascorsa e gia l ora from the start of La traviata 213 The bicentenary of Verdi s birth in 2013 was celebrated in numerous events around the world both in performances and broadcasts 214 Notes Edit In 1880 he was upgraded to Grand Officer of the Legion after the Paris premiere of Aida 50 In 1894 after the Paris premiere of Falstaff he was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion 51 Taruskin comments Its eventual success was almost too great since many ascribe to the opera or even to Verdi the song s trivial gaiety without realizing that its brashness was a calculated ironic foil 65 After Falstaff Boito commented to Verdi Now maestro we must set to work on King Lear for which Boito had prepared a draft but Giuseppina was horrified at this prospect For heaven s sake Boito Verdi is too old too tired 76 In 1896 Verdi offered his Lear materials to Pietro Mascagni who asked Maestro why didn t you put it into music According to Mascagni softly and slowly he replied the scene in which King Lear finds himself on the heath scared me 77 Although the story of the encore of Va pensiero has been demonstrated to be untrue research indicates that the chorus did indeed have a resonance for supporters of the Risorgimento 95 96 and beyond as recently as 2009 it was proposed to adopt the chorus as Italy s national anthem 97 The hotel s website accessed 14 June 2015 contains a brief history of the composer s stayReferences EditCitations Edit a b c d e f Parker n d 2 a b Rosselli 2000 p 12 Phillips Matz 2004 p 4 Rosselli 2000 p 14 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 17 21 a b Parker 1998 p 933 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 20 21 Kimbell 1981 p 92 Parker 2007 pp 2 3 a b c d Parker n d 3 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 27 30 Phillips Matz 1993 p 32 Phillips Matz 1993 p 35 Phillips Matz 1993 p 46 Parker 2007 p 1 Werfel amp Stefan 1973 pp 80 93 Phillips Matz 1993 p 67 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 79 80 Kimbell 1981 pp 92 96 a b Budden 1993 p 71 Budden 1993 p 16 Werfel amp Stefan 1973 pp 87 92 Porter 1980 pp 638 39 Phillips Matz 1993 p 181 Phillips Matz 1993 p 379 Phillips Matz 1993 p 139 Budden 1984a p 116 a b Porter 1980 p 649 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 160 61 Budden 1993 p 45 Story on Villa Verdi website accessed 10 June 2015 Phillips Matz 1993 p 148 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 150 51 Kerman 2006 p 23 Rosselli 2000 p 52 Parker n d 4 Phillips Matz 1993 p 160 Phillips Matz 1993 p 166 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 192 93 Marchesi n d Werfel amp Stefan 1973 p 122 a b Chusid 1997 p 1 a b Operabase website accessed 28 June 2015 Phillips Matz 1993 p 196 Baldini 1980 p 132 Budden 1984a pp 318 19 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 229 41 Rosselli 2000 p 63 Rosselli 2000 p 72 Rosselli 2000 p 180 Reibel 2001 p 97 Budden 1984a p 365 Phillips Matz 1993 p 229 Martin 1984 p 220 Osborne 1969 p 189 Budden 1984a p 390 Rosselli 2000 pp 79 80 Walker 1962 p 194 Rosselli 2000 p 89 Newark 2004 p 198 Rosselli 2000 p 90 91 Rosselli 2000 pp 92 93 Rosselli 2000 p 101 Taruskin 2010 p 585 Taruskin 2010 p 586 Walker 1962 pp 197 98 Phillips Matz 1993 p 287 Phillips Matz 1993 p 290 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 289 Kerman 2006 pp 22 23 Walker 1962 p 199 Budden 1984b p 63 Budden 1993 p 54 a b c Chusid 1997 p 3 Budden 1993 pp 70 71 Budden 1993 p 138 Mendelsohn 1979 p 223 Mendelsohn 1979 p 226 Phillips Matz 1993 p 303 Walker 1962 p 212 Budden 1993 pp 62 63 Parker 1982 p 155 Parker n d 5 Walker 1962 p 218 a b Walker 1962 p 219 Phillips Matz 1993 p 355 Werfel amp Stefan 1973 p 207 Rosselli 2000 pp 116 17 Phillips Matz 1993 p 394 Rosselli 