Yes,
his name really does translate into English as Joe Green. Born the
same year as Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi would become the first
composer of Italy to achieve genuine international recognition, he
would be the first in our series to live into the 20th
century (just barely), and above all, Verdi's name and reputation
form the very heart and soul of Italian grand opera. During Verdi's
long and illustrious career, he wrote 26 operas, six or eight of
which have become the backbone of the opera repertoire throughout the
world.
In
1984, a lavish ten and a half hour mini series, "The Life of
Verdi" starring Ronald Pickup. gained some popularity. The
following are links to the trailers for various parts of this series:
1: La Scala, 1833: Giuseppe Verdi listens to Una Furtiva
Lagrima
This
series provides a tantalizing glimpse into times past and something
of what it might have been like to have lived as one of the
fashionable set of those days, as Verdi clearly became, living and
working among those associated as they said of themselves, with “the
theatre,” both as a business and a profession. The theatre they
meant of course was the opera house, a unique kind of theatre built
for the presentation of sung musical dramas.
The
opera world of the 19th century was a time of relentless
building up of the basic repertoire beyond baroque, classical and bel
canto precursors. The romantic age set literature as a reservoir
from which to draw inspiration. Opera was popular as entertainment
for most classes but the very poor and influential as a means to
comment on social affairs without those observations having an
overtly political form. In this way Verdi was attracted to choose
characters and situations for his operas involving great difficulty,
often leading to insurmountably tragic results.
The
real Giuseppe Verdi was a complicated man, who it must be told was
dealt some very hard turns in life and perhaps had it not been for
his natural resilience, the faith of a few good friends, and his
commitment to opera and its institutions, he might not have survived
at all. How few young and ambitions people start out in life with
their sweet little family literally ripped away by epidemic diseases?
These things did happen back then far more often, even during the
early 19th century, which was not so long ago. The
cynicism of those days had it that if war did not claim you, disease
or famine surely might. Yet, it was almost as if fate rewarded Verdi
for surviving the death of his family, the deep scars left on him
from it must certainly have affected him for the rest of his life.
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| La Scala |
Verdi's
complexities led him to some political activism, however unlike
Wagner's revolutionary participation in the troubles of 1848, Verdi's
elevation to the new Italian parliament was through public
acclimation. If Verdi and Wagner were each in their own right,
politically active and nationalistic in their outlook for their
countries, and they were, Verdi comes off as at once more naturally
acceptable to his countrymen and his music far more easily
understood, whether he accomplished very much for his country as a
legislator (doubtful) or not.
Musically
we could also say that Verdi did not make any real improvements on
the technique of writing opera from his immediate predecessors, while
Wagner was clearly taking many departures from those who came before
him. Verdi's orchestration and the power of the human voice is far
more focused; where Wagner is likely to get mystical and abstruse,
Verdi is always very clear, down to earth and true to a range of
explicit human emotions, as exemplified in the stylized careers of
his operatic characters, some becoming so well known that their
characteristic stereotypes define a veritable layer of Italian
national consciousness. Wagner leans in the direction of the
harmonically and emotionally complex or intellectual, whilst Verdi
inclines one to pay closer attention to the simple and obvious
features of human nature.
Peculiarities,
this most Italian of composers was technically born a Frenchman; the
section of Italy where he was born was in the possession of the
French at the time of his birth. He seems to have had a proclivity
to music but does not show quite the precocity of some notable
forerunners, particularly Mozart. Verdi gives his first public
concert at the age of 17 in the home of his future father in law. We
don't know what he did, play the piano maybe? Whatever it was, it
wasn't opera. By the age of 20 in 1833 (the year Brahms was born) we
find Verdi in Milan studying music and getting more involved with the
theatre, which is opera.
Three
years later he is married. In the following two years his two
children are born. They both die in infancy and in 1840 his wife
dies of encephalitis. His family life is all over in a shocking
four years!
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Giuseppina
Strepponi (1815-1897)
|
Professionally,
at the same time Verdi was getting himself enmeshed in the opera
business centring around La Scala in Milan, which was run by an
impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli. Throughout cultural history there
are many who deserve credit for helping or inspiring composers to
create their music, for artists to paint their pictures, writers to
pen their books, etc. Without Merelli, Verdi might have given up
music after his wife's death. Instead, the world has Merelli to
thank for Verdi's Nabucco which instantly made Verdi world famous.
This fame came in 1842 when Verdi was 29 years old. He would write
14 more operas within the decade of his thirties, what he called his
“galley years” either a reference to a slave ship or a small
kitchen. Verdi, liking puns, could have easily meant both.
