Giuseppe Verdi on Music Theory Print

Aida

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elements of the opera’s genesis and sources#

Isma’il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write an opera to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, but Verdi declined. However, Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, proposed to Khedive Pasha a plot for a celebratory opera set in ancient Egypt. Khedive Pasha referred Mariette to theatre manager Camille du Locle, who sent Mariette’s story idea to Verdi. Eventually, Verdi agreed to compose an opera based on that story, for 150,000 francs. Because the scenery and costumes were stuck in the French capital during the Siege of Paris (1870–71) of the ongoing Franco-Prussian War, the premiere was delayed and Verdi’s Rigoletto was performed instead. The first opera performed at the Khedivial Opera House, Aida eventually premiered in Cairo on 24 December 1871.

Alzira (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Following his completion of Giovanna d’Arco, Verdi began on work on Alzira, having been invited by the impresario of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Vincenzo Flauto, to write an opera for that house, the invitation having followed the earlier success of Ernani. One of the attractions of the arrangement to Verdi was to have the services of the man who was now - following Felice Romani’s virtual retirement - the principal librettist in Italy. This was Salvatore Cammarano, the Naples “house poet” who had been responsible for some of Donizetti’s successes, which included Lucia di Lammermoor. Verdi’s terms were laid out. These included being able to receive one-third more than his fee for I Lombardi and, more importantly, having a finished libretto from Cammarano in his possession four months before the production. Verdi had received a synopsis of the opera from Cammarano, Verdi had expressed his optimism that “Voltaire’s tragedy will become an excellent melodrama,”

Anvil Chorus

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Other uses#

Thomas Baker wrote Il Trovatore Quadrille (1855) for piano, which includes a movement based on this chorus. Similarly, pianist/composer Charles Grobe wrote variations on the Anvil Chorus for piano in 1857. The opening day of the 1869 National Peace Jubilee in Boston featured a performance of the Anvil Chorus that featured thousands of musicians, including 50 firemen pounding anvils. A swing jazz arrangement by Jerry Gray for the Glenn Miller Orchestra released on RCA Bluebird in 1941 reached #3 on the U.S. Billboard charts. The melodic theme also served as the inspiration for “Rockin’ the Anvil” for swing jazz ensemble and accordion on John Serry Sr.’s 1956 album Squeeze Play. The tune of the chorus was closely parodied in “The Burglar’s Chorus” (“With cat-like tread”) in Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, and soon after became a popular song with the lyrics Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here.

Aroldo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Stiffelio had provoked the censorship board because of “the immoral and rough” storylines of a Protestant minister deceived by his wife and also because making the characters German did not please an Italian audience, although, as Budden notes, the opera “enjoyed a limited circulation (in Italy), but with the title changed to Guglielmo Wellingrode, the main protagonist now a German minister of state”. Verdi had rejected an 1852 request to write a new last act for the Wellingrode version, However, as it turned out, the work was to be more complex than that. It drew inspiration from novels of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, specifically his Harold: the Last of the Saxon Kings, for the re-location of the opera to England and—in the last act—to Scotland in the Middle Ages, and for the names of its characters, the principal being Harold, re-cast as a recently returned Crusader. came from the work of Walter Scott, whose novel of 1825, The Betrothed, would “already have been familiar to Italian audiences through Giovanni Pacini’s 1829 opera, Il Contestabile di Chester”. Also, the novelist’s The Lady of the Lake was the inspiration for the hermit Briano. The rewriting was delayed until after March 1857 by the preparation for Paris of Le trouvère, the French version of Il trovatore, and Verdi’s work with Piave on Simon Boccanegra. However, as work resumed on Aroldo with Piave, the premiere was planned for August 1857 in Rimini. When Verdi and Strepponi arrived there on 23 July, they found both librettist and conductor, Angelo Mariani (with whom he had become friends over the previous years and who had been chosen to conduct the new opera) working together. While Phillips-Matz notes that there was “hysteria” at Verdi’s presence, there was also opposition to Aroldo that was combined with an influx of people from other cities anxious to see the new opera. With Mariani, rehearsals began well; the conductor reported: “Verdi is very very happy and so am I”. By the time of the premiere, considerable changes had been made to the three-act Stiffelio, the prime one being an added fourth act with new material, described by conductor Mariani to Giovanni Ricordi as “a stupendous affair; you’ll find in it a storm, a pastoral chorus, and an Angelus Dei treated in canon and beautifully wrought”. Lina became Mina; Stiffelio, as discussed, was now Aroldo; Stankar morphed into Egberto; Jorg, the bass role, emerged as Briano.

Attila (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Verdi had read the ultra-Romantic play in April 1844, probably introduced to it by his friend Andrea Maffei who had written a synopsis. A letter to Francesco Maria Piave (with whom he had worked on both Ernani and I due Foscari) had included the subject of Attila as opera number 10 on a list of nine other possible projects, and in that same letter, he encouraged Piave to read the play, which musicologist Julian Budden describes as having “sprung from the wilder shores of German literary romanticism and which contains all the Wagnerian apparatus – the Norns, Valhalla, the sword of Wodan , the gods of light and the gods of darkness.” He continues: “It is an extraordinary Teutonic farrago to have appealed to Verdi.”

Ballo della Regina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Development#

Ballo della Regina is set to the Act III ballet divertissement from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Don Carlos, which he had reluctantly included at the request of the Paris Opera, In the opera, the ballet divertissement was performed in honour of Queen Elizabeth of Spain, who was absent and in her place her lady-in-waiting Princess Eboli, donning a mask, presided over the festivities. The ballet divertissement is set in a grotto and depicts a fisherman discovering the La Peregrina pearl. Balanchine made the piano reduction of the music himself as none existed. Aware that the music would be uninteresting for the orchestra, Balanchine apologised to the orchestra and hinted he would use more challenging music for his next ballet, which would be Kammermusik No. 2. For the lead roles, Balanchine chose Merrill Ashley, recently promoted to principal dancer, and Robert Weiss. Balanchine had spoken to Ashley about a virtuoso role, but she was unaware he was planning for a role for her. She then returned from vacation to find out about her promotion and casting in Ballo della Regina. Debra Austin, Bonita Borne, Stephanie Saland and Sheryl Ware originated the soloist roles.

Bella figlia dell'amore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Libretto#

Italian DUCA: Un dì, se ben rammentomi, o bella, t’incontrai… Mi piacque di te chiedere e intesi che qui stai. Or sappi che d’allora sol te quest’alma adora. GILDA (da sé): Iniquo! MADDALENA: Ah! Ah!…e vent’altre appresso le scorda forse adesso? Ha un’aria il signorino da vero libertino. DUCA: Sì, un mostro son. GILDA: Ah, padre mio! MADDALENA: Lasciatemi, stordito! DUCA: Ah, che fracasso! MADDALENA: Stia saggio! DUCA: E tu sii docile, non farmi tanto, chiasso. Ogni saggezza chiudesi nel gaudio e nell’amore. (Le prende la mano.) La bella mano candida! MADDALENA: Scherzate voi, signore. DUCA: No, no. MADDALENA: Son brutta. DUCA: Abbracciami. GILDA (da sé): Iniquo! MADDALENA: Ebbro! DUCA: D’amore ardente. MADDALENA: Signor l’indifferente, vi piace canzonar? DUCA: No, no, ti vo’ sposar… MADDALENA: Ne voglio la parola. DUCA (ironico): Amabile figliuola! RIGOLETTO (a Gilda che avrà tutto osservato ed inteso): E non ti basta ancor? GILDA: Iniquo traditor! DUCA: Bella figlia dell’amore, schiavo son dei vezzi tuoi; con un detto sol tu puoi le mie pene consolar. Vieni e senti del mio core il frequente palpitar. MADDALENA: Ah! ah! rido ben di core, che tai baie costan poco, quanto valga il vostro gioco, mel credete, so apprezzar. Son avvezza, bel signore, ad un simile scherzar, mio bel signor! GILDA: Ah, così parlar d’amore a me l’infame ho udito! Infelice cor tradito, per angoscia non scoppiar. RIGOLETTO: Taci, il piangere non vale, Ch’ei mentiva sei sicura. Taci, e mia sarà la cura la vendetta d’affrettar. Pronta fia, sarà fatale, io saprollo fulminar! Literal translation DUKE: One day, if I remember well, oh beautiful, I met you … I liked you to ask and understood that you are here. Now know that since then only you this soul adores. GILDA (to herself): Unfair! MADDALENA: Ah! Ah! … and twenty others below, perhaps you forget them now? He looks like the young gentleman like a true libertine. DUKE: Yes, I am a monster. GILDA: Ah, my father! MADDALENA: Leave me stunned! DUKE: Ah, what a din! MADDALENA: Be wise! DUKE: And you be docile, don’t make me so much fuss. All wisdom closed in joy and love. (He takes her hand.) The beautiful white hand! MADDALENA: Are you kidding, sir. DUKE: No, no. MADDALENA: I’m ugly. DUKE: Hug me. GILDA (to herself): Unfair! MADDALENA: Drunkard! DUKE: Of burning love. MADDALENA: Mr. Indifferent, do you like to make fun? DUKE: No, no, I want to marry you … MADDALENA: I want the word. DUKE (ironic): Lovable daughter! RIGOLETTO (to Gilda, who has observed and understood everything): And isn’t that enough for you yet? GILDA: Unfair traitor! DUKE: Beautiful daughter of Love, I am a slave to your charms; with only one saying you can console my pains. Come and feel the frequent palpitation of my heart. MADDALENA: Ah! ah! I laugh heartily, that these bays are cheap, how much is your game worth, you believe me, I know how to appreciate. I am accustomed, handsome gentleman, to such a joke, my handsome mister! GILDA: Ah, so I heard the infamous talk about love! Unhappy betrayed heart, do not burst out of anguish. RIGOLETTO: Shut up, crying is not worth it, He was lying, you are sure. Shut up, and my cure will be the revenge of hurrying. Ready to go, it will be fatal I know how to strike him!

