Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10, 1813 - January 27, 1901) was born in Roncole into a family of small landowners and taverners. When he was seven he was helping the local church organist; at 12 he was studying with the organist at the main church in nearby Busseto, whose assistant he became in 1829. In 1832, because he was over the age limit, he was refused placement at the conservatory in Milan and, instead, studied with Vincenzo Lavigna, composer and former La Scala musician, from 1932 to 1835.
While in Busseto, Verdi lived with Antonio Barezzi, a merchant and passionate music lover, who employed Verdi to teach music to his daughter, Margherita with whom Verdi fell in love.
Verdi did eventually receive financial support from the Monte di Pietà of Busseto and Barezzi who funded Verdi's first year of study. In Milan, Verdi frequented the theatres, getting to know the operatic repertoire of his time. He returned to Busseto and married Margherita Barezzi in 1836. Having published some songs, he moved to Milan in 1838 and composed his first opera, Oberto. This year marked the beginning of a series of personal tragedies. His daughter died late in 1838. In 1839 his infant son died, leaving the young composer and his wife little taste for the moderate success of Oberto on November 17. And in 1840, his wife died.
Oberto was successful enough for the distinguished Milanese music publisher, Ricordi, to make an offer for the rights to publish the score, beginning a personal and business relationship which lasted throughout Verdi's life. His next opera, Un giorno di regno, produced in 1840, was a complete failure. Verdi continued on with Nabucco (1842) and I lombardi (1843). Macbeth, Luisa Miller, and other operas came in the 1840s, most with great success.
In 1844 Ernani, based on Victor Hugo's famous play, was produced in Venice with tremendous success. I due Foscari, derived from Lord Byron's play, followed in Rome the same year. Verdi was then 31, and the years of his triumphs had begun.
Verdi's major composition in 1849 was Luisa Miller, prepared for Naples. To some, this work marks a turning point in his career; the psychological insights into human behavior as well as the subtleties of musical style become more sophisticated from this time forward. With Rigoletto (originally called by its subtitle, La maledizione), produced in Venice in 1850, he achieved an international reputation. His next work, La Traviata, was a failure at its Venetian premiere in 1853, but a year later, with minor revisions, it was warmly received. The same year Il Trovatore proved an instant success in Rome. Simone Boccanegra followed in 1856 and was produced in 1857.
In 1847, Verdi and soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, (from the cast of Nabucco), began living together for many years on Verdi's farm, Sant'Agata, not far from Busseto. Here Verdi began alternating his time between composing and managing his many farms that he had been gradually buying. The two were married in 1859.
Considered one of the most distinguished of Italian citizens as well as the undisputed leader of the Italian theater, Verdi became a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1860, representing Busseto after Parma declared by plebiscite its intention to join the kingdom of Italy. This referendum essentially ended the Bourbon dynasty in Italy in 1861.
Commissions and honors poured in during the 1860s. In 1861 Francesco Maria Piave prepared the libretto for La forza del destino, commissioned for St. Petersburg, where Verdi visited to rehearse his opera; he returned the following year for its premiere. For the International Exhibition of 1862 in London he composed Inno delle nazioni. In 1864 he was elected to the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. He began the music for Don Carlo in 1865, but the opera was not produced until 1867. Negotiations with the Egyptian government for an opera to celebrate the completion of the Suez Canal were initiated in 1868; an Egyptian subject was approved the following year; and in 1871 Aida was a sensation.
In 1873 Verdi a Requiem Mass in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, author of the greatest 19th-century Italian novel, I promessi sposi, and a leading figure for the cause of unification. On May 22, 1874, the first anniversary of Manzoni's death, Verdi's Requiem Mass was performed in Milan. The next year he conducted his Requiem in Paris, London, and Vienna. King Victor Emmanuel II made Verdi a senator in 1875, and his career appeared to have been capped. He lived in semiretirement at Sant'Agata, supervising his extensive agricultural interests, traveling only on occasion to conduct one of his works.
Arrigo Boito was a distinguished man of letters and a composer in his own right. Through mutual friends, Verdi and Boito met in 1879. These friends gradually enticed the 68-year-old Verdi out of retirement. Boito was eager to collaborate with Verdi, and their work together helped Verdi to become one of the masters of opera.
In 1880 Boito presented Verdi with a revised libretto of Simone Boccanegra, which Verdi liked, and he proceeded to write the necessary new music. The new Boccanegra was produced the following year in Milan. In 1885 Boito and Verdi quietly began work on Otello. He finished the opera in 1886, and saw its premiere in Milan - his first new opera in 15 years. Otello created another sensation. In 1890, Verdi began Falstaff, the miracle of his old age and his last opera. For Falstaff, Boito fashioned a libretto from portions of Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. When Verdi was 80 years old, Falstaff premiered in 1893 in Milan with great success.
Verdi's wife, Giuseppina, died in 1897. The following year he published four choral pieces: the Ave Maria, Stabat Mater, Te Deum, and Laudi alla Vergine Maria. He lived in seclusion at Sant'Agata for the remaining years of his life. He died of a stroke in Milan on Jan. 27, 1901, and was buried by Giuseppina's side in the chapel of the Home for Musicians, Milan. This charity, still in existence, was the chief beneficiary of his will.
La Traviata
Part I
Part II
A Deutsche Grammophon production of Carlos Klieber conducting the Bavarian State Orchestra. |
Lamh Foistenach Abu!