Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901) is to date the most influential composer of the Italian School of Opera. His greatest works (i.e. Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida), known for their abundance of expressive melody, are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture (La donna è mobile, from Rigoletto). Oftentimes scoffed at by the critics, in his lifetime and today, as catering to the tastes of the common folk, overly simple in chromatic texture and shamelessly melodramatic, Verdi?s masterpieces dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.

Biography

Early life

Verdi was born in 1813 (the same year as Richard Wagner, his most important rival and the leading composer of the German School of Opera) in Le Roncole, near Busetto (the Duchy of Parma). His father was an innkeeper. When he was still a child, Verdi's parents moved to Busetto, where the future composer's education was greatly facilitated by his visits to the large library belonging to the local Jesuit school. Also in Busetto, Verdi received his first lessons in composition from Ferdinando Provesi, who was in charge of the local philharmonic society.

Related Topics:
1813 - Richard Wagner - German School of Opera - Le Roncole - Ferdinando Provesi

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In Milan, where Verdi went to continue his studies when he was twenty, the Conservatory of Music did not accept him, citing the fact that he was two years over the age limit. Verdi took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances in Milan, as well as lesser concerts of, specifically, Viennese music. Association with Milan's beaumonde convinced him he should pursue a career as a theatre composer.

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Returning to Busetto, he became town music master and, in 1836, married Margherita Barezzi. Their two children died in infancy.

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Initial Recognition

The production of his first opera, Oberto, by Milan's La Scala, achieved a degree of success, after which Bartolomeo Merelli, an impresario with La Scala, offered Verdi a contract for two more works. This resulted in Un giorno di regno and Nabucco. His wife died while he was working on the former, which flopped at the premiere. However, Nabucco, produced in 1842, made Verdi famous. A number of operas followed shortly, I Lombardi and Ernani among them, premiering in various Italian cities.

Related Topics:
Oberto - La Scala - Bartolomeo Merelli - Un giorno di regno - Nabucco - I Lombardi - Ernani

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In 1847, I Lombardi, revised and renamed (Jerusalem), was produced by the Paris Opera and, due to a number of Parisian conventions that had to be honored, became Verdi's first work in the grand-opera style.

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Great Master

At the age of thirty-eight, Verdi began an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano in the twilight of her career, whom he married eleven years later (their cohabitation before marriage was regarded as scandalous in some of the places they lived). She soon retired and Verdi, remembering Gioacchino Rossini's example, decided to retire as well. He was well-off, famous, and in love. It may have been Giuseppina herself who convinced him to continue his career. The result was the first of the truly great Verdi operas: Rigoletto. Based on a play by Victor Hugo, the libretto had to undergo substantive revisions in order to satisfy the epoch's censorship, and the composer was on the verge of giving it all up a number of times before finally everything fell into place. The opera was produced in Venice in 1851 and soon became a great success.

Related Topics:
Giuseppina Strepponi - Gioacchino Rossini - Rigoletto - Victor Hugo

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Rigoletto is, arguably, the greatest opera yet written. In it, Verdi's artistic generosity is at its highest. Unspeakably beautiful melodies are tossed right and left, passages of celestial beauty scattered like pearls and never repeated, numerous arias, duets, trios and a quartet follow one another in an unceasing celebration of musical genius; passions vibrate; comedy and tragedy merge seamlessly.

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La Traviata, Verdi's next great opera, was composed and produced two years later. It is based on Alexandre Dumas, fils' play The Lady of the Camellias.

Related Topics:
La Traviata - Alexandre Dumas, fils - The Lady of the Camellias

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A number of operas followed, among them such repertoire staples as Les vêpres siciliennes (commissioned by the Paris Opera), Il Trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino (commissioned by the Imperial Theatre of St. Petersburg), and a second version of Macbeth.

Related Topics:
Les vêpres siciliennes - Il Trovatore - Un ballo in maschera - La forza del destino - Macbeth

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In 1869, Verdi composed a Requiem Mass in memory of Gioacchino Rossini.

Related Topics:
Requiem Mass - Gioacchino Rossini

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Verdi's final great opera, Aida, was commissioned from him for the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal. According to some sources, when the organizers approached Verdi, he turned them down. They warned him they would ask Charles Gounod instead. Verdi agreed that they should. Only when they threatened to engage Richard Wagner's services did Verdi begin to show some considerable interest.

Related Topics:
Aida - Suez Canal - Charles Gounod - Richard Wagner

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In fact, the two composers, who were the leaders of their respective schools of music, seemed to resent each other greatly. They never met. Verdi's comments on Wagner and his music are few and hardly benevolent ("He invariably chooses, unnecessarily, the untrodden path, attempting to fly where a rational person would walk with better results"), but at least one of them is kind: upon learning of Wagner's death, Verdi lamented: "Sad! Sad! Sad! ... a name that leaves a most powerful mark on the history of our art." Of Wagner's comments on Verdi, only one is well-known. After listening to Verdi's Requiem, the great German, prolific and eloquent in his comments on some other composers, said, "It would be best not to say anything."

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Aida premiered in Cairo in 1871 and was an instant success.

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Twilight

The next dozen years Verdi worked sparingly if at all, slowly revising some of his earlier scores.

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Otello, based on William Shakespeare's play, premiered in Milan in 1887. Its music is "continuous" and cannot easily be divided into separate "numbers" to be performed in concert. Although masterfully orchestrated, it lacks the melodic lustre so characteristic of Verdi's earlier, great, operas.

Related Topics:
Otello - William Shakespeare

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Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, whose libretto, by Arrigo Boito, was based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and subsequent Victor Hugo's translation, was a moderate success: mainly, the audiences wished to express their gratitude to the old composer. The score is chiefly algebraic and contains none of Verdi's former melodic genius.

Related Topics:
Falstaff - Arrigo Boito - Merry Wives of Windsor

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Verdi died in 1901. Thus, he may have heard, or perused the scores of, Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and Tosca, Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Petr Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, but, unfortunately, what he thought of these operas, penned by his immediate and fairly worthy successors, remains a mystery.

Related Topics:
Giacomo Puccini - La bohème - Tosca - Ruggiero Leoncavallo - Pagliacci - Petr Tchaikovsky - The Queen of Spades

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Verdi's operas are a staple of the standard repertoire.

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