Caro nome che il mio cor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sentiment#

Gilda, Rigoletto’s naive, virginal daughter, dreamily muses on the name of the man with whom she is in love, unaware that it is a false name and that he is not who he pretends to be. “Caro nome” is Gilda’s first extended expression of independent emotions, and shows both her tenderness and her simplicity. The aria is preceded by a shimmering figuration described by Verdi scholar Julian Budden as an example of Verdi’s finest woodwind writing. This aria is a breathtaking portrayal of young love in all its innocence and idealism. It marks the first step in Gilda’s transformation from ingénue to self-sacrificing heroine.

Di quella pira

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Setting#

In a chamber adjoining the chapel at Castellor, Leonora and Manrico vow their love for each other. After Manrico’s aria "" (“Ah, yes, my love, in being yours”), they are about to take their marriage vows. However, Ruiz, Manrico’s comrade, suddenly returns to report that Manrico’s mother Azucena is to be burned at the stake. Manrico calls together his soldiers and sings of how they will save Azucena from death: "" (“The horrible blaze of that pyre burned, enflamed all of my being!…”)

Don Carlos

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Pre-première cuts and first published edition Verdi made a number of cuts in 1866, after finishing the opera but before composing the ballet, simply because the work was becoming too long. and an exchange between Elisabeth and Eboli during the insurrection in the same scene. After the ballet had been composed, it emerged during the 1867 rehearsal period that, without further cuts, the opera would not finish before midnight (the time by which patrons would need to leave in order to catch the last trains to the Paris suburbs). Verdi then authorised some further cuts, which were, firstly, the introduction to Act 1 (with a chorus of woodcutters and their wives, and including the first appearance of Elisabeth); secondly, a short entry solo for Posa (J’étais en Flandres) in Act 2, Scene 1; and, thirdly, part of the dialogue between the King and Posa at the end of Act 2, Scene 2. The opera was first published as given at the première and consisted of Verdi’s original conception, without the music of the above-named cuts, but with the ballet. In 1969, at a Verdi congress in Verona, the American musicologist David Rosen presented the missing section from the Philip-Posa duet from the end of Act 2, which he had found folded down in the conductor’s copy of the score. Other pages with cuts had simply been removed from the autograph score and the conductor’s copy. Shortly thereafter, the British music critic Andrew Porter found most of these other cut passages could be reconstructed from the individual parts, in which the pages with the “lost” music had been either “pasted, pinned or stitched down.” In all, 21 minutes of missing music was restored. Nearly all of the known music Verdi composed for the opera, including the pre-première cuts and later revisions, can be found in an integral edition prepared by the German musicologist Ursula Günther, first published in 1980 and in a second, revised version in 1986.

Ella giammai m'amò

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sentiment#

The aria begins with a long orchestral prelude, which features a striking solo passage for cello. King Philip II of Spain has made a politically advantageous arranged marriage with a French princess young enough to be his granddaughter. He suspects that his son is having an affair with her. Unable to sleep, he sits alone in his study, recalls her sad look when she first met him and saw how old he was, and admits to himself that she never loved him. He wishes that his royal scepter could give him the power to see people’s true characters and detect deception. He muses that he will only sleep properly in his tomb, when he is dead.

Ernani

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Following the success of both Nabucco and I Lombardi, Verdi was approached by many opera companies wanting to commission him to write an opera for their houses. Rather than prepare another for La Scala, he was interested in a commission for two operas for the 1843–44 season (one of which would be I Lombardi) which came from the President of the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Marquis Nanni Mocenigo. However, the composer was only willing to accept the terms which he proposed: 12,000 Austrian lire to be paid after the first performance, not the third as proposed by Venice (Verdi recalled what had happened to Un giorno di regno with its one and only performance). Amongst other stipulations, he demanded the right to choose his own subject and his own librettist, and also to pay him directly, as well as refusing to accept the requirement that a full orchestral score be available in advance. In addition, he had the right to choose the singers from the assembled company for that season. David Kimbell notes one additional demand: He explains to Mocenigo at La Fenice —and this was rare at the time—that he began to compose only when the libretto was completed to his satisfaction because “when I have a general conception of the whole poem, the music comes of its own accord” Once this agreement was settled upon, the next step was to choose a subject, something which took some time. Several subjects came to Verdi’s attention: for example, Byron’s The Corsair was considered, but the right baritone was not available. In thinking about an opera about the Venetian Foscari family, he found that it was forbidden by the censor in order to avoid upsetting any of the descendants of that family who were then living in Venice. (Both of these subjects were to become later Verdi operas, Il corsaro and I due Foscari, the latter opening in Rome later in 1844.) An unsolicited manuscript from the unknown Francesco Piave (who was La Fenice’s resident poet and stage manager in addition to being a friend of Brenna, the company’s Secretary) proposed an opera, Cromwell, based on Victor Hugo’s play, and on which he had started work. Mocenigo assured the composer of Piave’s sense of the theatre and of musical forms, and so they agreed to proceed, although by the time of its approval by the Fenice authorities, it had become Allan Cameron, a story set in the time just prior to the accession of Britain’s Charles II. Immediately, Verdi took control and made it clear to Piave what he wanted in the way of a theatrical experience:

Falstaff (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Conception#

By 1889 Verdi had been an opera composer for more than fifty years. He had written 27 operas, of which only one was a comedy, his second work, Un giorno di regno, staged unsuccessfully in 1840. His fellow composer Rossini commented that he admired Verdi greatly, but thought him incapable of writing a comedy. Verdi disagreed and said that he longed to write another light-hearted opera, but nobody would give him the chance. He had included moments of comedy even in his tragic operas, for example in Un ballo in maschera and La forza del destino. For a comic subject Verdi considered Cervantes’ Don Quixote and plays by Goldoni, Molière and Labiche, but found none of them wholly suitable. The first version to secure a place in the operatic repertoire was Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1849, but its success was largely confined to German opera houses. Boito was doubly pleased with The Merry Wives as a plot. Not only was it Shakespearian, it was based in part on Trecento Italian works – Il Pecorone by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, and Boccaccio’s Decameron. Boito adopted a deliberately archaic form of Italian to “lead Shakespeare’s farce back to its clear Tuscan source”, as he put it. He trimmed the plot, halved the number of characters in the play, and gave the character of Falstaff more depth by incorporating dozens of passages from Henry IV. Like Boito, Verdi loved and revered Shakespeare. The composer did not speak English, but he owned and frequently re-read Shakespeare’s plays in Italian translations by Carlo Rusconi and , which he kept by his bedside. Verdi still had doubts, and on the next day sent another letter to Boito expressing his concerns. He wrote of “the large number of years” in his age, his health (which he admitted was still good) and his ability to complete the project: “if I were not to finish the music?” He said that the project could all be a waste of the younger man’s time and distract Boito from completing his own new opera (which became Nerone). Yet, as his biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz notes, “Verdi could not hide his delight at the idea of writing another opera”. On 10 July 1889 he wrote again:

Giovanna d'Arco

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Libretto#

By the middle of the 19th century, the story of Joan of Arc had served as the basis for many operas, including those of Nicola Vaccai (1827) and Giovanni Pacini (1830), both of which were strongly reminiscent of Schiller’s play. Solera was asked by Verdi’s publisher, Giovanni Ricordi, for assurances that his libretto violated no copyright, noting that he had heard of a French treatment of the subject. Solera denied that Schiller’s play was the source of his work and wrote that the work was “an entirely original Italian drama … I have not allowed myself to be imposed upon by the authority either of Schiller or Shakespeare … My play is original” (emphasis in original). Musicologist Julian Budden believes that “invention was not Solera’s strong suit” and describes Solera’s work as “merely Schiller diluted”. He criticized the flow of the libretto compared to the play, writing that “characters are reduced to a minimum” and “for poetry and humanity we are given theatrical sensationalism”.

Gustavo III (Verdi)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

In early 1856 Vincenzo Torelli, secretary to the Teatro San Carlo’s management approached Verdi with a contract offer, the proposed opera being Re Lear, an opera based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. It was known to be a subject dear to the composer, but this libretto, for which Somma and Verdi had worked for some time, raised concerns for Verdi, not the least of which was finding a suitable cast in Naples, given the practice of a company engaging a group of singers for an entire season and giving them the major roles to sing in all productions, thus forcing a composer to take into account their strengths and weaknesses in the roles he was creating. Even though it proved to be impracticable to continue with Re Lear, Verdi signed a contract in February 1857 for performances during the 1857/58 carnival season, but, as the year progressed and with time running out, he had misgivings and failed to meet commitments regarding Lear. Finally, in a letter which he wrote to Torelli in September 1857, Verdi confessed that he had “looked through an infinite number of plays…..but not one of them will do for me…” Verdi turned to the historical subject of King Gustav III of Sweden, who was shot while attending a masked ball in Stockholm in 1792 and died thirteen days later. Anckarström, his assassin, was executed. Although noting it as “a French drama”, Verdi was referring to Scribe’s libretto, and this became the source of Somma’s libretto. In his version, Scribe had retained the names of some of the historical figures involved including Gustave, Anckarström (the king’s secretary and his best friend), Ulrica Arfvidsson (the fortune teller), and conspirators Ribbing and Horn; the conspiracy itself; and the killing at the masked ball. As noted by Budden, Scribe invented much of the rest of the action, including Gustav’s romance with the fictional Amélie (Anckarström’s wife) and he added characters and situations such as the page boy, Oscar. “It was a simple case of ‘cherchez la femme’” says Budden, who sees Scribe using the romance as the reason for the murder (rather than the purely political motive behind the actual event) and he describes the plot of Scribe’s libretto as “cleverly constructed…in which irony follows irony. It abounds in striking situations and coups de théatre; it offers opportunities for a display of the most intense and varied emotions; and it is full of suspense.”

