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Opera works of Giuseppe Verdi: a general overview. Giuseppe Verdi: biography, interesting facts, creativity What work did Verdi write

Opera works of Giuseppe Verdi: a general overview. Giuseppe Verdi: biography, interesting facts, creativity What work did Verdi write

30.06.2019

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born on October 10, 1813 in Roncola, a village in the province of Parma, at that time part of the Napoleonic Empire. His father ran a wine cellar and a grocery store. In 1823, Giuseppe, who received his initial knowledge from a village priest, was sent to a school in the neighboring town of Busseto. He already showed musical ability and at the age of 11 he began to perform the duties of organist in Roncol. The rich merchant A. Barezzi from Busseto, who supplied Verdi's father's shop and had a keen interest in music, drew attention to the boy. Verdi owed his musical education to this man. Barezzi took the boy into his home, hired the best teacher for him and paid for his further education in Milan.

In 1832, Verdi was not admitted to the Milan Conservatory because he was over the legal age. He began to study privately with V. Lavigne, who taught him the basics of composing technique. Verdi comprehended the orchestration and opera writing in practice, visiting the Milan opera houses. The Philharmonic Society commissioned him the opera Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio (Oberto, conte di san Bonifacio), which, however, was not then staged.

Verdi returned to Busseto, hoping to take the post of church organist, but as a result of internal church intrigues, he was refused. The local musical society awarded him a three-year scholarship (300 lire); at this time he composed a number of marches and an overture (sinfonie) for the city brass band, and also wrote church music. In 1836 Verdi married the daughter of his benefactor Margherita Barezzi. He again went to Milan, where on November 17, 1839, Oberto was performed at La Scala with enough success to secure a new commission, this time for a comic opera. The comic opera The King for a Day (Un giorno di regno) failed, mercilessly booed by the public. Verdi, shocked by the failure of the opera, vowed that he would no longer compose operas and asked the director of La Scala to break the contract concluded with him. (Only many years later, Verdi forgave the Milanese.) But director Merelli believed in the composer's talent and, giving him time to recover, handed the libretto to Nabucco based on the biblical story of King Nebuchadnezzar. While reading, Verdi's attention was drawn to a choir of Jews in Babylonian captivity, and his imagination started to work. The successful premiere of Nabucco (1842) restored the composer's reputation.

Nabucco was followed by the Lombards (I Lombardi, 1843), an opera that also gave vent to oppressed patriotic feelings, and then Ernani (Ernani, 1844) based on the romantic drama by V. Hugo, a work that made Verdi's fame go beyond Italy. In subsequent years, the composer, in his own words, worked like a convict. The opera followed the opera - Two Foscari (I due Foscari, 1844), Joan of Arc (Giovanna d "Arco, 1845), Alzira (Alzira, 1845), Attila (Attila, 1846), Robbers (I masnadieri, 1847), Corsair (Il corsaro, 1848), Battle of Legnano (La battaglia di Legnano, 1849), Stiffelio (Stiffelio, 1850). In these compositions superficial and sometimes light craft music is added to weak librettos. Among the operas of this period, Macbeth (Macbeth, 1847) stands out - the first fruit of the composer's enthusiastic reverence for Shakespeare, as well as Louisa Miller (Luisa Miller, 1849) - an outstanding work of a more chamber style.

From 1847 to 1849, Verdi was mainly in Paris, where he made a new, French edition of the Lombards, called Jerusalem (Jeruslem). Here the composer met Giuseppina Strepponi, a singer who took part in the Milan productions of Nabucco and the Lombards and had already become friends with Verdi. In the end, ten years later, they still got married.

The period 1851-1853 accounts for three mature Verdi masterpieces - Rigoletto (Rigoletto, 1851), Trovatore (Il trovatore, 1853) and La traviata (La traviata, 1853). Each of them reflects a special side of the composer's talent. Rigoletto based on the play by V. Hugo The King amuses himself by demonstrating, in addition to the ability to create lively, exciting melodies, a new operatic form for the composer - more connected, with less contrasts between the recitative, which takes on the character of a melodious arioso, and the aria, which does not obey the established patterns in everything. The development of the action is facilitated by free-form duets and other ensembles, including the famous quartet in the last act - an outstanding example of Verdi's ability to reflect in an ensemble form the conflict of characters and feelings of his characters.

The Troubadour, based on a Spanish romantic melodrama, contains excellent examples of strong, heroic music, while La Traviata, based on the “family drama” of Dumas, the son of the Camellia, captivates with the pathos of feelings.

The success of these three operas opened up new possibilities for Verdi. In 1855 he was commissioned to compose for the Paris Opera in the typical Meyerbeer style, the Sicilian Vespers (Les vpres siciliennes). For the same theatre, he made a new edition of Macbeth (1865) and also composed Don Carlos (1867); for the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater created the Force of Destiny (La forza del destino, 1862). In parallel with the implementation of these ambitious projects, Verdi worked on more modest operas in the Italian taste - Simon Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra, 1857) and Masquerade Ball (Un ballo in maschera, 1859). All these works are romantic melodramas based on more or less reliable historical events. While none of the operas listed is dramatically perfect (which is hampered by Verdi's tendency to jump without good reason from one spectacular plot situation to another), they all demonstrate a growing mastery of musical characterization and orchestral dramaturgy (this is especially noticeable in Simone Boccanegra and Don Carlos).