An important inspirational influence on Verdi was the opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi (1815-1897) who would eventually become Verdi's second wife. Defying the conventions of the day, they lived together many years before finally getting married in 1859. It is well known that whilst Verdi was baptised Catholic and raised (perhaps) with a little Jesuit education, he seems to have decided not to believe in anything (despite the liturgical contexts of some of his later works). This essentially secular / worldly attitude contributed one more strand to the fabric of a singular individualist, who would become commercially and financially as successful in his lifetime as Wagner was chronically impoverished. The various public annals ascribe to Verdi many genial and gracious qualities that his contemporary German counterpart certainly lacked.
An important inspirational influence on Verdi was the opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi (1815-1897) who would eventually become Verdi's second wife. Defying the conventions of the day, they lived together many years before finally getting married in 1859. It is well known that whilst Verdi was baptised Catholic and raised (perhaps) with a little Jesuit education, he seems to have decided not to believe in anything (despite the liturgical contexts of some of his later works). This essentially secular / worldly attitude contributed one more strand to the fabric of a singular individualist, who would become commercially and financially as successful in his lifetime as Wagner was chronically impoverished. The various public annals ascribe to Verdi many genial and gracious qualities that his contemporary German counterpart certainly lacked.
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| La Fenice |
Verdi
brings his busy “galley years” to a close with Rigoletto, which
premièred in Venice in 1851 (he was 38 at the time). In 1973,
during my first visit to Europe, I was fortunate to see a bel canto
opera performed in the same space (La Fenice - the Phoenix) where
this Verdi opera was first heard. The original opera house was
small, tall and intimate, a large room built for singing, as all
great opera houses should be. It was destroyed by fire a few years
after I was there. This wasn't the first time. La Fenice has been
destroyed by fire three times in its history and was always rebuilt
to something close to the original design. Two years later Verdi
premièred Il Trovatore in Rome and La Traviata again in Venice where
it flopped and was booed. Verdi was pushing the envelope describing
middle class characters and highlighting the career of a prostitute
trying to go legitimate. La Traviata is probably today one of the
half dozen most popular operas of all time.
Between
1855 and 1867 (aged 42 to 54) Verdi writes five more operas including
probably my favourite, La Forza del Destino (The force of destiny)
which has an intriguing plot involving an accidental murder, confused
or misrepresented identity, friendship, escaping the passions of the
world through monasticism, discovery of true identity and the
inevitable futility of revenge which accidentally destroys the
character who was the original object of the first accidental murder.
After Rigoletto, Verdi's operas each become more complicated and
ingenious.
Verdi's famous Requiem was originally a project to honour fellow Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. Verdi was originally only to have to write one of the sections, the others were to be contributed by other composers. But the whole thing fell through which led to a few permanent professional and personal breaks between Verdi and some other musicians. Five years later (Verdi was 60) the Requiem was completed and presented for the first time in Milan a year later to honour Italy's most famous novelist and poet, Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873). I was told on my first visit to Italy back in 1973 that to really understand what was most central to Italian culture, it was necessary to read Manzoni's great novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). I still haven't read it.
Verdi's famous Requiem was originally a project to honour fellow Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. Verdi was originally only to have to write one of the sections, the others were to be contributed by other composers. But the whole thing fell through which led to a few permanent professional and personal breaks between Verdi and some other musicians. Five years later (Verdi was 60) the Requiem was completed and presented for the first time in Milan a year later to honour Italy's most famous novelist and poet, Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873). I was told on my first visit to Italy back in 1973 that to really understand what was most central to Italian culture, it was necessary to read Manzoni's great novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). I still haven't read it.
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| Teresa Stolz (1834-1902) is associated with Verdi's last years, the Requiem and Aida |
At the same time as Verdi was writing the Requiem he was approached to
write a grand opera to celebrate the opening of the new Suaz Canal to
be performed in a new opera house being constructed in Cairo, Egypt.
The organizers wanted him to accept a commission but Verdi was
reluctant to accept until others of his contemporary competitors were
mentioned as possible contenders, especially Richard Wagner. Aida,
the story of an ancient Egyptian princess who is buried alive for
love (somehow that seems a stylized Egyptian theme), was given a
world première in Cairo in 1871 (Verdi was 58).
But
Verdi was not finished. He spent many years revising some of his
operas, but in 1887 (74 years old) Verdi premièred in Milan what is
regarded by some as his greatest tragic opera, based on Shakespeare's
Othello. Otello is in addition not formally set up in traditional
operatic sections and numbers, as are most operas, as if Verdi was
admitting something of the freedom Wagner had discovered earlier.
Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, is a brilliantly written and
exquisitely sensitive comedy displaying Verdi's continuing
development as a composer. The first performance of Falstaff took
place at La Scala in Milan to great success. This
was in 1893, the composer's eightieth year!
In
1897 Verdi collects together and finishes his Quattro Pezzi Sacri
(Four Sacred Pieces). The themes are all standard traditional Roman
Catholic forms, at times luminously dressed in Verdi's ever
progressing orchestral style. The four pieces are usually performed
in the following order:
1. Ave Maria (unaccompanied chorus, in Latin, composed 1889)
1. Ave Maria (unaccompanied chorus, in Latin, composed 1889)
(Orchestra
e coro del teatro alla Scala, Daniel Barenboim, Teatro alla Scala. 22
dicembre 2009)
2.