I due Foscari

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

After Ernani, Verdi had considered a large number of projects for the future and the Byron play was one of them. Foscari had even been considered as early as 1843 when he had been approached by La Fenice in Venice, but it was rejected as unsuitable because the story included criticism of actions of the Republic of Venice which may have been offensive to the great families who had governed the Republic, including the extant Foscari family. At the same time, the composer had accepted a commission from the Teatro Argentina in Rome and had considered the subject of Lorenzino de’ Medici on which Piave had already begun work. Verdi encouraged the librettist to continue his work and then submit the work to the Roman authorities but, as a backup, he wrote: “But, just in case the police don’t allow it, we’ll have to think of a quick alternative and I suggest The Two Foscari. I like the plot and the outline is already there in Venice.” It appears that Verdi had already submitted it to La Fenice at some earlier time, and so he encouraged Piave to work on it, “but stick closely to Byron” he noted. Thus, the rather lower key of the original piece stood out in direct contrast to the opera by which it was succeeded. However, as musicologist Roger Parker notes, it appears that Verdi was “concentrating on personal confrontations rather than grand scenic effects”. Upon receiving the libretto by mid-May, the composer sent a long series of letters to the librettist over several months instructing him on many points where changes were needed. They revealed “the extent to which Verdi intervened in the making of the libretto, a good deal of the large-scale structure of the opera being dictated by his increasingly exigent theatrical instincts.” With the music completed over the summer, I due Foscari was given its Rome premiere performance on 3 November 1844.

I Lombardi alla prima crociata

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Grossi’s original epic poem had plot complications that required the librettist to make significant changes; the historical characters portrayed in the original do not appear and the story becomes that of a fictional family and its involvement in the First Crusade. Julian Budden’s analysis of the opera’s origins notes: “In 1843 any subject where Italians were shown united against a common enemy was dangerous, especially in Austrian Milan. Yet strangely enough it was not the police but the church that took exception to I Lombardi”, since the Archbishop of Milan had heard rumours that the work contained specific elements of Catholic ritual. However, given Verdi’s refusal to make any changes to the music, it is fortunate that the sole alteration required was textual rather than musical: at the insistence of the censor, the title and text of the Act I prayer were changed from “Ave Maria” to “Salve Maria” in the autograph score, a change Verdi himself made by hand.

I masnadieri

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

In 1842 Lumley took over the management of Her Majesty’s Theatre, the traditional home of Italian opera in London. Three years later Verdi’s Ernani received its first British production at his theatre to great public acclaim, which convinced Lumley that he should commission an opera from Verdi, who was by then emerging as Italy’s leading composer. Initially, the opera was to be Il corsaro based on the Byron poem of 1814, The Corsair. Verdi accepted Lumley’s proposal and production was scheduled for the world premiere of the new opera in the summer of 1846. Unfortunately, Verdi’s health deteriorated and the premiere of the new work had to be postponed until 1847. During his period of recovery, one of Verdi’s close friends, Andrea Maffei, a distinguished poet who had translated both Shakespeare and Schiller into Italian, suggested that Macbeth and Schiller’s Die Räuber might provide suitable operatic subjects. With an offer to present a new opera in Florence, Verdi had the choice of two locations, Florence or London. In the end, the decision to present the opera Macbeth in Florence came about because of the availability of a suitable bass, which Florence produced in the form of Felice Varesi. Thus, I masnadieri became destined for London, but with the condition that both Jenny Lind and the tenor Fraschini would be available. Maffei himself worked to complete the libretto of the Schiller opera with the composer. However, while Verdi had specified Fraschini, Budden notes that the management were not able to guarantee his presence and, besides, Muzio’s “ear to the ground for news of the London opera season” had discovered that the preferred tenor there was Italo Gardoni, who did sing the premiere. An additional issue emerged. The travelers having reached Paris, Verdi heard rumours that Lind was not willing to learn new roles and, therefore, Muzio was sent across the English Channel ahead of the composer, who waited for an assurance that the soprano was in London and willing to proceed. From London, Muzio was able to give Verdi that assurance, informing him that Lind was ready and eager to go to work. Verdi continued his journey, crossing the Channel on 5 June. Lumley had assembled a cast of the highest international standard, specifically the Swedish coloratura soprano Jenny Lind, who came to create the role of Amalia, the opera’s heroine. Thus, this opera became the highlight of her first season in England. After considerable persuasion Verdi agreed to conduct the premiere on 22 July 1847 and also conducted the second performance and after Verdi’s departure, it was given two more times before the end of the season. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attended the first performance, together with the Duke of Wellington and every member of the British aristocracy and fashionable society who was able to gain admission. Overall, the premiere was a triumphant success for the composer himself, and the press was for the most part generous in its praise, although the critic Henry Chorley was to describe it as “the worst opera that has been given in our time at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Verdi is finally rejected”.

I vespri siciliani

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

While it was not Verdi’s first grand opera for Paris (the first being his adaptation of I Lombardi in 1847 under the new title of Jerusalem), the libretto which Verdi was using had been written about 20 years before at the height of the French grand opera tradition, which “meant that Verdi was writing his first (original) opéra at a point at which the genre was in a state of flux”.

Il corsaro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

The composer expressed interest in Byron’s poem The Corsair (along with The Two Foscari and others) as early as 1844 when he was planning an opera for Venice, but a suitable baritone was not available. In 1845, before it was determined that I masnadieri was to be the opera presented in London, the composer had contracted with the Milanese publisher, Francesco Lucca, for three operas, including Attila and one for London. Three things prevented it from being I masnadieri at that time: firstly, Verdi’s illness postponed any opera for London for almost a year; secondly, he demanded that the work be Il corsaro and that it be written by Piave, who had begun work; and, thirdly, by 1846 and the planning for London continuing, Verdi became more interested in I masnadieri or Macbeth (“in that order” notes Budden), Piave relented, and he moved ahead on Macbeths libretto. But, by the end of the year, when Lucca and the British impresario, Benjamin Lumley were raising the issue of the London contract, Verdi replied that he found Il corsaro “dull (freddo) and theatrically ineffective”. Thus, I masnadieri became the opera for London, and Verdi (and his long-time assistant and student, Emanuele Muzio) traveled to that city at the end of May 1847 for the premiere performance which was held on 22 July 1847, after which the composer returned to Paris – where he remained for two years – while Muzio returned to Milan. After the Masnadieri, in order to satisfy the remaining opera contracted with Lucca, Verdi proposed Il corsaro, was offered a counter proposal which he rejected, and from Paris in February 1848 Verdi sent the completed score to Lucca via Muzio. Where and when it was to be staged, who the singers would be, and by which stage director was left to the publisher.

Il trovatore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

How and when Verdi acquired a copy of the García Gutiérrez play is uncertain, but Budden notes that it appears that Giuseppina Strepponi, with whom Verdi had been living in Busseto since September 1849, had translated the play, as evidenced in a letter from her two weeks before the premiere urging him to “hurry up and give OUR Trovatore”. When considering setting García Gutiérrez’s play, Verdi turned to work with Cammarano, “the born operatic poet” (according to Budden). Their correspondence began as early as January 1850, well before Verdi had done anything to develop a libretto with Piave for what later became Rigoletto in Venice. At this time, it was also the first since Oberto that the composer was beginning to prepare an opera with a librettist but without a commission of any kind from an opera house. In his first letter to Cammarano, Verdi proposed El Trovador as the subject with “two feminine roles. The first, the gypsy, a woman of unusual character after whom I want to name the opera.” With regard to the chosen librettist’s strength as a poet in preparing verse for opera, Budden also comments that his approach was very traditional, something which began to become clear during the preparation of the libretto and which appears in the correspondence between the two men.

Inno delle nazioni

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

In December 1858, the Society of Arts in London announced their intention to hold what was to be called the 1862 International Exhibition, seen as a successor to The Great Exhibition of 1851. Wanting to include musical performances (which were excluded from the 1851 exhibition), at the suggestion of the leading music critic Henry Chorley, they solicited new works from Daniel Auber (representing France), William Sterndale Bennett (England), Giacomo Meyerbeer (Germany) and Gioachino Rossini (Italy). Rossini declined the invitation. Roberta Montemorra Marvin (who edited Inno delle nazioni for The Complete Works of Giuseppe Verdi series) considers that the committee did not initially ask Verdi to compose a piece because of Chorley’s antipathy toward the composer’s works. Nevertheless, after Rossini’s refusal, in 1861 the committee invited Verdi, offering four suggestions as to form: anthem, chorale, triumphal march (for full orchestra), or march (for wind instruments). Although Verdi detested writing occasional works, Marvin surmises that since Verdi was informed of the acceptance of the commission by Auber and Meyerbeer, personal pride and the chance at representing Italy at an international exhibition were the key reasons he took up the commission.