Verdi clearly needed a literary collaborator, and he found him in the person of A. Ghislanzoni, in collaboration with whom the libretto of Aida (Aida, 1871) was born - a masterpiece in the style of the French “grand opera”, ordered by the Egyptian government to the composer for performance at the opening of the Suez Canal. Even more fruitful was the collaboration of Verdi in his later years with Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), author of the opera Mephistopheles and an outstanding poet. Boito first reworked the unsatisfactory libretto of Simon Boccanegra (1881). He then turned Shakespeare's tragedy Othello into a libretto; this Verdi masterpiece was staged at La Scala in 1887, when the composer was already 74 years old. Othello was followed in 1893 by Falstaff: at 80, Verdi wrote a musical comedy that rewarded him for the failure of his first musical comedy, The King for an Hour. Othello and Falstaff crowned Verdi's desire to create a real musical drama.

In addition to operas, Verdi's heritage includes Requiem in memory of A. Manzoni (1874), Stabat Mater (1898) and Te Deum (1898), as well as choral compositions, romances and a string quartet in E minor (1873).

Biography

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi is an Italian composer whose work is one of the greatest achievements of world opera and the culmination of the development of Italian opera in the 19th century.

The composer created 26 operas and one requiem. The composer's best operas: Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata. The pinnacle of creativity is the latest operas: Aida, Othello, Falstaff.

Early period

Verdi was born in the family of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigi Uttini in Le Roncol, a village near Busseto in the department of Taro, which at that moment was part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the principalities of Parma and Piacenza. It so happened that Verdi was officially born in France.

Verdi was born in 1813 (the same year as Richard Wagner, in the future his main rival and leading composer of the German opera school) in Le Roncol, not far from Busseto (Duchy of Parma). The composer's father, Carlo Verdi, kept a village inn, and his mother, Luigia Uttini, was a spinner. The family lived in poverty, and Giuseppe's childhood was difficult. In the village church, he helped celebrate Mass. He studied musical literacy and playing the organ with Pietro Baistrocchi. Noticing the son's craving for music, the parents gave Giuseppe a spinet. The composer retained this very imperfect instrument until the end of his life.

The musically gifted boy was noticed by Antonio Barezzi, a wealthy merchant and music lover from the neighboring city of Busseto. He believed that Verdi would become not an innkeeper and not a village organist, but a great composer. On the advice of Barezzi, ten-year-old Verdi moved to study in Busseto. Thus began a new, even more difficult period of life - the years of adolescence and youth. On Sundays, Giuseppe went to Le Roncole, where he played the organ during Mass. Verdi also had a teacher of composition - Fernando Provezi, director of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto. Provezi was not only engaged in counterpoint, he awakened in Verdi a craving for serious reading. Giuseppe's attention is attracted by the classics of world literature - Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, Schiller. One of his favorite works is the novel The Betrothed by the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni.

In Milan, where Verdi went at the age of eighteen to continue his education, he was not accepted to the Conservatory (today named after Verdi) “due to the low level of piano playing; in addition, there were age restrictions at the conservatory.” Verdi began to take private lessons in counterpoint, attending opera performances at the same time, as well as just concerts. Communication with the Milanese beau monde convinced him to seriously think about a career as a theater composer.

Returning to Busseto, with the support of Antonio Barezzi (Antonio Barezzi - a local merchant and music lover who supported Verdi's musical ambitions), Verdi gave his first public performance at the Barezzi house in 1830.

Fascinated by Verdi's musical gift, Barezzi invites him to become a music teacher for his daughter Margherita. Soon, the young people fell in love with each other passionately and on May 4, 1836, Verdi married Margherita Barezzi. Margherita soon gave birth to two children: Virginia Maria Luisa (March 26, 1837 - August 12, 1838) and Icilio Romano (July 11, 1838 - October 22, 1839). While Verdi was working on his first opera, both children die in infancy. Some time later (June 18, 1840), at the age of 26, the composer's wife Margarita dies of encephalitis.

Initial recognition

The first production of Verdi's opera (Oberto, Count Bonifacio) (Oberto) at Milan's La Scala was critically acclaimed, after which the theater impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, offered Verdi a contract to write two operas. They were "King for an hour" (Un giorno di regno) and "Nabucco" ("Nebuchadnezzar"). Verdi's wife and two children died while he was working on the first of these two operas. After its failure, the composer wanted to stop writing opera music. However, the premiere of Nabucco on 9 March 1842 at La Scala was a great success and established Verdi's reputation as an operatic composer. Over the next year, the opera was staged 65 times in Europe and since then has occupied a strong place in the repertoire of the world's leading opera houses. Nabucco was followed by several operas at once, including I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Ernani, which were staged and had success in Italy.

In 1847, the opera Le Lombards, rewritten and renamed Jerusalem (Jérusalem), was staged by the Paris Opera on November 26, 1847, becoming Verdi's first work in the grand opera style. To do this, the composer had to rework this opera somewhat and replace the Italian characters with French ones.

Master

At the age of thirty-eight, Verdi had an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a singer (soprano) who was ending her career by that time (they did not marry until eleven years later, and their cohabitation before the wedding was considered scandalous in many of the places where they had to live) . Giuseppina soon stopped performing, and Verdi, following the example of Gioacchino Rossini, decided to end his career with his wife. He was wealthy, famous and in love. Perhaps it was Giuseppina who convinced him to continue writing operas. The very first opera written by Verdi after his "retirement" became his first masterpiece - "Rigoletto". The libretto of the opera, based on Victor Hugo's play The King Amuses himself, underwent significant changes for the sake of censorship, and the composer intended to quit the work several times until the opera was finally completed. The first production took place in Venice in 1851 and was a huge success.