2000 p 70 Phillips Matz 1993 p 405 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 412 15 Gossett 2012 pp 272 274 Gossett 2012 pp 272 275 76 Gossett 2005 Author s summary of Gossett 2005 accessed 18 July 2015 Anna Momigliano Senator wants to change Italy s national anthem to opera Christian Science Monitor 24 August 2009 accessed 18 July 2015 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 188 91 Gossett 2012 pp 279 80 Osborne 1969 p 198 Budden 1984c p 80 Gossett 2012 p 272 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 400 02 Phillips Matz 1993 p 417 Gossett 2012 p 281 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 429 30 Gossett 2012 p 282 a b Porter 1980 p 653 Senato del Regno in Italian No 340 Gazzetta Piemontese 10 December 1874 Article stating the Italian Senate voted to approve Verdi s nomination on 8 Nov 1874 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 439 46 Rosselli 2000 p 124 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 446 49 Parker 2007 pp 3 4 Budden 1993 p 88 a b Budden 1993 p 93 Rosselli 2000 pp 128 31 Rosselli 2000 pp 131 133 Porter 1980 p 655 Rosselli 2000 pp 149 50 Rosselli 2000 p 158 159 Stowell 2003 p 259 a b Rosselli 2000 pp 138 39 Christiansen 1995 pp 202 03 Rosselli 2000 pp 163 65 Rosselli 2000 pp 164 72 Klein 1926 p 606 Phillips Matz 1993 pp 700 01 Mendelsohn 1978 p 122 Hepokoski 1983 pp 55 56 Budden 1993 p 137 Budden 1993 p 140 Parker n d 8 Budden 1993 pp 143 44 Budden 1993 p 146 Rosselli 2000 p 186 Porter 1980 p 659 a b Phillips Matz 2004 p 14 Walker 1962 p 509 Rosselli 2000 p 7 Budden 1993 pp 148 49 Budden 1993 p 153 Mendelsohn 1978 p 110 Budden 1993 pp 2 3 9 10 Rosselli 2000 p 161 Rosselli 2000 pp 162 63 Berlin 1979 pp 3 4 Conati 1986 p 147 Rosselli 2000 p 1 Porter 1980 p 639 Porter 1980 p 636 Porter 1980 p 637 Budden 1993 p 5 Gossett 2008 p 161 Taruskin 2010 pp 15 16 Balthazar 2004 pp 49 59 Parker n d 4 ii a b Parker n d 4 vii Taruskin 2010 pp 570 75 Budden 1993 p 21 a b Parker n d 4 iv Budden 1993 pp 190 92 Rosselli 2000 p 95 Budden 1984a p 510 Budden 1984b p 61 Chusid 1997 pp 9 11 Parker n d 4 vi Taruskin 2010 p 587 Chusid 1997 p 2 Parker n d 6 i Porter 1980 pp 653 55 Budden 1993 p 272 Budden 1993 pp 310 11 Parker n d 7 Rosselli 2000 pp 161 62 Budden 1993 p 320 Taruskin 2010 pp 602 03 Budden 1993 p 281 Budden 1993 pp 282 84 Parker 1998 p 229 Rosselli 2000 p 182 Chorley 1972 pp 182 185 6 Mazzucato 1910 p 247 Parker n d 10 ii Harwood 2004 p 272 Who we are Archived 25 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine website of the Istituto di studi verdiani accessed 27 June 2015 American Institute for Verdi Studies at NYU website accessed 27 June 2015 Harwood 2004 p 273 Modern History Sourcebook Music and Nationalism Fordham edu Retrieved 31 May 2015 Parker 1998 p 942 Budden 1973 Vol 3 p 80 Marco Pizzo Verdi Musica e Risorgimento Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento 2001 87 supplement 4 pp 37 44 George Whitney Martin 1988 Aspects of Verdi Limelight Editions pp 3 4 ISBN 978 0 87910 172 5 Mary Ann Smart Verdi Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento in Scott L Balthazar 2004 The Cambridge Companion to Verdi Cambridge UP pp 29 45 ISBN 978 0 521 63535 6 Mary Ann Smart How political were Verdi s operas Metaphors of progress in the reception of I Lombardi alla prima crociata Journal of Modern Italian Studies 2013 18 2 pp 190 204 Roger Parker Verdi politico a wounded cliche regroups Journal of Modern Italian Studies 17 4 2012 427 36 Franco DellaPeruta Verdi e il Risorgimento Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento 2001 88 1 pp 3 24 Storia Milan Conservatory website accessed 27 June 2015 Conservatorio Statale di Musica Giuseppe Verdi Torino website accessed 27 June 