Jérusalem

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

The director of the Paris Opéra, Léon Pillet, had invited Verdi to compose an opera for the company in November 1845 and February 1846, but initially Verdi declined. This was the composer’s first encounter with the Académie Royale de Musique, as the Paris Opéra was officially known. Among 19th-century Italian composers, there had been an increasing interest in writing for Paris, where the combination of money, prestige, and flexibility of style were appealing. Musicologist Julian Budden provides examples of those composers who had crossed the Alps, the most well-known being Rossini and Donizetti (as well as Vincenzo Bellini who, before he died in 1835, was planning a French grand opera.) However, Verdi had given some consideration of the idea of adapting one of the librettos written by Temistocle Solera in earlier years, librettos which music historian David Kimball regards as having something of grand opera in their structure. After conducting the premiere of I masnadieri in London and within a week of Verdi’s arrival in Paris on 27 July 1847, he received his first commission from the company, agreeing to adapt I Lombardi to a new French libretto. The adaptation meant that Verdi could “try his hand at grand opera” without having to write something entirely new, a strategy which both Donizetti and Rossini had employed for their Paris debuts. There are significant changes in the location and action of the French version of Lombardi, especially given the need to set the story for French involvement in the First Crusade of 1095–1099. Characters’ names changed from Italian to French and one, Arvino (who was renamed as the Count of Toulouse, though elements of his character were given to the principal tenor role, Gaston) was now a baritone instead of a tenor. Several roles present in the original version were deleted, including the leading tenor role of Oronte. In the restructured libretto, the central romance is given more prominence, and a happier ending. In addition, Verdi added a standard ballet and new music, but re-shaped much of the structure by removing inappropriate material he felt to be weak. As musicologist Roger Parker notes, “only a few of the original numbers remain in their former positions.”

La battaglia di Legnano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Verdi’s 14th opera was written while he was living in Paris in 1848 (though he quickly traveled to Milan after receiving news of the March “Cinque Giornate” – the five days of street fighting which drove the Austrians out of the city) and it seems to have been composed specifically as “an opera with a purpose” (as opera historian Charles Osborne describes it). Osborne continues: “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”. While still writing I masnadieri and with his obligation to complete an opera for the publisher, Francesco Lucca, Verdi had been admonished by the poet Giuseppe Giusti for turning away from patriotic subjects when he composed Macbeth; the poet pleaded with him to “do what you can to nourish the sorrow of the Italian people , to strengthen it, and direct it to its goal.” Verdi replied encouragingly. With his other obligations out of the way, he was hesitant in committing to anything that was not a genuinely patriotic subject, but he despaired that librettists were incapable to providing them until Salvadore Cammarano (who supplied the libretto for the 1845 Alzira) came up with the idea of adapting Joseph Méry’s 1828 play La Bataille de Toulouse, a well-known and well-liked play in Italy at that time. “A story like that should stir every man with an Italian soul in his breast” was how the librettist described it. “Conceived in the springtime of Italian hopes” (as Budden describes the initial enthusiasm for the work), by the time Cammarano produced a final libretto it was early 1849 and it was also clear that the Austrians had not been permanently routed from Lombardy. The premiere was set for late January 1849, some last-minute adjustments were made, and Verdi traveled to Rome before the end of 1848. At this point in the rise of Italian nationalism, Rome under Pope Pius IX was in turmoil and the Pope was held prisoner (without his Swiss guards), but he managed to escape to the south, hoping to negotiate his return. Within days of Battaglias totally sold-out premiere, Rome had become a republic, accelerated by the passions inflamed amongst its inhabitants by (amongst other things) the opera’s final chorus of freedom: “Italia risorge vestita di Gloria, invitta e regina qual’era sarà” / “Italy rises again robed in glory!, Unconquered and a queen she shall be as once she was!”.

La donna è mobile

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The aria is in the key of B major with a time signature of and a tempo mark of allegretto. The vocal range extends from F to A with a tessitura from F to F. Eight bars form the orchestral introduction, followed by a one-bar general rest. Each verse and the refrain covers eight bars; the whole aria is 87 bars long. The almost comical-sounding theme of "" is introduced immediately. The theme is repeated several times in the approximately two to three minutes it takes to perform the aria, but with the important—and obvious—omission of the last bar. This has the effect of driving the music forward as it creates the impression of being incomplete and unresolved, which it is, ending not on the tonic (B) or dominant (F) but on the submediant (G). Once the Duke has finished singing, however, the theme is once again repeated; this time, it includes the last—and conclusive—bar and finally resolves to the tonic of B major. The song is in strophic form with an orchestral ritornello.

La forza del destino

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Revisions#

After its premiere in Russia, La forza underwent some revisions and made its debut abroad with performances in Rome in 1863 under the title Don Alvaro. Performances followed in Madrid (with the Duke of Rivas, the play’s author, in attendance) and the opera subsequently travelled to New York, Vienna (1865), Buenos Aires (1866), London (1867) and Mexico City (1867). Following these productions, Verdi made further, more extensive revisions to the opera with additions to the libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. This version, which premiered at La Scala, Milan, on 27 February 1869, has become the standard performance version. The most important changes were a new overture (replacing a brief prelude); the addition of a final scene to act 3, following the duel between Carlo and Alvaro; and a new ending, in which Alvaro remains alive, instead of throwing himself off a cliff to his death. The opera in this version is frequently performed in the world’s opera houses today.

La traviata

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

For Verdi, the years 1851 to 1853 were filled with operatic activity. First, he had agreed with the librettist Salvadore Cammarano on a subject for what would become Il trovatore, but work on this opera could not proceed while the composer was writing Rigoletto, which premiered in Venice in March 1851. In addition, personal affairs in his home town limited his activities that spring, but after Rigolettos success in Venice, an additional commission was offered by Brenna, the secretary of La Fenice.

La Traviata (1982 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The film opens in the Paris home of courtesan Violetta Valéry, where sheets cover the furniture in dimly lit rooms. Creditors, appraisers, and movers are removing much of the artwork and ornate furnishings. One of them curiously wanders through the rooms, until he comes upon Violetta, bedridden and looking pallid and weak, and he stares at her with undisguised awe. She is startled to see him and follows him to see what he is doing. As she gazes down the long hallway, her delirious mind drifts back to a happier time, and via flashback we are transported to a lavish party she is hosting to celebrate her recovery from an illness. One of her guests, Count Gastone, has brought with him his friend, the young nobleman Alfredo Germont, who has long adored Violetta from afar. She becomes dizzy and retires to her bedroom to recover; he follows her and declares his love. At first Violetta rejects him, telling him love means nothing to her, but she is touched by his concern and offers him a camellia, telling him to return it when it has wilted. He promises to see her the next day. Three months pass, and Violetta and Alfredo are living together in a peaceful country house outside Paris. She has fallen deeply in love with him and has abandoned her former life. When Alfredo learns from the maid Annina her mistress has ordered her to sell the horses, carriages, and everything owned by Violetta in order to finance their lavish lifestyle, Alfredo leaves for Paris immediately to handle matters himself. During his absence, his father Giorgio arrives and requests that, for the sake of his family, Violetta end her relationship with his son. Violetta’s unsavory reputation has threatened his daughter’s engagement. After declaring her love for Alfredo, she reluctantly agrees to Giorgio’s demand. He kisses her forehead in a gesture of gratitude for her sacrifice and leaves. Violetta is in the midst of writing a letter of farewell to Alfredo when he enters. She tells him repeatedly of her unconditional love before rushing out and handing the letter to her servant to give to Alfredo. Giorgio returns and attempts to comfort his son, who suspects Barone Douphol is the real reason Violetta left. When he finds an invitation from Flora Bervoix on the desk, he decides to confront Violetta at the party. Violetta arrives with Baron Douphol, who challenges Alfredo at the gambling table. Alfredo wins large sums of money, and when everyone goes into the dining room for supper, Violetta - fearful the Baron’s anger at losing will lead him to challenge Alfredo to a duel - asks Alfredo to leave. He misunderstands her apprehension and demands she admit she loves Douphol. When she does, an infuriated Alfredo humiliates and denounces her in front of the other guests, then throws his winnings at her for the “services” she performed for him while they lived together. Giorgio, having arrived in search of his son, witnesses the scene and castigates Alfredo for his boorish behavior. Flora and the ladies try to escort Violetta from the room but, before departing, she turns to him and tells him he cannot fathom the love she has for him within her heart. Back in Violetta’s home, Dr. Grenvil advises Annina her mistress’ tuberculosis has worsened and she doesn’t have long to live. Giorgio sends Violetta a letter telling her he has informed Alfredo of the sacrifice she made for him and his sister, and that he is sending his son to see her. Alfredo arrives and suggests they leave Paris, but Violetta knows the end is near. Giorgio rushes in and begs her forgiveness. Violetta presents Alfredo with a locket with her picture and asks him to remember her, while at the same time urging him to marry if he falls in love again. “How strange,” she murmurs, “the spasms have stopped.” With a peaceful smile on her face, she lifts herself from the bed and reaches to the daylight. “I am returning to life!,” she cries, then falls to the floor.

Les vêpres siciliennes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

After Verdi’s first grand opera for the Paris Opéra – his adaptation of I Lombardi in 1847 given under the title of Jérusalem – the composer had wanted to write a completely new grand opera for the company, the appeal being the same as that which influenced all Italian composers of the day: the challenges of a form different from that of their homeland and the ability to appeal to an audience which welcomed novelty. with rehearsals to begin in mid-1854 and the opera staged in November/December of that year. Verdi was guaranteed the choice of suitable artists as well as forty performances in the ten months following the premiere. In July 1852, Verdi had written to Scribe outlining his hopes: I should like, I need a subject that is grandiose, impassioned and original; a mise-en-scène that is imposing and overwhelming. I have consistently in view so many of those magnificent scene to be found in your poems … Indeed, these scenes are miracles! But you work them so often that I hope you will work one for me. When Scribe missed his July 1853 deadline, Verdi went to Paris to negotiate directly and it was then that the librettist proposed a solution, using a revised version of the libretto for Le duc d’Albe, one which had been written about 20 years before at the height of the French grand opera tradition and which had previously been offered to Halévy (who refused it) and to Donizetti (who partly set it to music in 1839 under the original title). Verdi raised many objections, many of these being outlined in a letter from Scribe to Duveyrier of December 1853. They included a change of location, of characters’ names, certain specific situations (there being no beer halls in Sicily, for example), plus a demand for a “standard” fifth act to make it equivalent to Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots or Le prophète. However, this “meant that Verdi was writing his first (original) opéra at a point at which the genre was in a state of flux”. Verdi spent 1854 forcing Scribe to make revisions while writing the music, “complaining about the sheer length demanded by audiences at the Opéra”. However, Verdi persevered and was present at the June 1855 premiere, by then having spent close to two years in Paris working on the opera.