Rigoletto is arguably one of the finest operas in musical theater history. The artistic generosity of Verdi is presented in full force in it. Beautiful melodies are scattered throughout the score, arias and ensembles, which have become an integral part of the classical operatic repertoire, follow each other, and the comic and tragic merge together.

La traviata, Verdi's next great opera, was composed and staged two years after Rigoletto. The libretto is written based on the play by Alexandre Dumas son "The Lady of the Camellias".

This was followed by several more operas, among them - constantly performed today "The Sicilian Supper" (Les vêpres siciliennes; written by order of the Paris Opera), "Trovatore" (Il Trovatore), "Un ballo in maschera" (Un ballo in maschera), "Power fate "(La forza del destino; 1862, written by order of the Imperial Bolshoi Stone Theater of St. Petersburg), the second edition of the opera" Macbeth "(Macbeth).

In 1869, Verdi composed "Libera Me" for the Requiem in memory of Gioacchino Rossini (the rest of the parts were written by now little-known Italian composers). In 1874, Verdi wrote his Requiem on the death of the writer he revered, Alessandro Manzoni, including a revised version of the previously written Libera Me.

One of Verdi's last great operas, Aida, was commissioned by the Egyptian government to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. At first, Verdi refused. While in Paris, he received a second proposal through du Locle. This time, Verdi got acquainted with the script of the opera, which he liked, and agreed to write the opera.

Verdi and Wagner, each - the leader of their national opera school - have always disliked each other. They never met in their entire lives. Verdi's surviving comments on Wagner and his music are few and unfriendly ("He always chooses, quite in vain, the untrodden path, trying to fly where a normal person would simply go on foot, achieving much better results"). Nevertheless, upon learning that Wagner had died, Verdi said: “How sad! This name left a huge mark in the history of art. Only one statement by Wagner related to Verdi's music is known. After listening to the Requiem, the great German, always eloquent, always generous with (unflattering) comments towards many other composers, said: "It is better not to say anything."

Aida was staged in Cairo in 1871 with great success.

Final years and death

For the next twelve years, Verdi worked very little, slowly editing some of his early work.

The opera Otello, based on a play by William Shakespeare, was staged in Milan in 1887. The music of this opera is "continuous", it does not contain the division into arias and recitatives traditional for Italian opera - this innovation was introduced under the influence of Richard Wagner's opera reform (after the latter's death). In addition, under the influence of the same Wagnerian reform, the late Verdi style acquired a greater degree of recitativeness, which gave the opera a more realistic effect, although it scared away some fans of traditional Italian opera.

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, whose libretto Arrigo Boito, librettist and composer, wrote based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, translated into French by Victor Hugo, developed the style of "through development ". The brilliantly written score of this comedy is thus much closer to Wagner's Die Meistersingers than to the comic operas of Rossini and Mozart. The elusiveness and sparkle of melodies allows not to delay the development of the plot and creates a unique effect of confusion, so close to the spirit of this Shakespearean comedy. The opera ends with a seven-voice fugue, in which Verdi fully demonstrates his brilliant mastery of counterpoint.

On January 21, 1901, while staying at the Grand Et De Milan Hotel (Milan, Italy), Verdi suffered a stroke. Being stricken with paralysis, he could read with his inner ear the scores of the operas La bohème and Tosca by Puccini, Pagliacci by Leoncavallo, The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, but what he thought about these operas, written by his immediate and worthy heirs, remained unknown. . Verdi grew weaker every day and six days later, early in the morning of January 27, 1901, he died.

Initially, Verdi was buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. A month later, his body was transferred to Casa Di Riposo in Musicisti, a holiday home for retired musicians that Verdi had created.

He was an agnostic. His second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, described him as "a man of little faith".

Style

Verdi's predecessors who influenced his work are Rossini, Bellini, Meyerbeer and, most importantly, Donizetti. In the last two operas, Othello and Falstaff, the influence of Richard Wagner is noticeable. While respecting Gounod, whom his contemporaries considered the greatest composer of the era, Verdi nevertheless did not borrow anything from the great Frenchman. Some passages in Aida point to the composer's familiarity with the works of Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt popularized in Western Europe after returning from a tour of Russia.

Throughout his career, Verdi refused to use high C in tenor parts, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing this particular note in front of a full house distracts performers before, after, and during the performance of the note.

Despite the fact that at times Verdi's orchestration is masterful, the composer relied mainly on his melodic gift to express the emotions of the characters and the drama of the action. Indeed, very often in Verdi's operas, especially during solo vocal numbers, the harmony is deliberately ascetic, and the whole orchestra sounds like one accompanying instrument (Verdi is credited with the words: "The orchestra is a big guitar!" Some critics argue that Verdi paid technical the aspect of the score is not given enough attention, as it lacked schooling and refinement.Verdi himself once said, "Of all composers, I am the least knowledgeable. "But hastened to add, "I mean this seriously, but by "knowledge" I do not mean knowledge of music at all ".

However, it would be wrong to say that Verdi underestimated the expressive power of the orchestra and did not know how to use it to the end when he needed it. Moreover, the orchestral and contrapuntal innovations (for example, the strings that soar along the chromatic scale in Monterone's scene in Rigoletto to emphasize the drama of the situation, or, also in Rigoletto, the choir lowing nearby notes offstage, depicting, very effectively, approaching storm) - characteristic of Verdi's work - so characteristic that other composers did not dare to borrow some of his bold techniques because of their instant recognition.