2015 Conservatorio di musica Giuseppe Verdi of Como website accessed 27 June 2015 Sadie amp Sadie 2005 p 385 A number of photographs of these can be seen at the Opera My Love website accessed 27 June 2015 Verdi Memorial sculpture Giuseppe Verdi in IMDb website accessed 27 June 2015 Verdi 1982 in IMDb website accessed 27 June 2015 After Aida Archived 30 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine production details at Robert Fox Ltd website accessed 27 June 2015 Risorgimento on website of Teatro Comunale di Bologna accessed 27 June 2015 See e g Opera Discography Encyclopedia website accessed 28 June 2015 Tutto Verdi Naxos website accessed 28 June 2015 See e g John O Connor Jonathan Miller s Mafia Rigoletto The New York Times 23 February 1989 accessed 28 June 2015 Matt Slater Revamped opera fails to shock BBC News website 22 February 2002 accessed 28 June 2015 James Bone Against Silvio Berlusconi s idea of culture The Australian 24 March 2011 accessed 28 June 2015 See Va pensiero YouTube accessed 28 June 2015 Katy Perry s Verdi dress steals show at Grammys 28 January 2014 on Classic FM website accessed 28 June 2015 Charlotte Runcie Verdi How his 200th birthday is being celebrated Daily Telegraph 9 October 2013 accessed 13 July 2015 Sources Edit Baldini Gabriele 1980 The Story of Giuseppe Verdi Oberto to Un Ballo in Maschera Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 29712 7 Balthazar Scott E 2004 The forms of set pieces in Balthazar Scott E ed The Cambridge Companion to Verdi Cambridge Companions to Music Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 49 68 ISBN 978 0 521 63535 6 Berlin Isaiah 6 October 1979 The Naivete of Verdi New Republic Retrieved 14 June 2015 Budden Julian 1984a The Operas of Verdi Volume 1 3rd ed London Cassell ISBN 978 0 19 816262 9 Budden Julian 1984b The Operas of Verdi Volume 2 3rd ed London Cassell ISBN 978 0 19 816262 9 Budden Julian 1984c The Operas of Verdi Volume 3 3rd ed London Cassell ISBN 978 0 19 816263 6 Budden Julian 1993 Verdi Master Musicians series revised ed London J M Dent ISBN 978 0 460 86111 3 Chorley Henry F 1972 Thirty Years Musical Recollections New York Vienna House ISBN 978 0 8443 0026 9 Christiansen Rupert 1995 Prima Donna A History revised and updated ed London Pimlico ISBN 978 0 712 67466 9 Chusid Martin 1997 Towards an Understanding of Verdi s Middle Period in Chusid Martin ed Verdi s Middle Period 1849 to 1859 Chicago and London University of Chicago Press pp 1 14 ISBN 978 0 226 10659 5 Conati Marcello ed 1986 Encounters with Verdi Ithaca Cornell University Press ISBN 978 0 801 49430 7 Gossett Philip 2005 Edizioni distrutte and the Significance of Operatic Choruses during the Risorgimento in Johnson Victoria ed Opera and Society in Italy and France from Monteverdi to Bourdieu Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 339 87 ISBN 978 0 521 12420 1 Gossett Philip 2008 Divas and Scholars Performing Italian Opera Chicago University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0 226 30488 5 Gossett Philip 2012 Giuseppe Verdi and the Italian Risorgimento Jayne Lecture 2010 PDF Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 156 3 271 82 Archived from the original PDF on 30 April 2015 Retrieved 11 June 2015 Harwood Gregory W 2004 Verdi criticism in Balthazar Scott E ed The Cambridge Companion to Verdi Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 269 81 ISBN 978 0 521 63535 6 Hepokoski James 1983 Giuseppe Verdi Falstaff Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 23534 1 Kerman Joseph 2006 Verdi and the Undoing of Women Cambridge Opera Journal 18 1 21 31 doi 10 1017 S0954586706002072 JSTOR 3878271 S2CID 190700246 subscription required Kimbell David R B 1981 Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 31678 1 Klein John W July 1926 Verdi and Falstaff Musical Times 67 1001 605 07 doi 10 2307 911833 JSTOR 911833 subscription required Marchesi Gustavo n d Muzio Mussio Donnino Emanuele Oxford Music Online online ed Retrieved 14 July 2015 subscription required Martin George 1984 Verdi His Music Life and Times New York Dodd Mead and Company ISBN 978 0 396 08196 8 Mazzucato Giannandrea 1910 Verdi Giuseppe in Fuller Maitland J A ed Grove s Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 5 2nd ed New York Macmillan pp 247 60 Mendelsohn Gerald A 1978 Verdi the Man and Verdi the Dramatist 19th Century Music University of California Press 2 2 110 42 doi 10 2307 746308 JSTOR 746308 subscription required Mendelsohn Gerald A 1979 Verdi the Man and Verdi the Dramatist II 19th Century Music University of California Press 2 3 214 30 doi 10 2307 3519798 JSTOR 3519798 subscription required Newark Cormac 2004 Ch hai di nuovo buffon or What s new with Rigoletto in Balthazar Scott E ed The Cambridge Companion to Verdi Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 197 208 ISBN 978 0 521 63535 6 Osborne Charles 1969 The Complete Opera of Verdi New York Da Capo Press Inc ISBN 978 0 306 80072 6 Parker Roger 1982 The Dramatic Structure of Il trovatore Music Analysis John Wiley amp Sons Inc 1 2 155 67 doi 10 2307 854126 JSTOR 854126 subscription required Parker Roger 1998 Verdi Giuseppe in Sadie Stanley ed The New Grove Dictionary of Opera vol 4 London Macmillan Publishers ISBN 978 0 333 73432 2 Parker Roger 2007 Verdi and Milan Lectures and Events Gresham College Retrieved 9 June 2015 Parker Roger n d Verdi Giuseppe Oxford Music Online online ed Retrieved 9 June 2015 subscription required Phillips Matz Mary Jane 1993 Verdi A Biography Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 313204 7 Phillips Matz Mary Jane 2004 Verdi s life a thematic biography in Balthazar Scott E ed The Cambridge Companion to Verdi Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 3 14 ISBN 978 0 521 63535 6 Porter Andrew 1980 Verdi Giuseppe in Sadie Stanley ed The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 19 London Macmillan Publishers pp 635 65 ISBN 978 0 333 23111 1 Reibel Emanuel 2001 Verdi 1813 1901 in French Paris Jean Paul Gisserot ISBN 978 2 877 47575 4 Rosselli John 2000 The life of Verdi Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 66957 3 Sadie Julie Anne Sadie Stanley 2005 Calling on the Composer Yale Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 18394 8 Stowell Robin 2003 Traditional and progressive nineteenth century trends in Stowell Robin ed The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 250 65 ISBN 978 0 521 00042 0 Taruskin Richard 2010 Music in the Nineteenth Century Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 538483 3 Walker Frank 1962 The Man Verdi New York Knopf ISBN 978 0 226 87132 5 Retrieved 11 June 2015 Werfel Franz Stefan Paul 1973 Verdi The Man and His Letters New York Vienna House ISBN 978 0 8443 0088 7 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Giuseppe Verdi Wikiquote has quotations related to Giuseppe Verdi Free scores by Verdi at the International Music Score Library Project IMSLP Free scores by Giuseppe Verdi in the Choral Public Domain Library ChoralWiki Bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi Album Verdi from the Digital Library of the National Library of Naples Italy in Italian Giuseppe Verdi recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings Portals Classical music Opera Biography Italy Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Giuseppe Verdi amp oldid 1140772072, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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