Libiamo ne' lieti calici

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Scene#

The duet is performed in the first act of the opera, during a late-night party at Violetta Valéry’s house. It is sung by Violetta and Alfredo Germont, a young man who is in love with her. Alfredo is convinced by his friend Gastone and by Violetta to show off his voice. He begins this drinking song, later joined by Violetta and the rest of the company. The piece is written in B-flat major, its time signature is 3/8, and the tempo is marked Allegretto, = 69.

Luisa Miller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

In August 1848, Verdi had written to the Naples opera house cancelling his contract of three years previous, in which he had agreed to write an opera for them. However, the management held him to it by threatening his librettist for failing to provide a libretto, and Verdi relented, encouraging Cammarano to develop “a brief drama with plenty of interest, action and above all feeling – which would make it easier to set to music”. In Verdi’s mind, he had the perfect subject, to be based on the novel L’assedio di Firenze (“The Siege of Florence”) by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, which glorified the life of the 16th-century Florentine soldier Francesco Ferruccio. This new subject was also a patriotic piece: Verdi had taken to heart the admonitions of the poet Giuseppe Giusti, who had pleaded with him after Macbeth and after Milan’s political turmoil of March 1848 and its aftermath to “do what you can to nourish the sorrow of the Italian people , to strengthen it, and direct it to its goal”. Attempting to get a new libretto underway, Verdi approached Francesco Maria Piave, found him engaged as a soldier for the new Venetian republic, and so contacted Cammarano in Naples with the idea of L’assedio. But, as it turned out, Cammarano had to tell Verdi that the Naples censors rejected the outline of a subject which had interested Verdi very much since the time he prepared his previous opera, La battaglia di Legnano. His inability to continue to develop the project came as a blow. Verdi’s biographer Julian Budden notes that “next to Re Lear (King Lear), this was to be the most fascinating of Verdi unrealized subjects”; another biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz adds that she regards L’assedio di Firenze as “one of Verdi’s most important uncomposed works.” Cammarano advised the composer to avoid a story which had any sort of revolutionary tinge, and he came back with an idea which Verdi himself had once proposed in 1846 when he was recovering from his illness and in the company of Andrea Maffei (who was writing the libretto for I masnadieri): to adapt Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe. (See “Music” below). Cammarano moved the action from a princely court (in the 18th century) to a Tyrolean village (in the 17th century), and shifted the characters away from the princely intrigues which preoccupied Schiller. He therefore moved the focus much more toward the “Liebe” (Love) and away from the “Kabale” (Intrigue) aspects of the play. With the idea of Luisa Miller agreed upon, from Paris Verdi approached the Naples management, trying to obtain a delay or, at least, to allow the new opera to be presented in his absence. When this approach was rejected, the composer made plans for both himself and his companion Giuseppina Strepponi to leave Paris; Verdi went to his native Busseto, arriving about 10 August, and took up residence in the Palazzo Orlandi (also referred to as the Palazzo Cavalli, after its architect) which he had bought in 1845; Strepponi joined him there a month later, for what was to be a difficult period in both their lives. It was from Busseto that Verdi then began work on the score of this opera, having received the libretto from Cammarano on 13 August. In October he left for Naples, accompanied by Antonio Barezzi, whom he continued to refer to as his “father-in-law”.

Macbeth (1987 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Cast#

Leo Nucci as Macbeth
Shirley Verrett as Lady Macbeth
Samuel Ramey as Banco (voice)
Johan Leysen as Banco
Veriano Luchetti as Macduff (voice)
Philippe Volter as Macduff
Antonio Barasorda as Malcolm
Anna Caterina Antonacci as Dama
Sergio Fontana as Medico
Gianfranco Casarini as Domestico
Gastone Sarti as Sicario (voice)
Giuseppe Morresi as Araldo
Natale De Carolis as Prima apparizione (voice)
Marco Fanti as Terza apparizione (voice)

Macbeth (Verdi)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Original 1847 version#

Influenced by his friendship in the 1840s with Andrea Maffei, a poet and man of letters who had suggested both Schiller’s Die Räuber (The Robbers) and Shakespeare’s play Macbeth as suitable subjects for operas, Giuseppe Verdi received a commission from Florence’s Teatro della Pergola, but no particular opera was specified. He only started working on Macbeth in September 1846, the reason for that choice was the availability of a particular singer, the baritone Felice Varesi who would sing the title role. With Varesi under contract, Verdi could focus on the music for Macbeth. (Maffei was already writing a libretto for I masnadieri, which was based on the suggested Schiller play, but it could have been substituted for Macbeth had the baritone not been available.) As a result of various complications, including Verdi’s illness, that work was not to receive its premiere until July 1847. Piave’s text was based on a prose translation by Carlo Rusconi that had been published in Turin in 1838. Verdi did not encounter Shakespeare’s original work until after the opera’s first performance. However, he had read Shakespeare in translation for many years, as noted in an 1865 letter: “He is one of my favorite poets. I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth”. Despite disagreements and Verdi’s need to constantly bully Piave into correcting his drafts (to the point where Maffei had a hand in re-writing some scenes of the libretto, especially the witches’ chorus in Act 3 and the sleepwalking scene), their version follows Shakespeare’s play quite closely, but with some changes. Instead of using three witches as in the play, there is a large female chorus of witches, singing in three-part harmony (they are divided in three groups, and every group sings as a single witch, using “I” and not “we”). The last act begins with an assembly of refugees on the English border and, in the revised version, ends with a chorus of bards celebrating victory over the tyrant.

Messa per Rossini

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Verdi had proposed this collaboration in a letter from 17 November 1868, four days after Rossini’s death, to his publisher at Casa Ricordi, (1811–1888), stating that after the performance, the manuscripts should be sealed in the archives of the Liceo musicale Rossini. The city council of Bologna and the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna received this idea favourably and a committee of three members (Lauro Rossi, Alberto Mazzucato, Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti) of the Milan Conservatory was established in Milan with Giulio Ricordi as secretary. The committee chose the composers and assigned their tasks; Angelo Mariani agreed to conduct. The manuscript subsequently fell into oblivion. Giuseppe Verdi adapted his own contribution, the concluding Libera me, as the basis for that section when composing his own Messa da Requiem.

Nabucco

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

The success of Verdi’s first opera, Oberto, led Bartolomeo Merelli, La Scala’s impresario, to offer Verdi a contract for three more works. After the failure of his second opera Un giorno di regno (completed in 1840 towards the end of a brutal two-year period during which both of his infant children and then his 26-year-old wife died), Verdi vowed never to compose again. The duration of 38 years since the event may have led to a somewhat romanticized view; or, as Verdi scholar Julian Budden writes: “he was concerned to weave a protective legend about himself since it was all part of his fierce independence of spirit.” However, in (“Where there’s a will …”) – written ten years closer to the event – the zoologist Michele Lessona provides a different account of the events, as allegedly recounted by Verdi himself. After a chance meeting with Merelli close to La Scala, the impresario gave him a copy of Temistocle Solera’s libretto which had been rejected by the composer Otto Nicolai. It has been noted that “Verdi read it enthusiastically” or, as recounted by Lessona, that he “threw the libretto in a corner without looking at it anymore, and for the next five months he carried on with his reading of bad novels … when towards the end of May he found himself with that blessed play in his hands: he read the last scene over again, the one with the death of Abigaille (which was later cut), seated himself almost mechanically at the piano … and set the scene to music.” Nevertheless, Verdi still refused to compose the music, taking the manuscript back to the impresario the next day. But Merelli would not accept the refusal; he immediately stuffed the papers back into Verdi’s pocket and according to the composer, “not only threw me out of his office, but slammed the door in my face and locked himself in”. Verdi claims that gradually he worked on the music: “This verse today, tomorrow that, here a note, there a whole phrase, and little by little the opera was written” so that by the autumn of 1841 it was complete. At the very least, both Verdi’s and Lessona’s versions end with a complete score.

Oberto (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

During his student days in Milan, Verdi began the process of making connections to the world of music in that city which were to stand him in good stead. These included an introduction by his teacher Lavigna to an amateur choral group, the Società Filarmonica, where he functioned as rehearsal director and continuo player for Haydn’s The Creation in 1834, as well as conducting Rossini’s La cenerentola himself the following year. 1836 saw his involvement in an April concert celebrating Emperor Ferdinand’s birthday; for this he wrote a cantata in the Emperor’s honour which received some praise. But it was after his return to his hometown of Busseto in 1835 to become director of the music school with a three-year contract that Verdi took advantage of the connection he had made to the Filarmonica’s director, Pietro Massini. In a series of letters from 1835 to 1837 he informed him about the progress towards writing his first opera using a libretto supplied by Massini which had been written by , a Milanese “journalist and man of letters”. By then it had been given the title of Rocester and the young composer expressed hopes of a production in Parma. However, Parma was not interested in new works and so approaches were made to Milan. Whether Rocester actually became the basis for Oberto when Verdi was able to return to Milan in February 1839 after fulfilling two and a half years of his contract in Busseto is subject to some disagreement amongst scholars. How much of Rochester remained visible in Oberto is discussed by Roger Parker, who does suggest that “in this shape-shifting tendency, the opera was, of course, very much of its time.” In his recollections in 1881 (quoted in Budden) following his return to Milan from Busseto in 1838, Verdi describes how he was invited to meet the La Scala impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, who had heard a conversation about the music of the opera between soprano Giuseppina Strepponi and Giorgio Ronconi in which she praised it. Merelli then offered to put on Oberto during the 1839 season and, after its premiere, Oberto was given a respectable 13 additional performances.