Verdi was the first composer who specifically searched for such a plot for the libretto that would best suit the characteristics of his compositional talent. Working closely with librettists and knowing that it was precisely dramatic expression that was the main strength of his talent, he sought to eliminate “unnecessary” details and “superfluous” characters from the plot, leaving only characters in which passions were seething and scenes rich in drama.

Operas by Giuseppe Verdi

Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio (Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio) - 1839
King for an hour (Un Giorno di Regno) - 1840
Nabucco, or Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) - 1842
Lombards in the first crusade (I Lombardi") - 1843
Ernani - 1844. Based on the play of the same name by Victor Hugo
Two Foscari (I due Foscari) - 1844. Based on the play by Lord Byron
Joan of Arc (Giovanna d'Arco) - 1845. Based on the play "The Maid of Orleans" by Schiller
Alzira (Alzira) - 1845. Based on the play of the same name by Voltaire
Attila (Attila) - 1846. Based on the play "Attila, Leader of the Huns" by Zacharius Werner
Macbeth - 1847. Based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare
Robbers (I masnadieri) - 1847. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
Jerusalem (Jérusalem) - 1847 (Lombard Version)
Corsair (Il corsaro) - 1848. Based on the poem of the same name by Lord Byron
The Battle of Legnano (La battaglia di Legnano) - 1849. Based on the play "The Battle of Toulouse" by Joseph Meri
Louisa Miller - 1849. Based on the play "Deceit and Love" by Schiller
Stiffelio - 1850. Based on the play "The Holy Father, or the Gospel and the Heart", by Emile Souvestre and Eugene Bourgeois.
Rigoletto - 1851. Based on the play "The King Amuses" by Victor Hugo
Troubadour (Il Trovatore) - 1853. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez
La Traviata - 1853. Based on the play "The Lady of the Camellias" by A. Dumas son
Sicilian Vespers (Les vêpres siciliennes) - 1855. Based on the play "The Duke of Alba" by Eugene Scribe and Charles Deverier
Giovanna de Guzman (Version of the Sicilian Vespers).
Simon Boccanegra - 1857. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez.
Aroldo (Aroldo) - 1857 (Version "Stiffelio")
Masquerade ball (Un ballo in maschera) - 1859.

The Force of Destiny (La forza del destino) - 1862. Based on the play "Don Alvaro, or the Force of Destiny" by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas. The premiere took place at the Bolshoi (Stone) Theater in St. Petersburg

Don Carlos - 1867. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
Aida - 1871. Premiered at the Khedive Opera House in Cairo, Egypt
Othello (Otello) - 1887. Based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare
Falstaff - 1893. Based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor

Other writings

Requiem (Messa da Requiem) - 1874
Four Sacred Pieces (Quattro Pezzi Sacri) - 1892

Literature

Bushen A., The Birth of Opera. (Young Verdi). Roman, M., 1958.
Gal G. Brahms. Wagner. Verdi. Three masters - three worlds. M., 1986.
Ordzhonikidze G. Verdi's operas based on the plots of Shakespeare, M., 1967.
Solovtsova L. A. J. Verdi. M., Giuseppe Verdi. Life and creative way, M. 1986.
Tarozzi Giuseppe Verdi. M., 1984.
Ese Laszlo. If Verdi kept a diary... - Budapest, 1966. A crater on Mercury is named after Giuseppe Verdi.

The feature film "The Twentieth Century" (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci) begins on the day of the death of Giuseppe Verdi, when the two main characters are born.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi(Italian Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, October 10, 1813, in the Italian village of Le Roncole, located in the northern part of Lombardy, on the lower tributary of the Po River, near the city of Busseto, French Empire - January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy) - Italian composer , whose work is one of the greatest achievements of world opera art and the culmination of the development of Italian opera in the 19th century.

Early period

Verdi was born in the family of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigi Uttini in Le Roncol, a village near Busseto in the department of Taro, which at that moment was part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the principalities of Parma and Piacenza. Thus, the future great Italian composer was officially born in France.

Verdi was born in 1813 (the same year as Richard Wagner, in the future his main rival and leading composer of the German opera school) in Le Roncol, near Busseto (Duchy of Parma). The composer's father, Carlo Verdi, kept a village inn, and his mother, Luigia Uttini, was a spinner. The family lived in poverty, and Giuseppe's childhood was difficult. In the village church, he helped celebrate Mass. He studied musical literacy and playing the organ with Pietro Baistrocchi. Noticing the son's craving for music, the parents gave Giuseppe a spinet. The composer retained this very imperfect instrument until the end of his life.

Initial recognition

First production of Verdi's opera (Oberto, Count Bonifacio) ( Oberto) at La Scala in Milan was critically acclaimed, after which the impresario of the theater, Bartolomeo Merelli, offered Verdi a contract to write two operas. They became "King for an hour" ( Un giorno di regno) and "Nabucco" ("Nebuchadnezzar"). Verdi's wife and two children died while he was working on the first of these two operas. After its failure, the composer wanted to stop writing opera music. However, the premiere of Nabucco on 9 March 1842 at La Scala was a great success and established Verdi's reputation as an operatic composer. Over the next year, the opera was staged 65 times in Europe and since then has occupied a strong place in the repertoire of the world's leading opera houses. Nabucco was followed by several operas at once, including Lombards on a Crusade ( I Lombardi alla prima crociata) and "Ernani" ( Ernani), which were staged and had success in Italy.

In 1847, the opera The Lombards, rewritten and renamed Jerusalem ( Jerusalem), was staged by the Paris Opera on November 26, 1847, becoming Verdi's first work in the style grand opera. To do this, the composer had to rework this opera somewhat and replace the Italian characters with French ones.

