GIUSEPPE VERDI
MAKERS OF MODERN OPERA
Giuseppe Verdi
ONE
The last and greatest of the old school of Italian opera composers, and one of the most popular of all opera composers in the world, was Giuseppe Verdi (joo-sep´-pe ver´-dee). He was born of humble parentage in the little Italian village of Roncole on October 10, 1813. His parents kept a tavern, which they combined with a general village store. It was situated in a neighborhood of ignorant laborers. Little chance was there in that spot for a budding genius in music. Verdi’s art instinct had to feed on slim nourishment, like a stray seed blown among rocks; but, like the stray seed, his genius took root even in that arid soil. His love of music was shown by his following an itinerant fiddler round the village. His father, detecting his taste, got him a mediocre piano, on which young Verdi practised vigorously.
When ten years old he played the organ in the village church, and at last a patron provided him with the means to go to Milan. When he applied for admission to the conservatory he was rejected, on the score that he had no aptitude for music. He stayed in Milan, however, as a pupil of Vincenzo La Vigna (vin-chen´-zo la veen´-yah), with whom he remained until 1833. He married in 1832, and in 1838 returned to Milan, where he wrote his first opera, “Oberto.” This did not prove a success; but it was the beginning of a famous career.
Verdi’s first success was achieved in 1843, when he brought out “I Lombardi.” It was followed the next year by “Ernani,” and with that work his reputation was firmly established. A number of operas followed, some successful, others failures. But in 1851 began the period during which “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” and “La Traviata” appeared, and then all Europe rang with his praises.
Verdi was not only the most popular operatic composer of the nineteenth century, but the wonder of the musical world. His art life might be divided into three parts. His first operas were of the old-fashioned “honey-sweet” Italian type, in which the airs were tunefully sentimental, and the orchestra played a “guitar” accompaniment.
The middle period showed quite a definite advance in dramatic vigor, in fullness of musical expression, and in richness of orchestral technic. Of this period “Aïda” is a notable example. Then, in his ripe old age, Verdi revealed an amazing growth in musical power. He had advanced through the years as the art of operatic composition had advanced. His opera “Otello” showed that he had studied and mastered the newer works of his day, and that he held a leading place even with younger composers. “Falstaff,” his last opera, was a revelation of extraordinary fertility and virility in an artist of advanced age. It established Verdi’s reputation for all time as a composer of music drama as his earliest works had shown his skill in tuneful opera. The music score of “Falstaff” is as free and untrammeled as the work of any modern composer, even Richard Wagner himself.
Verdi lived until he was eighty-eight years old, enjoyed a happy home, quiet pleasures, and the admiration not only of his own country but of all the world. He died at Milan in 1901, having left twenty-nine operas, most of which were notably successful.