Otello

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Verdi’s intended retirement#

After the completion and premiere of his opera Aida in December 1871, Verdi decided that it was time for him to end his successful career as a composer of opera, much as Rossini had done after the completion of the opera William Tell, though he was easily the most popular, and possibly the wealthiest, composer in Italy at the time. However, Verdi’s sixties were not good years: as musicologist Julian Budden notes, “he seemed to have entered those years in a mood of gloom and depression ..and.. his letters at the time were full of complaints about the Italian theatre, Italian politics and Italian music in general all seen by him as sinking beneath a tide of Germanism”. Because of the immense popularity of Verdi’s music in Italy by the 1870s, Verdi’s retirement seemed to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, to be a waste of talent and possible profits. Thus a plot of sorts was hatched in order to coax the composer out of retirement to write another opera. Because of the importance of the dramatic aspects of opera to the composer, Verdi was especially selective in his choice of subjects. Consequently, if he were to agree to create another opera after a decade of retirement, the libretto would need to be one that would capture his interest. During the period when a suitable story was being sought for what became Aida, Ricordi had come across Boito’s partly finished libretto of his own opera Nerone, and he even suggested in a letter of February 1870 to Verdi that, with Boito’s permission, he set it to music. Verdi ignored it, and so Ricordi tried again in January 1871, enclosing with his letter a copy of Boito’s libretto for Boito’s friend and collaborator Franco Faccio’s Amleto which had been given in 1865 and was revived in February 1871. Nothing came of this approach, although Ricordi persevered in various ways, as seen by the composer’s gruff response to the publisher’s statement “The whole salvation of the theatre and the art is in your hands” when Verdi wrote in April 1875 that “I cannot take it as but a joke”, continuing with “Oh no, never fear, composers for the theatre will never be lacking”. Verdi’s refusals continued as the 1870s progressed. Knowing of his interest in the soprano Adelina Patti, Ricordi tried to entice him into writing an opera for her, but Verdi’s refusal resulted in another approach via a letter to the composer’s wife Giuseppina, who was to present the idea at an opportune time. But she confessed defeat yet again. Clara Maffei also tried, unsuccessfully, in March 1878 to interest Verdi, who replied: “For what reason should I write? What would I succeed in doing?” While he was attempting to get Verdi involved a new opera, in May 1879 Ricordi also tried to engage the composer in revising Simon Boccanegra. This suggestion, originally expressed ten years before but ignored, was once again shrugged off by Verdi, who sent a note saying that the 1857 score, which had been sent to the composer for review, would remain untouched “just as you sent it to me”. Persisting with further attempts to convince the composer, Ricordi had also broached the idea of a collaboration with Boito for a new opera based on Shakespeare’s Othello. Verdi admired the dramatic works of Shakespeare and had, throughout his career, desired to create operas based on his plays, although his one attempt at doing so, Macbeth in 1847, although initially successful, was not well received when revised for performance in Paris in 1865. Because of its relatively straightforward story, the play Othello was selected as a likely target. Collaborations with Boito in the revision of the 1857 opera Simon Boccanegra helped to convince Verdi of Boito’s ability as a librettist. Musicologist Roger Parker speculates that Verdi’s final agreement to revise Boccanegra was based on a desire to “test the possibility” of working with Boito before possibly embarking on the larger project. Frank Walker expresses much the same thoughts, noting that “some of the results, such as the magnificent scene in the Council Chamber and the villainous Paolo’s Iago-like recitatives, foreshadow the later opera.”

Otello (1986 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

With only a few exceptions, the film follows the same plot as the opera. Iago plots and brings about Otello’s downfall by convincing him that his wife Desdemona is engaged in an affair with the young lieutenant Cassio, provoking Otello to murder her in a blind rage. However, in a major change from the opera, Otello kills Iago at the end by throwing a spear at him, while in the stage version he only wounds him with his sword.

Otello (Toscanini recording)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Quattro pezzi sacri

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

After Verdi finished his opera Aida and in 1874 the Messa da Requiem, he retired from composing for years, writing only minor sacred compositions such as a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria in 1880. The earliest of the Quattro pezzi sacri in terms of its composition date is what came to be known as Laudi alla Vergine Maria (although Verdi himself did not give it that title). It was composed between 1886 and 1888, during which time he was also working on his penultimate opera, Otello, which premiered in 1887. The second of the Pezzi to be composed was the Ave Maria, whose setting is built on an enigmatic scale. He originally composed it in 1889 and revised it for publication in 1897. The Te Deum was begun in 1895 two years after the premiere of his last opera, Falstaff. It was finished in the summer of 1896. The Stabat Mater followed, and all four pieces were sent to Verdi’s publisher, Casa Ricordi, in June 1897

Requiem (Verdi)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

After Gioachino Rossini’s death in 1868, Verdi suggested to his publisher Ricordi that a number of Italian composers collaborate on a Requiem in Rossini’s honour. this episode marked the beginning of the end of their friendship. The composition remained unperformed until 1988, when Helmuth Rilling premiered the complete Messa per Rossini in Stuttgart, Germany, presented at festivals and recorded. On 22 May 1873, the Italian writer and humanist Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi had admired all his adult life and met in 1868, died. Upon hearing of his death, Verdi resolved to complete a Requiem—this time entirely of his own writing—for Manzoni. Verdi traveled to Paris in June, where he commenced work on the Requiem, giving it the form we know today. It included a revised version of the Libera me originally composed for Rossini.

Rick (film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The film chronicles the tragic fall of Rick O’Lette, a middle-aged corporate climber who has lost sight of his humanity.

Cast#

Bill Pullman as Rick O’Lette
Aaron Stanford as Duke
Agnes Bruckner as Eve O’Lette
Dylan Baker as Buck
Sandra Oh as Michelle
Emmanuelle Chriqui as Duke’s Long-Suffering Wife
Marianne Hagan as Laura
Jamie Harris as Mick
Haviland Morris as Jane
Paz de la Huerta as Vicki
Dennis Parlato as BusinessTalk Anchor
Daniel Handler (cameo) as Perky waiter

Critical response#

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 46%, with an average rating of 6/10, based on 24 reviews.

Rigoletto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

La Fenice of Venice commissioned Verdi in 1850 to compose a new opera. He was prominent enough by this time to enjoy some freedom in choosing texts to set to music. He initially asked Francesco Maria Piave (with whom he had already created Ernani, I due Foscari, Macbeth, Il corsaro and Stiffelio) to examine the play Kean by Alexandre Dumas, père, but soon came to believe that they needed to find a more energetic subject. That came in the form of Victor Hugo’s controversial five-act play Le roi s’amuse (“The king amuses himself”). Verdi later explained that “The subject is grand, immense, and there is a character that is one of the greatest creations that the theatre can boast of, in any country and in all history.” However, Hugo’s depiction of a venal, cynical, womanizing king (Francis I of France) was considered unacceptably scandalous. The play had been banned in France following its premiere nearly twenty years earlier (not to be staged again until 1882); now it was to come before the Austrian Board of Censors (as Austria at that time directly controlled much of Northern Italy.) From the beginning, both composer and librettist knew this step would not be easy. As Verdi wrote in a letter to Piave: “Use four legs, run through the town and find me an influential person who can obtain the permission for making Le Roi s’amuse.” Guglielmo Brenna, secretary of La Fenice, promised the duo that they would not have problems with the censors. He was wrong, and rumours began to spread in early summer that the production would be forbidden. In August, Verdi and Piave retired to Busseto, Verdi’s hometown, to prepare a defensive scheme as they continued work on the opera. Despite their best efforts, including frantic correspondence with La Fenice, the Austrian censor De Gorzkowski emphatically denied consent to the production of “La Maledizione” (its working title) in a December 1850 letter, calling the opera “a repugnant example of immorality and obscene triviality.” Piave set to work revising the libretto, eventually pulling from it another opera, Il Duca di Vendome, in which the sovereign was a duke and both the hunchback and the curse disappeared. Verdi was completely against this proposed solution, preferring to negotiate directly with the censors over each and every point of the work. Brenna, La Fenice’s sympathetic secretary, mediated the dispute by showing the Austrians some letters and articles depicting the bad character, but great value, of the artist. By January 1851 the parties had settled on a compromise: the action of the opera would be moved, and some of the characters would be renamed. In the new version, the Duke would preside over Mantua and belong to the Gonzaga family. (The house of Gonzaga had long been extinct by the mid-19th century, and the dukedom of Mantua no longer existed.) The scene in which he retired to Gilda’s bedroom would be deleted, and his visit to the Taverna (inn) would no longer be intentional, but the result of a trick. The hunchbacked jester (originally called Triboulet) was renamed Rigoletto (from the French word rigoler, “giggle”) from a parody of a comedy by Jules-Édouard Alboize de Pujol: Rigoletti, ou Le dernier des fous (Rigoletti, or The last of the jesters) of 1835. By 14 January, the opera’s definitive title had become Rigoletto. Verdi finally completed the composition on 5 February 1851, a little more than a month before the premiere. Piave had already arranged for the sets to be designed while Verdi was still working on the final stages of act 3. The singers were given some of their music to learn on 7 February. However, Verdi kept at least a third of the score at Busseto. He brought it with him when he arrived in Venice for the rehearsals on 19 February, and would continue refining the orchestration throughout the rehearsal period. For the première, La Fenice had cast Felice Varesi as Rigoletto, the tenor Raffaele Mirate as the Duke, and Teresa Brambilla as Gilda (although Verdi would have preferred Teresa De Giuli Borsi). Due to a high risk of unauthorised copying, Verdi demanded extreme secrecy from all his singers and musicians, particularly Mirate: the “Duke” had the use of his score for only a few evenings before the première, and was made to swear that he would not sing or even whistle the tune of “La donna è mobile” except during rehearsal.