Master

La traviata, Verdi's next great opera, was composed and staged two years after Rigoletto. The libretto is written based on the play by Alexandre Dumas son "The Lady of the Camellias".

This was followed by several more operas, among them - the Sicilian Supper, which is constantly performed today ( Les vêpres siciliennes; commissioned by the Paris Opera), Il trovatore ( Il Trovatore), "Masquerade Ball" ( Un ballo in maschera), "Force of Destiny" ( La forza del destino; 1862, commissioned by the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theater of St. Petersburg), the second edition of the opera "Macbeth" ( Macbeth).

Aida was staged in Cairo in 1871 with great success.

Final years and death

For the next twelve years, Verdi worked very little, slowly editing some of his early work.

Opera "Othello" ( Otello), based on a play by William Shakespeare, was staged in Milan in 1887. The music of this opera is "continuous", it does not contain the division into arias and recitatives traditional for Italian opera - this innovation was introduced under the influence of Richard Wagner's opera reform (after the latter's death). In addition, under the influence of the same Wagnerian reform, the late Verdi style acquired a greater degree of recitativeness, which gave the opera a more realistic effect, although it scared away some fans of traditional Italian opera.

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff Falstaff), the libretto of which Arrigo Boito, librettist and composer, wrote based on Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor ( Merry Wives of Windsor) in its translation into French, made by Victor Hugo, developed the manner of "through development". The brilliantly written score of this comedy is thus much closer to Wagner's Die Meistersingers than to the comic operas of Rossini and Mozart. The elusiveness and sparkle of melodies allows not to delay the development of the plot and creates a unique effect of confusion, so close to the spirit of this Shakespearean comedy. The opera ends with a seven-voice fugue, in which Verdi fully demonstrates his brilliant mastery of counterpoint.

Initially, Verdi was buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. A month later, his body was transferred to the Casa Di Riposo in Musicisti, also in Milan, a holiday home for retired musicians that Verdi had created.

He was an agnostic. His second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, described him as "a man of little faith".

Style

Operas by Giuseppe Verdi

Vanity Fair, 1879

Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio (Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio) - 1839
King for an hour (Un Giorno di Regno) - 1840
Nabucco, or Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) - 1842
Lombards in the First Crusade (I Lombardi") - 1843
Ernani- 1844. Based on the play of the same name by Victor Hugo
Two Foscari (I due Foscari)- 1844. Based on the play by Lord Byron
Joan of Arc (Giovanna d'Arco)- 1845. Based on the play "The Maid of Orleans" by Schiller
Alzira (Alzira)- 1845. Based on the play of the same name by Voltaire
Attila- 1846. Based on the play "Attila, Leader of the Huns" by Zacharius Werner
Macbeth- 1847. Based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare
Robbers (I masnadieri)- 1847. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
Jerusalem (Jerusalem)- 1847 (Version Lombards)
Corsair (Il corsaro)- 1848. Based on the poem of the same name by Lord Byron
Battle of Legnano- 1849. Based on the play "The Battle of Toulouse" by Joseph Meri
Louise Miller- 1849. Based on the play "Cunning and Love" by Schiller
Stiffelio (Stiffelio)- 1850. Based on the play "The Holy Father, or the Gospel and the Heart", by Emile Souvestre and Eugene Bourgeois.
Rigoletto- 1851. Based on the play "The King Amuses" by Victor Hugo
Troubadour (Il Trovatore)- 1853. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez
La Traviata- 1853. Based on the play "The Lady of the Camellias" by A. Dumas son
Sicilian Vespers (Les vêpres siciliennes)- 1855. Based on the play "The Duke of Alba" by Eugene Scribe and Charles Deverier
Giovanna de Guzman(Version of the Sicilian Vespers).
Simon Boccanegra- 1857. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez.
Aroldo (Aroldo)- 1857 (Version "Stiffelio")
Masquerade ball (Un ballo in maschera)- 1859. Based on the real murder of Gustav III, which formed the basis of the play by Eugene Scribe
The Force of Destiny- 1862. Based on the play "Don Alvaro, or the Force of Destiny" by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas. The premiere took place at the Bolshoi (Stone) Theater in St. Petersburg
Macbeth ( Macbeth) - 1865. The second edition of the opera commissioned by the Parisian Grand Opera
Don Carlos- 1867. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
Aida- 1871. Premiered at the Khedive Opera House in Cairo, Egypt
Othello- 1887. Based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare
Falstaff- 1893. Based on The Merry Wives of Windsor and two parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV

Other writings

E-moll string quartet - 1873
Requiem - 1874
Four Sacred Pieces (Quattro Pezzi Sacri) - 1892

Literature

Bushen A., The Birth of Opera. (Young Verdi). Roman, M., 1958.
Gal G. Brahms. Wagner. Verdi. Three masters - three worlds. M., 1986.
Ordzhonikidze G. Verdi's operas based on the plots of Shakespeare, M., 1967.
Solovtsova L. A. J. Verdi. M., Giuseppe Verdi. Life and creative way, M. 1986.
Tarozzi Giuseppe Verdi. M., 1984.
Ese Laszlo. If Verdi kept a diary... - Budapest, 1966.

Films and series about the life and work of the composer

"Giuseppe Verdi" (in Russian known as "The Story of a Life"; 1938, Italy). Directed by Carmine Gallone. Starring Fosco Giachetti.
"Giuseppe Verdi" (1953, Italy). Directed by Raffaello Matarazzo. Starring Pierre Cressois.
"The Life of Giuseppe Verdi (Verdi)" (1982, Italy - France - Germany - Great Britain - Sweden). Directed by Renato Castellani. Starring Ronald Pickup.