Stabat Mater (orchestra and chorus, in Latin, composed 1896-1897)
(Orchestra
and chorus of National University of Mexico, directed by Enrique
Ricci, Mexico City, April 2003)
[PART 1]
[PART 2]
3.Laudi alla Vergine Maria (unaccompanied female voices, in Italian,
composed
1886-1888)
(Angelica Leánykar and the Angelica Girls' Choir
(Angelica Leánykar and the Angelica Girls' Choir
Vezényel
/ Conductor: GRÁF Zsuzsanna
MOM
Művelődési Központ Kupolaterme (Budapest, Hungary)
6
March 2009)
4.
Te Deum (orchestra and double chorus, in Latin, composed
1895-1896)
(Orchestra and chorus of National University of Mexico, directed by Enrique Ricci, Mexico City, April 2003)
[PART 1]
(Orchestra and chorus of National University of Mexico, directed by Enrique Ricci, Mexico City, April 2003)
[PART 1]
[PART 2]
It
seems a worthwhile question to ask why Verdi decided to bring these
works together when he was known for so long to be a confirmed
sceptic. Was he perhaps having second thoughts? After all, he had
seen just how quickly and savagely death came and went through his
own life. At a very ripe old age for the times, was Verdi perhaps
coming face to face with his own imminent departure? This music with
its very clear searching magnificence remains to my ears some of the
most astounding music of his entire output!
In 1900 the King of Italy was assassinated which deeply affected him. Then in January 1901, the first year of the dawning 20th century, the composer suffered a stroke and died within a week. He was 87 years old.
In 1900 the King of Italy was assassinated which deeply affected him. Then in January 1901, the first year of the dawning 20th century, the composer suffered a stroke and died within a week. He was 87 years old.
I
vividly recall my first introduction to Verdi when I was young. Of
course I was taken to the opera, but before that I had visited some
business associates of one of my mentors; a family that was certainly
committed to a music I knew existed but of which I hadn't really any
first hand knowledge. It was of course opera, operatic singing and
the music was all by Verdi. It was warm, robust, succulent music.
If Rossini was a spaghetti composer, Verdi was a composer for dishes
of greater substance, thicker sauces, meatier, with a unique and
unforgettable poignancy, as if while others might seem more
superficially gifted than Verdi, few of them really knew what it felt
like to be truly alive. If you get nothing else from acquaintance
with any of Verdi's great operas, you will encounter real feelings,
real love, real sorrow, real pain, all on a very human and eloquent
scale, so much so that in art some things just aren't done any
better. Those who consider Verdi, not just among the greatest
composers of all time, but THE greatest composer of all time,
certainly have good reasons for their undying loyalty and affection
for the greatest opera composer of all time.
Verdi's operas each take a few hours to perform. Those interested in Verdi should best check out their local opera companies for scheduled performances of his greatest works, there will be many as his appeal is undying to this day. But here are a few of my favourites:
Verdi's operas each take a few hours to perform. Those interested in Verdi should best check out their local opera companies for scheduled performances of his greatest works, there will be many as his appeal is undying to this day. But here are a few of my favourites:
The
overture to La Forza del Destino
(1862)
New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert conductor, 2011)
New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert conductor, 2011)
… and
after that, one would normally sit back (or forward) as the curtain
rises above the orchestra pit, the stage set brightens and this great
tragic opera begins.
And
then, who could possibly forget the Drinking Song that opens La
Traviata (1853)? Here
is my favourite tenor, Placido Domingo and Teresa Stratas to perform
it in a very pretty opera cinema production directed by Franco
Zeffirelli.
When you attend to your next Verdi opera (if you haven't been yet, you really are missing something, particularly if the opera company recognizes they are playing with real emotional dynamite rather than tired saltpetre) be prepared for quite a few surprises. Study the progress of his characters through the dramas he has quintessentially distilled for your delectation. If the production is any good at all, you'll have something to remember fondly for many years to come.
<<< La Traviata, Complete >>>
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Bernard Haitink, conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Bernard Haitink, conductor
When you attend to your next Verdi opera (if you haven't been yet, you really are missing something, particularly if the opera company recognizes they are playing with real emotional dynamite rather than tired saltpetre) be prepared for quite a few surprises. Study the progress of his characters through the dramas he has quintessentially distilled for your delectation. If the production is any good at all, you'll have something to remember fondly for many years to come.
Just
as a natural diet requires variety, a musical diet cannot be
maintained on intellectually rigorous material (many of the works of
J.S. Bach for instance) and requires a little Joe Green (Giuseppe
Verdi) to give a musician balance and greater emotive depth.
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| Verdi's Masonic photo |
FINIS
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