Giuseppe Verdi
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A portrait by Giovanni Bol 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome)
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Born
| Roncole near Busseto
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Baptised
| 9 or 10 October 1813
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Died
| 27 January 1901 (aged 87)
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Occupation
| Composer of operas
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Giuseppe Verdi
(born Roncole near
Busseto
, 9 or 10 October 1813; died
Milan
27 January 1901) was an
Italian
composer
of
operas
.
Verdi and
Richard Wagner
were the greatest composers of opera in the 19th century although they were completely different from one another. When Verdi was a young man the most famous opera composers in Italy were
Gaetano Donizetti
and
Vincenzo Bellini
who wrote in the
bel canto
tradition. This meant that their operas had beautiful tunes which were written for singers to show off their voices, even if what they sang did not suit the story. During his long life, Verdi changed opera so that it did not have to obey old-fashioned rules.
The small
village
where Verdi was born lies in the
valley
of the
Po River
in the north of Italy. It was a poor district. His father was an
innkeeper
who had a small
farm
. The young boy must have been very
talented
. He was given a
small harpsichord
which he kept all his life. At the age of 9 he often played the
organ
for church services in the village when the organist was away.
A few years later he composed music for the
amateur
orchestra
in Busseto. A man called Antonio Barezzi knew many important people and he helped Verdi a lot. Later Verdi married a daughter of a friend. Barezzi sent him to
Milan
so that he could study, but Verdi had not been taught the piano properly and he did not get a place in the music
conservatory
. He had some private lessons and learned a lot about opera as well as about
literature
and
politics
. In 1839 he composed an opera:
Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio
, which was performed in
La Scala
, the world-famous
opera house
in Milan. It is not one of his greatest operas, but it helped him to become well-known and he was asked to write three more operas for La Scala. When his next opera was produced it was not a success: the audience did not like it and they hissed and
booed
. There was also tragedy in his personal life at this time: his two children and his wife all died.
Verdi managed to overcome his unhappiness in 1842 when he produced his opera
Nabucco
. This was a great success and made him world-famous. He started to work very hard, composing two operas a year. He not only had to write the music but organize all the people to perform it. It was a huge workload. His opera
Ernani
(1844) was one of the best from this period. In 1847 he had another big success with
Macbeth
. This opera, based on
Shakespeare’s
famous play, is still one of the best-loved of all operas. He was becoming a success.
For centuries Italy had been a collection of several countries, each with their own ruler. In the 1850s there was a lot of political unrest in the country. Verdi often wrote music for large
choruses
in his operas. The words of these choruses were often about fighting for
freedom
, and it was often thought that the songs were encouraging people to
revolt
. The song
Va pensiero
from his opera
Nabucco
was about the
Hebrew
slaves
who were captive in
Babylon
. People chanted it in the streets with the words suitably changed. Verdi became a great national
hero
. Italy eventually became one country in 1861.
Giuseppina Strepponi was the
soprano
who sang the part of Abigaille in
Nabucco
. Verdi fell in love with her. She had lived with another man and had three children so she felt that she was not good enough for Verdi. They eventually married in 1859. She was a great support to him until her death in 1897 although Verdi was not an easy husband to live with. He moved back to Busseto with her. He continued to travel a lot but did not let his wife come with him, leaving her behind in Busseto where she was not happy because many people there did not like her.
Three more famous operas were written at this time:
Rigoletto
in 1851 and
Il trovatore
(
The Troubadour
) and
La traviata
, both in 1853. These operas have many tunes which became famous. They are full of exciting drama in which the characters are very skilfully described by the music. The music is not divided so clearly into
recitative
and
aria
like it had been for two centuries. Instead, the music is developing all the time, the arias run straight into the following music. He had a brilliant sense of drama, but he often had to fight hard to stop producers making changes to what he had written.
Verdi often had trouble with the
censors
(the officials who decide whether the opera should be allowed to be performed). His opera
Rigoletto
was based on a story called
Le roi s’amuse
by
Victor Hugo
. The attempted
murder
of a
king
was not thought to be a suitable subject. Verdi had to change the king into a
duke
in his story and make some other changes before the opera could be performed. The story of his opera
Traviata
, based on a novel by
Alexandre Dumas fils
, was also thought to be
immoral
. At the first performance the
audience
laughed because the
heroine
, who is supposed to be dying of
tuberculosis
, then called "consumption",
[1]
was very fat. However, the opera soon became enormously popular.
Regarding the instruments that Giuseppe Verdi was using for composing, there are a few known pianos that he had in different periods of his life. The instrument that Giuseppe Verdi was playing as a kid at the Bazezzi’s house, was a piano by Anton Tomaschek.
[2]
[3]
Later, from the time of Rigoletto in 1851 to Aida in 1871 he was using the Viennese 6-pedal piano from
Johann Fritz
. This exact piano can be seen in the composer's Villa Verdi in the Italian province of
Piacenza
.
Verdi had become very famous by now, and was asked to compose for the Opera in Paris. He had to write operas in the French style: operas with five acts and a ballet based on a serious story. None of the operas he wrote at this time for Paris belong to his best works. He was more inspired when writing for the Italian theatres.
Simon Boccanegra
has a complicated plot, but the characters are described beautifully by the music.
Un ballo in maschera
(The masked ball) was about the murder of King Gustav III of Sweden. Again the censors did not like it and he had to change the story to a setting in
Boston
which rather spoiled the story. In the
1860s
his best works were
La forza del destino
(
The Force of Destiny
), written for
St Petersburg
,
Don Carlos
written for the Paris Opera, and
Aida
for the new opera house in
Cairo
in
Egypt
.
Aida
is considered one of his most perfect works. The first performance was not without difficulties: Verdi was having a long argument with the conductor Mariani who refused to go to Cairo to conduct it. The argument was made worse by the
newspapers
who accused Verdi of taking Mariani’s girlfriend. This caused a great
scandal
.
Verdi
retired
in the 1870s. He was a rich man who owned a lot of land. He gave a lot of money to
charities
, particularly to one charity for elderly musicians. Even in retirement he was persuaded by his
publishers
to write two more operas. He became fascinated by Shakespeare and he wrote
Otello
to a
libretto
by
Arrigo Boito
. This was a brilliant libretto and it helped him to write a great masterpiece in which every little detail of the story is beautifully described by the music. His very last opera,
Falstaff
(1893) is based on Shakespeare’s
Merry Wives of Windsor
. Verdi continued to write a few religious pieces in his old age. He died of a
stroke
in Milan in 1901.
- ↑
"Early Research and Treatment of Tuberculosis in the 19th Century"
.
American Lung Association Crusade
. Retrieved
2020-05-12
.
- ↑
Kerman, Joseph and Hussey, Dyneley. "Giuseppe Verdi". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jan. 2021,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Verdi
- ↑
"Casa Barezzi: where Verdi was discovered"
.
Italian Ways
. 2019-01-23. Archived from
the original
on 2021-11-22
. Retrieved
2021-07-13
.
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