Memory

In philately

USSR postage stamp dedicated to Verdi, 1963, 4 kopecks (TsFA 2879, Scott 2745A)

A crater on Mercury is named after Giuseppe Verdi.
The feature film "The Twentieth Century" (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci) begins on the day of the death of Giuseppe Verdi, when the two main characters are born.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10, 1813 - January 27, 1901) was an Italian composer who became famous throughout the world for his operas and requiems of incredible beauty. He is considered the man who helped Italian opera to take shape and become what is called the "classic of all time".

Childhood

Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 10 in Le Roncol, an area near the city of Busseto, Parma province. It just so happened that the child was very lucky - he became one of the few people of that time who had the honor of being born during the emergence of the First French Republic. At the same time, Verdi's date of birth is also associated with another event - the birth on the same day of Richard Wagner, who later was the composer's sworn enemy and constantly tried to compete with him in the musical field.

Giuseppe's father was a landowner and kept a large village tavern at that time. Mother was an ordinary spinner, who sometimes worked as a laundress and a nanny. Despite the fact that Giuseppe was the only child in the family, they lived very poorly, like most of the inhabitants of Le Roncole. Of course, my father had some connections and was familiar with the managers of other, more famous taverns, but they were only enough to buy the bare necessities for the maintenance of the family. Only occasionally, Giuseppe and his parents went to Busseto for fairs, which began in early spring and lasted almost until mid-summer.

Verdi spent most of his childhood in the church, where he learned to read and write. In parallel, he helped the local ministers, who in return fed him and even taught him how to play the organ. It was here that Giuseppe first saw a beautiful, huge and majestic organ - an instrument that from the first second captivated him with its sound and made him fall in love forever. By the way, as soon as the son began to type the first notes on the new instrument, his parents gave him a spinet. According to the composer himself, this was a turning point in his life, and he kept the expensive gift for the rest of his life.

Youth

During one mass, the rich merchant Antonio Barezzi hears Giuseppe playing the organ. Since the man has seen many good and bad musicians throughout his life, he immediately understands that the young boy is destined for a grand destiny. He believes that little Verdi will eventually become a person who will be recognized by everyone, from the villagers to the rulers of the countries. It is Barezzi who recommends Verdi to finish his studies at Le Roncol and move to Busseto, where Fernando Provezi, the director of the Philharmonic Society, can deal with him.

Giuseppe follows the advice of a stranger and after a while Provezi himself sees his talent. However, at the same time, the director understands that without a proper education, the guy will not get anything but playing the organ during masses. He undertakes to teach literature to Verdi and instills in him a love of reading, for which the young guy is incredibly grateful to his mentor. He is fond of the works of such world celebrities as Schiller, Shakespeare, Goethe, and the novel The Betrothed (Alexander Mazoni) becomes his most favorite work.

At the age of 18, Verdi goes to Milan and tries to enter the Music Conservatory, but fails the entrance exam and hears from teachers that "he is not trained in the game so well as to qualify for a place in the school." In part, the guy agrees with their position, because all this time he received only a few private lessons and still does not know much. He decides to take a short break and visits several opera houses in Milan for a month. The atmosphere prevailing at the performances makes him change his mind about his own musical career. Now Verdi is sure that he wants to be an opera composer.

Career and recognition

Verdi's first public appearance took place in 1830, when he, after Milan, came back to Busseto. By that time, the guy is impressed by the opera houses in Milan and at the same time completely devastated and angry that he did not enter the Conservatory. Antonio Barezzi, seeing the composer's confusion, undertakes to independently arrange his performance in his tavern, which at that time was considered the largest entertainment establishment in the city. The audience receives Giuseppe with a storm of applause, which again instills confidence in him.

After that, Verdi lived in Busseto for 9 years and performed in Barezzi establishments. But in his heart he understands that he will achieve recognition only in Milan, since his hometown is too small and cannot provide him with a wide audience. So, in 1839, he travels to Milan and almost immediately meets the impresario of the La Scala theater, Bartolomeo Merelli, who offers the talented composer to sign a contract to create two operas.

Having accepted the offer, Verdi wrote the operas The King for an Hour and Nabucco for two years. The second was first staged in 1842 at La Scala. The product was an incredible success. During the year it spread around the world and was staged over 65 times, which allowed it to firmly gain a foothold in the repertoires of many well-known theaters. After Nabucco, the world heard several more operas by the composer, including Lombards on a Crusade and Hernani, which became incredibly popular in Italy.

Personal life

Even at the time when Verdi performs in Barezzi establishments, he has an affair with the daughter of a merchant, Margarita. After asking for blessings from their father, young people get married. They have two wonderful children: daughter Virginia Maria Luisa and son Icilio Romano. However, life together after a while becomes for the spouses, rather, a burden than happiness. Verdi at that time takes up writing his first opera, and his wife, seeing her husband's indifference, spends most of her time at her father's institution.

In 1838, a tragedy occurs in the family - Verdi's daughter dies of illness, and a year later, his son. Mother, unable to withstand such a serious shock, dies in 1840 from a long and serious illness. At the same time, it is not known for certain how Verdi reacted to the loss of his relatives. According to some biographers, this unsettled him for a long time and deprived him of inspiration, others are inclined to believe that the composer was too absorbed in work and took the news relatively calmly.