Rigoletto (1982 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

As court jester for the Duke of Mantua (Luciano Pavarotti), hunch-back Rigoletto (Ingvar Wixell) is tasked with amusing the Duke at the expense of courtiers much to their annoyance. Recently the Duke, who lives a life of pleasure bedding as many women as possible, started noticing a young lady named Gilda (Edita Gruberová) walking to church every Sunday and vows to have his way with her. At the court, Count Monterone (also played by Ingvar Wixell) who is the father of one of the Duke’s love interests confronts him for trying to seduce his daughter. Rigoletto decides to make fun of the Count causing the Duke to laugh at him, now angry, the Count casts a curse on Rigoletto. Later, the begrudged courtiers find out that Rigoletto is living with Gilda who they believe to be his mistress, however in fact is his daughter. Attempting to humiliate Rigoletto the courtiers kidnap Gilda and bring her to the Duke’s bedroom where he is waiting for her, Gilda who is infatuated with the Duke gives herself to him. Rigoletto later having learned of the Duke lying with his daughter, hires assassin Sparafucile (Ferruccio Furlanetto) to kill him in revenge. Sparafucile uses his beautiful sister Maddalena (Victoria Vergara) to lure the Duke to a tavern where he tries to seduce her. Outside, Rigoletto shows Gilda the Duke’s infidelity. The heartbroken Gilda puts on men’s clothing so she can return home safely without her father but returns to the tavern to overhear Rigoletto and Sparafucile plotting to kill the Duke. After Rigoletto leaves, the still eavesdropping Gilda hears Maddalena beg Sparafucile not to kill the Duke and instead kill the next person who enters the door. Hoping to protect the Duke, the lovestruck Gilda enters the tavern and is immediately stabbed by Sparafucile, her dying body rolled up into a rug and dropped down a trapdoor onto Rigoletto’s boat. Thinking it is the Duke, Rigoletto goes up the river to dispose of the body but in the distance hears the Duke singing La donna è mobile. The confused Rigoletto unravels the rug to reveal his half-dead daughter who finally dies, he realises the curse had come to pass – the distraught Rigoletto cries out in pain.

Simon Boccanegra

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history: the 1857 version#

Musicologist and author Julian Budden points to three projects which the composer had in mind when, at the beginning of 1855, he turned down an invitation from La Fenice to write a new opera for them for the following year. He responded: “the chief obstacle is my unshakable determination not to bind myself anymore to a definite period for either the composition or the production”. While that approach did not turn out to be practicable at that time, it was an ultimate goal and, in aiming to achieve it, his partner of the previous four years, Giuseppina Strepponi greatly encouraged it when she wrote to him at the time of his frustrations two years earlier when working in Paris on Les vêpres siciliennes. The only project for which there was forward motion was towards accomplishing his long-planned Re Lear, an opera to be based on King Lear, for which his new librettist (following Salvadore Cammarano’s death) was Antonio Somma. But a year later, when overseeing a revival of La traviata at La Fenice, he agreed to a new opera for that house for the 1856/7 season, and he proposed the Gutiérrez play, which Budden presumes he had read in translation. Budden also presumes that the translation had been done by Strepponi, because she had been the translator of Gutiérrez’ other play El trovador which had become Il trovatore. The somewhat convoluted plot of Simon Boccanegra can be hard to follow. Budden notes: “All the characters define themselves against an ingeniously shifting pattern of intrigue such as can be highly effective in a play but well-nigh impossible to follow in an opera”. He pushed harder, stating that “I plan to compose music for a prose libretto! What do you think of that?” In the end, there was a poetic version and all was well: it was accepted by the opera house and the censors. Beginning in July and throughout most of the period of the preparation of the libretto, the composer and Strepponi had been in Paris taking care of securing various performance and publication rights, including working on a translated version of Il trovatore, the opera which became Le trouvère. Piave was informed that Verdi’s stay would need to be lengthened and everything would be handled between them and the Venetian authorities by mail. However, Verdi’s dissatisfaction with some of the librettist’s work led him to find a local collaborator to help revise some of the sections. Accordingly, he called upon an Italian exile in Paris, the politician, former professor of law, poet and writer Giuseppe Montanelli, to do this. Piave learned nothing of the revisions until he received a note from Verdi: “Here is the libretto, shortened and altered more or less as it must be. You can put your name to or it, just as you please”. However, he also learned nothing of the anonymous collaborator either. After the premiere of Le trouvère on 12 January 1857, Verdi and Strepponi left Paris to return to Italy, then both went to Venice for the March premiere. However, the relationship was soon restored and Piave came to Sant’Agata in April to work on some revisions, but it was the libretto which came in for the heaviest criticism: “It was generally condemned as one of the most unintelligible to have reached the stage” notes Kimbell and its general dark and gloomy feel was to affect its fortunes for many years.

Stiffelio

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Before Luisa Miller was staged in Naples, Verdi had offered the San Carlo company another work for 1850, with the new opera to be based on Victor Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse from a libretto to be written by Salvadore Cammarano. But his experience with Luisa was such that he decided not to pursue this, and approached his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, with the proposal that he should work with the librettist on the possibility of an opera, Re Lear, which would be based on Shakespeare’s King Lear and which had long been on Verdi’s mind. However, by June 1850 it became clear that the subject was beyond Cammarano’s ability to fashion into a libretto, and so it was abandoned. However, the commitment to Ricordi remained. Verdi had returned to Busseto with many ideas in mind, among them a new opera for Venice, which included a request for a draft scenario from Piave based on Victor Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse. plus several others of interest to him. However, it was the librettist who came back with the suggestion of Stifellius, and between March and May 1850 discussions with Piave proceeded until a sketch of Stiffelio was received. Verdi responded enthusiastically, proclaiming it “good and exciting” and asking: “Is this Stiffelio a historical person? In all the history I’ve read, I don’t remember coming across the name.” At the same time, it appears that Verdi continued to be fascinated by Le Roi s’amuse, a play which Budden notes as having been banned at its first performance: “it was, politically speaking, dynamite” but he adds that the Venetian censors had allowed Ernani. Budden basically agrees, stating that " Verdi was tired of stock subjects; he wanted something with genuinely human, as distinct from melodramatic, interest. …. Stiffelio had the attraction of being a problem play with a core of moral sensibility; the same attraction, in fact, that led Verdi to La traviata a little later." The changes which were demanded included Stiffelio being referred to not as a minister, but as a “sectarian”. Furthermore, in act 3, Lina would not be allowed to beg for confession, plus as Budden notes, “the last scene was reduced to the most pointless banality” whereby Stiffelio is only permitted to preach in general terms. Both men were reluctantly forced to agree to accept the changes.

String Quartet (Verdi)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Verdi’s production of Aida in early March, 1873 was delayed due to the sudden illness of soprano Teresa Stolz. Verdi focused his time in Naples on the writing of his first chamber work, the String Quartet in E minor. The work was premiered two days after the opening of Aida during an informal recital at his hotel on April 1, 1873.

Structure#

The Quartet is scored for the usual string quartet complement of two violins, viola, and cello. #Allegro #Andantino #Prestissimo #Scherzo Fuga. Allegro assai mosso

Suona la tromba

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The piece begins with the lines: “Suona la tromba — ondeggiano / le insegne gialle e nere.” (“The trumpet sounds, the yellow and black flags are waving.”), a reference to the yellow and black flag of the Austrian Empire. It was commissioned by Giuseppe Mazzini as a new battle hymn for the Revolution of 1848 when Italian nationalists sought independence from the Austrian Empire which controlled large portions of northern Italy. He persuaded Verdi to compose the music for it when Verdi visited Milan in May 1848, shortly after the Austrians had been driven from the city and other parts of Lombardy. Mazzini commissioned the text from Mameli in June, asking him for a poem that would become the Italian “Marseillaise” and quoted Verdi’s wish that the new anthem would “make the people forget both the poet and the composer”.