GIUSEPPE VERDI

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: LIBRA

NATIONALITY: ITALIAN

MUSICAL STYLE: ROMANTISM

SIGNIFICANT WORK: VIOLETTA'S ARIA "ALWAYS FREE" FROM THE OPERA TRAVIATA (1853)

WHERE YOU COULD HEAR THIS MUSIC: VIOLETTA'S ARIA FROM RICHARD GERE'S LIMOUSINE IN THE FINISHING OF THE FILM PRETTY WOMAN

WISE WORDS: "NOW, INSTEAD OF MARKING THE NOTES, I GROW CABBAGES AND BEANS."

Classical music of the mid-nineteenth century is usually described as a battle between romantics and traditionalists: the Liszt/Wagner army against Brahms. However, there was a third way, laid on the other side of the Alps - the way of Giuseppe Verdi.

Verdi, not paying too much attention to his colleagues, created beautiful operas with catchy melodies. From the premiere of Verdi's opera, the audience came out singing the music they had just heard, and the next morning all the street singers and musicians were playing these new hits. Neither the epic tragedies of Wagner nor the intellectual symphonies of Brahms ever reached such a degree of popularity.

But how did the composer do it? What's the secret? And the fact that Verdi remained true to his roots. He was born in the village and never lost touch with his native Parma. Even at the zenith of Verdi's fame, every autumn he rushed to his village house to participate in the harvest. It does not at all follow from this that Verdi was simple or that his music was of a lower quality than that of his illustrious contemporaries. Verdi knew his business very well. He just did not see the point in musical wars. And what's the bottom line? And such that his music is still purred under his breath by a variety of people.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO REMOVE THE BOY FROM THE BUSSETO, BUT YOU CAN'T REMOVE THE BUSCETO FROM THE BOY

Several generations of the Verdi family cultivated the land near the town of Busseto in northern Italy. Giuseppe Verdi, the only son of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigi Uttini, was born on 9 - or according to other sources 10 - October 1813. The boy was fascinated by music from childhood, and by the age of six, his parents believed in their son's talent so much that, in the austerity regime, they saved up money for a used spinet. Giuseppe soon became an organist in Busseto and a driving force behind the local Philharmonic Society.

By 1833, the opinion had matured in the town that it was time for Giuseppe to expand his horizons, and the twenty-year-old youth went to Milan to enter the conservatory. The Milan Conservatory accepted students no older than seventeen years old, but no one had any idea that age would be a problem, because Giuseppe is so talented. However, after numerous auditions, the examination committee made a balanced decision: the young man "will not rise above mediocrity in music." Verdi was in despair.

In Busseto, where he returned, a quarrel broke out over the position of conductor of the city orchestra. Supporters of Verdi predicted him for this place, but local priests put forward their candidacy. The city split into two warring camps, in taverns it came to fights. Verdi soon got tired of all this, he was going to Milan, but his admirers refused to give up and locked Verdi in his own house. The parties reconciled only after Verdi met his opponent face to face in a piano duel.

The position of "maestro of music" strengthened Verdi's financial position so much that he was able to marry his beloved Margherita Barezzi. A year later, they had a daughter, and a year later, a son. Verdi became a local celebrity, but his ambitions took him beyond Busseto. In the autumn of 1838, he resigned and moved with his family to Milan, where in 1839 his first opera, Oberto, Count of Bonifacio, premiered. This debut did not end in triumph, but also in failure, and critics predicted a bright future for the young composer.

HITS? THEY APPEAR BY THEMSELVES

During these years, Verdi experienced a huge loss. Shortly before the family's departure from Busseto, the composer's daughter, Virginia, died; shortly after the premiere of Oberto, his son Icilio died. Then, in 1840, Margarita died after a short illness. Since then, the composer has gone awry. His second opera, The King for an Hour, failed miserably, after the premiere it was no longer staged. Verdi vowed that he would not compose anything else.

Then the opera impresario Mirelli gave the composer a fresh libretto based on the biblical story of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, or Nabucco as the Italians call him. Verdi threw the libretto into a corner and did not touch it for five months. But in the end, he took it in his hands, leafed through ... Later he recalled: “Today - one stanza, tomorrow - another; here - one note, there - a whole phrase - so little by little the whole opera arose.

Nabucco was staged in March 1842 at La Scala in Milan. At the very first performance, the audience lifted the opera to the skies, and after the first act, the audience made such a noise that Verdi was frightened: in these cries, he felt not ardent gratitude, but angry discontent.

Finally, Verdi gained professional confidence. He called the following years "the years on the galleys", and indeed Verdi worked like a slave. Not a single production could do without the capricious antics of the soloists, quarrels with the theater management and bickering with the censors. Nevertheless, Verdi produced one masterpiece after another: Rigoletto in 1851, Il trovatore in January 1853, La Traviata in March 1853, and The Force of Destiny in 1862. Any Italian knew his music, all the Venetian gondoliers and Neapolitan street singers sang his arias, and the premieres in different cities usually ended with local orchestras performing new favorite tunes under the windows of the hotel where the composer stayed.

SMALL BUT PROUD

Verdi began a relationship with the Milanese singer Giuseppina Strepponi. Giuseppina possessed not only a divine voice, but also a bad reputation - an unmarried soprano four times and not in a row, but at temporary intervals, went on stage clearly pregnant. (She gave the children to orphanages.)

It's one thing to hobnob with an infamous singer in Milan, and quite another in the countryside. In Busseto, Verdi acquired an impressive estate, built a villa called "Sant'Agata" and every year, during the harvest and harvesting period, he strictly visited the village. But the bucolic charm did not prevent Busseto from remaining a conservative province, and the inhabitants were offended when Verdi brought a mistress to their respectable town. During the first visit of Giuseppina to Busseto, Verdi's son-in-law reproached him with the fact that he settled a prostitute in the house, and some unknown "well-wishers" threw stones at the windows of the villa.

Verdi and Strepponi got married in 1859 - it is not known why they delayed the wedding for so long. However, Busseto remained adamant, therefore, in the long summer months, Signor Verdi in the village, except for the servants, had no one to say a word to.

VIVA ITALY!

If in little Busseto almost nothing has changed, then in the rest of Italy there have been significant changes. When Verdi began his career, the Italian peninsula was divided into many small states, and most of northern Italy was controlled by Austria. Verdi's name has been associated with anti-Austrian sentiment since 1842, and more precisely, from the premiere of Nabucco: in the Jewish choir "Fly, thought, on golden wings" - the cry of Jewish exiles enslaved for their lost homeland - the patriots heard a protest against Austrian rule .

WHEN VERDI BROUGHT HIS WOMAN IN THE VILLAGE - AN OPERA SINGER WITH A Dubious Reputation - Angry Peasants Throwed Stones At His House, Calling The Singer A Prostitute.

The desire to expel foreign rulers and unite the country gained strength when the king of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) Victor Emmanuel II, who advocated the unification of Italy, became the head of the national liberation forces. From that moment on, the names of the king and Verdi were intertwined: the seemingly innocent exclamation “Viva Verdi!” (“Long live Verdi!”) in the mouths of the patriots sounded like a disguised call to fight against the Austrians (the letter combination VERDI was deciphered as “long live Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy”).

Many years of efforts were crowned with success - in 1861 Italy was united. Verdi was promptly invited to run for the Italian parliament; he easily won the mandate and served one term as a deputy. Until the end of his life, Verdi was honored as the composer of the Risorgimento (“Renewals”), a movement that brought unity and independence to Italy.

COMPOSER - ALWAYS COMPOSER

In the sixth decade, Verdi slowed down, announcing that he was taking a well-deserved rest. However, advanced age did not prevent him from writing "Aida" in 1871, "Othello" in 1887 and "Falstaff" in 1893 - that is, at the age of seventy-nine. He continued to be showered with honors. Verdi was appointed senator, King Umberto I presented him with the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Order of San Maurizio and Lazzaro. (The king even offered him the title of marquis, but Verdi refused, modestly remarking: "I am a peasant.")

However, neither awards nor honor saved Giuseppina from worries: in the mid-1870s, Verdi had an affair with singer Teresa Stolz. By 1877, passions were white-hot, and Verdi, faced with a choice, preferred his wife to his mistress. In the 1890s, Giuseppina was often ill and died in November 1897.

The widower, who was in his eighties, remained lively and agile until January 1901, when he suffered a stroke while in Milan. The news of Verdi's illness instantly spread throughout Italy. The manager of the hotel where Verdi was staying, escorted all the other guests out, launched the press representatives on the first floor and personally posted bulletins about the composer's well-being on the doors of the establishment. The police blocked traffic around the hotel so that the patient would not suffer from noise, and the king and queen received hourly telegraph messages about changes in Verdi's condition. The composer died at 2:50 am on 27 January. On that day, many shops in Milan did not open as a sign of mourning.

Time has not damaged the legacy of Verdi, his operas remain incredibly popular - still as exciting and melodious as on the day of the premiere.

NO ONE DARE TO OFFEND OUR MAESTRO!

Most Italians enthusiastically met everything that Verdi composed, but some were harder to please. One of the spectators did not like the premiere of "Aida" so much that he considered the thirty-two lira spent on railway and theater tickets, as well as lunch in a restaurant, to be wasted money, about which he informed the composer in writing and demanded reimbursement of expenses. The name of the sender of this letter was Prospero Bertani.

Verdi reacted to Bertani's claims more with humor than with indignation. He told his agent to send the complainant twenty-seven lire to cover the train and theater expenses, but not for dinner. “I could have eaten at home,” Verdi remarked. He also asked the agent to publish this correspondence in the press. Fans, outraged by the attacks on their adored maestro, flooded Signor Bertani with letters, some even threatening to crack down on him.

STOP WORSHIP ALREADY!

One day, Verdi's friend came to visit him in the village and was surprised to find dozens of hurdy-gurdies and mechanical pianos in the composer's villa, which are usually played by street musicians. “When I arrived here,” Verdi explained, “melodies from Rigoletto, Il trovatore and my other operas rushed from morning to night from all the hurdy-gurdies in the area. This annoyed me so much that I rented all the instruments for the summer. I had to shell out about a thousand francs, but in any case they left me alone.

MYSTERIOUS "BEAUTY"

Composing the aria "The Heart of the Beauty" for the opera "Rigoletto", Verdi felt that he was creating a new hit, but he really did not want the audience to hear this melody before the premiere. Handing the notes to the tenor, the composer took him aside and said: "Promise that you will not perform this aria at home, you will not even whistle it - in a word, make sure that no one hears it." Of course, the promise of a tenor was not enough for him, and before the rehearsals, Verdi turned to all the participants in the performance - orchestra members, singers and even stage workers - with a request to keep the aria a secret. As a result, at the premiere, “The Heart of a Beauty” stunned the audience with its novelty and instantly gained wild popularity.

EVERYONE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE

All of Italy knew Verdi, and this great fame had a positive effect on everyday trifles - for example, the problem of a postal address was eliminated. When Verdi suggested that a new acquaintance send him some thing by mail, he asked for his address. “Oh, my address is very simple,” replied the composer. - Maestro Verdi, Italy.

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