The King's Jester

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Cast#

Michel Simon as Rigoletto
María Mercader as Gilda
Rossano Brazzi as Il re Francesco Iº
Doris Duranti as Margot
Paola Barbara as La duchessa di Cosse
Elli Parvo as La zingara
Carlo Ninchi as Il conte di Saint Vallier
Juan de Landa as Sparafucile
Loredana as Diana Di Saint Vallier
Franco Coop as Il duca di Cosse
Corrado Racca as Signor De Brion
Giulio Battiferri as Uno dei rapitori di Gilda
Oreste Bilancia as Un cortegiano
Gildo Bocci as Il Gran Visir
Ruggero Capodaglio as Un cortegiano
Stanis Cappello as Un cortegiano
Renato Chiantoni as Il terzo zingaro
Gemma D’Alba as Signora De Pardaillan
Alfredo De Antoni as Un cortegiano
Liana Del Balzo as La marchesa che nasconde l’età
Cesare Fantoni as Il sergente Roland
Oreste Fares as Il servitore di Saint Vallier
Adele Garavaglia as Costanza, la governante
Fausto Guerzoni as Il primo zingaro
Guido Morisi as Il duca De La Tour
Giacomo Moschini as Signor De Pardaillan
Giovanni Onorato as Il secondo zingaro
Amina Pirani Maggi as Berarda, governante di Gilda
Cesare Polesello as Il quarto zingaro
Evaristo Signorini as Un cortegiano
Aldo Silvani as Il boia
Edda Soligo as Un’amica della duchessa di Cosse
Edoardo Toniolo as Il poeta Marot

The Lady and the Fool

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background and productions#

After the success of Pineapple Poll, Mackerras and Cranko sought a new collaboration, eventually deciding on adapting music by Verdi to a story by Cranko. The piece was premiered in 1954 at the New Theatre, Oxford, with its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on 31 March 1954. The two clowns were played by Kenneth MacMillan and Johaar Mosaval, with Patricia Miller as La capricciosa. The following year the ballet was re-worked by Cranko for Covent Garden, opening on 9 June 1955, dropping one character and reassigning some dances to other characters, allowing the action to be more clearly focussed and the characters more interesting. The ballet was later produced by the Stuttgart Ballet in 1955, Australian Ballet in 1961, Deutsche Oper, Berlin in 1962, CAPAB Ballet Cape Town and Royal Danish Ballet in 1965 and Houston Ballet in 1971. Performed on tour in Russia by the Royal Ballet, it was well received. It was mounted by Ben Stevenson of Houston Ballet in 1978. The score was recorded in June 1955 at Studio 1 Abbey Road by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Mackerras. A DVD of the ballet broadcast in 1959 with Beriosova, Hynd and Powell as the clowns, and Peter Wright as the Prince, with Mackerras conducting the Royal Opera House Orchestra, was released in 2011 (coupled with Pineapple Poll).

Tu che le vanità

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sentiment#

The aria begins with a long, c. 3 minutes, orchestral prelude. Élisabeth de Valois, a young French Princess whom the elderly King Philip II of Spain has married for political reasons, prays at the tomb of the former Emperor King Carlos V. She asks that he weep for her suffering and offer his tears to the Almighty on her behalf. She anticipates the arrival of her stepson and former fiancé Don Carlo, whom she has piously rejected after marrying his father the King in order to strengthen the alliance of their two nations. She prays that Carlos will fulfil his destiny as a great, benevolent ruler of Spain. She recalls her homeland, and her happiness during her short engagement to Carlos. She longs for the peace which she will have in her grave. A performance takes between 10 and 12 minutes.

Un ballo in maschera

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

: For a full account of the evolution of the opera which eventually became Un ballo in maschera, see Gustavo III (Verdi)

1857: From Gustavo III to Una vendetta in domino#

A commission by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in early 1857 led Verdi to begin to oversee the finalization of the libretto (also by Somma) for Re Lear with the aim of presenting the finished opera during the 1858 carnival season. When this proved to be impracticable, Verdi turned to the subject of King Gustav III’s assassination as portrayed in Scribe and Auber’s opera, albeit not an historically accurate narrative. That subject was well known and had been used by other composers, including Saverio Mercadante for his Il reggente in 1843. For the libretto, Scribe retained the names of some of the historical figures involved (including fortune teller Ulrica Arfvidsson), the conspiracy, and the killing at the masked ball, but, as noted by Budden, “it was a simple case of ‘cherchez la femme’”: for the rest of the play Scribe invented the romance between the King and the fictional Amélie, the wife of the king’s secretary and best friend, and adds characters and situations such as Oscar, the page boy. Somma’s new libretto, known as Gustavo III, was presented to the censors in Naples by late 1857. By November, Verdi informed Somma that objections had been raised and revisions demanded by the censors, the most significant of which was the refusal to allow the depiction of a monarch on the stage - and especially the monarch’s murder. As had happened with Rigoletto, changes in characters’ names and titles were proposed (the King of Sweden became the Duke of Pomerania; Anckarström became Count Renato) and the location was moved from Stockholm to Stettin. Working together with Somma over Christmas, Verdi accommodated these changes. Somma was asked to change the names of the characters on the Gustave libretto while Verdi worked on completing sketches of the music. The name of the opera became Una vendetta in domino. By 9 January 1858, prior to setting out for Naples, Verdi wrote from his home to the San Carlo that “the opera is done and even here I am working on the full score”. The composer then travelled to Naples and rehearsals of Una vendetta were about to begin when, on 14 January 1858, three Italians attempted to assassinate Emperor Napoleon III in Paris, an event which was to affect the opera’s production.

Un giorno di regno

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

After Oberto and after Merelli returned from Vienna in early 1840, he needed a comedy to be written for the autumn season. Asked to select a libretto by Romani which already existed, Verdi notes that he did not like any of them but “because the matter was of some urgency, I chose the one which seemed to me to be the least bad”.

Premiere and other 19th century performances#

The first performance at La Scala on 5 September 1840 was a failure, and La Scala cancelled the remaining scheduled performances. They did not revive the work until 2001. Verdi would not attempt another operatic comedy until the end of his career with Falstaff. At the premiere Verdi was seated in the orchestra pit, and thus heard the audience reaction directly. Along with the critics, Verdi acknowledged that the failure was partly due to his own personal circumstances, since his two children and his wife Margherita Barezzi had died, in 1838, 1839, and 1840 respectively, all during the period leading up to and during its composition. A contributing factor was that the only singers La Scala’s impresario had available were those assembled for an opera seria, Otto Nicolai’s Il templario, and they had no experience with comedy: “The cast had been assembled chiefly for the performance of the season’s most successful novelty, Il templario, Nicolai’s version of Ivanhoe”. In fact, in summary, Budden notes that “by the side of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore or Don Pasquale, it cuts a clumsy figure”. Other productions in Italy during Verdi’s lifetime seemed to fare better; it was given in Venice in 1845 (as Il finto Stanislao, where it did well), in Rome in 1846, and Naples (also as Il finto Stanislao) in 1859.

Va, pensiero

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Initial reception#

Verdi composed Nabucco at a difficult moment in his life. His wife and children had all just died of various illnesses. Despite a purported vow to abstain from opera-writing, he had contracted with La Scala to write another opera and the director, Bartolomeo Merelli, forced the libretto into his hands. Returning home, Verdi happened to open the libretto at “Va, pensiero” and seeing the phrase, he heard the words singing. At first rehearsal “the stagehands shouted their approval, then beat on the floor and the sets with their tools to create an even noisier demonstration”. As he was subsequently to note, Verdi felt that “this is the opera with which my artistic career really begins. And though I had many difficulties to fight against, it is certain that Nabucco was born under a lucky star”. When Verdi died, onlookers in Milan’s streets spontaneously began singing “Va, pensiero” as his funeral procession passed by. A month later, when he was reinterred alongside his wife at the Casa di Riposo, young Arturo Toscanini conducted a choir of 820 singing the hymn.

Verdi (album)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks written by#

#“Giuseppe Verdi, Salvatore Cammarano”: 1,2,14 #“Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave”: 3,6,7,9,10,12 #“Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Somma”: 4,5 #“Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni”: 8 #“Giuseppe Verdi, Temistocle Solera”: 11 #“Giuseppe Verdi, Camille Du Locle, François Joseph Méry”: 13 #“Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni, Francesco Maria Piave”: 15 hitparade.ch

Verdi baritone arias (Plácido Domingo album)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reviews#

It was favourably received by The Independent, the Toronto Star, and other reviewers.

Track listing#

Macbeth (opera), Act IV, Macbeth aria: ‘Perfidi! All’Anglo contro me v’unite! … Pieta, rispetto, amore’ # Rigoletto, Act I, Scene 3, Rigoletto’s scena: ‘Pari siamo! Io la lingua’ # Rigoletto, Act II, Scene 2, Rigoletto’s Aria: ‘Si, la mia figlia! … Cortigiani, vil razza dannata’ # Un ballo in maschera, Act III, Scene 1, Renato’s aria: ‘Alzati! La tuo figlio … Eri tu che macciavi quell’anima’ # La traviata, Germont Act II, Scene 1, Aria: ‘Di Provenza il mar, il suol’ # Simon Boccanegra, Act I, Scene 2: ‘Abbasso le spade! … Plebe! Patrizi! Popolo dalla feroce storia!’ # Simon Boccanegra, Act I, Scene 2: ‘Ecco la spada’ # Ernani, Act III, Carlo V Scene and Cavatina: ‘E questo il loco?’ # Ernani, Act III, Carlo V Scene and Cavatina: ‘Oh, de’ verd’anni miei’ # Il trovatore, Part II, Scene 2, Conte di Luna, Ferrando Scena ed Aria: ‘Tutto e deserto’ # Il trovatore, Part II, Scene 2, Conte di Luna Scena ed Aria: ‘Il balen del suo sorriso’ – # Il trovatore, Part II, Scene 2, Conte di Luna, Ferrando, Scena ed Aria: ‘Qual suono! Oh ciel! … Per me, ora fatale’ # Don Carlo, Act IV, Scene 2: Rodrigo, Don Carlo ‘Son io, mio Carlo’ # Don Carlo, Act IV, Rodrigo Scene 2: ‘Per me giunto e il di supremo’ # Don Carlo, Act IV, Don Carlo, Rodrigo Scene 2: ‘Che parli tu di morte?’ # La forza del destino, Act III, Scene 2, Carlo Scena ed Aria: ‘Morir! Tremenda cosa’ # La forza del destino, Act III, Scene 2, Carlo Scena ed Aria: ‘Urna fatale del mio destino’ # La forza del destino, Act III, Scene 2, Scena ed Aria: ‘E s’altra prova rinvenir potessi? … Egli e salvo! Gioia immens"#