Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( Le Roncole , October 10, 1813 - Milan , 27 January 1901 ) was one of the greatest composers of Italian operas, of which he wrote a total of twenty-six. His work was very popular during his lifetime and still is.

Content

 * 1 Name
 * 2 Biography
 * 3 Museums
 * 4 See also
 * 5 External links

Name
Verdi was actually still spoken only in his youth with "Giuseppe". Soon he was called by his environment 'Verdi', also by its neighbors. When his enormous musicality began to appear, here came the respectful 'Maestro' at. Only his father continued to call him all his life Giuseppe. 'Fortunino' comes from the Italian word "Fortunato (lucky) because his parents - after eight years of marriage - were delighted with the arrival of their first child. Verdi is also known as "the swan from Busseto", probably because of the attitude he adopted while conducting.

Biography
Verdi was born in Le Roncole (in the village is a large sign with a picture of Verdi with the quote: "I am and always keep a farmer from Le Roncole`), in the Duchy of Parma, at that time occupied by Napoleon . His father Carlo Verdi was innkeeper and his mother Luisa Ottini silk spinner. At age ten, the young Verdi was an official appointment as organist of the church in Le Roncole. In 1824 Verdi moved to Busseto . He started there in the first instance to training as a priest at a secondary school run by Jesuits, but by then it was soon clear that music was his true calling, he began under Maistro Ferdinando Provesi to study music. Busseto lived a prosperous shopkeeper with a great passion for music, his name was Antonio Barezzi . Barezzi took pity both emotionally and financially for the young Verdi. He was like a father to him, and his life would be a good friend and benefactor. In addition, he was also really family Verdi, because it in 1836 married his daughter Margherita.

On his 15th he was the best pianist of the province. Between his 13th and 18th years Verdi wrote hundreds of marches and symphonies for churches and schools, and five or six concerts with piano variations. Verdi studied further at that time very hard. Not only the music, but he also spent hours in the library and read them everything he encountered Alfieri , Manzoni , Shakespeare and especially the Bible .

At almost the age of eighteen Verdi went to Milan to study at the local conservatory that would later bear his name Conservatorio "Giuseppe Verdi" (Milan) . But he was not admitted. The admissions committee approved his playing technique down, and was afraid that because of his age he no longer could unlearn, in addition, the commission also had a clear preference for candidates from Milan itself. Verdi took private lessons in composition and counterpoint at the best music teacher from Milan Vincenzo Lavigna, with excellent results and also found inspiration in the many opera performances at La Scala of ao Rossini , Belliniand Donizetti . At the age of twenty was Verdi by his father brought back again to Busseto. There was a vacant position as head of the orchestra of the church and as head of the choir. His father, but also saw most of the other people from Busseto Verdi as the perfect candidate, but the spiritual leader of the church had someone else in mind. This led to such a severe and prolonged conflicts in Busseto, including fights and lawsuits that eventually the Minister of the Interior of Parma had to intervene. These banned indefinitely all orchestras in the church.

Portrait by Giovanni Boldini

Verdi returned to Milan and completed his studies. He knew he had to return to Busseto, but he also knew that his future lay in Milan. Only when he commissioned the OperaRochester theater La Scala in his pocket, he returned with confidence. Despite the ban on orchestras in the church, the fights between the 'Verdaiani' and were 'Ferrariani (to Ferrari, the other candidate's name) is not yet finished and Verdi's return did the fire only higher flare. To do the rest return Verdi applied to a post as organist at Monza, near Milan, but ultimately he is Barezzi still remained in Busseto. The storm subsided and a competition was organized for the disputed amount; This was won by Verdi. When he married Margherita Barezzi in 1836 was as music master of Busseto. Two children were born of this marriage that both would die at a very young age.

Shortly after the death of his daughter in 1838, Verdi took his wife and their son to Milan. This is because for someone with the talent of Verdi Busseto to offer was insufficient, or as Verdi described it in a letter to a friend: "This town suppresses youthful promises until they wither away." Soon after the death of his son. On 17 November 1839, the first opera by Verdi was staged at La Scala: Rochester, now renamed ' Oberto, Conte di San Bonafacio . It was received reasonably successful (14 performances) and the music publisherGiovanni Ricordi, bought the rights of Oberto and gave him. Verdi was commissioned to write a comic opera Un Giorno di Regno . In the period that he worked on this opera, his wife died in 1840 . Un Giorno di Regno was a fiasco, and Verdi decided never to write one more note. He rented a cheap room in the old part of Milan. Months later took the greatimpresario of La Scala Bartolomeo Merelli, Verdi to write Nabucco . The story goes that Verdi libretto cast off in drift, but when it opened accidentally fell on the page of the famousslave chorus from the opera, Verdi could not reach beyond the text "Va Pensiero sull 'ali dorate', 'Fly thoughts, on golden wings.

The implementation of Nabucco in 1842 at La Scala was a huge success and drew the name of Verdi forever among other major composers. A leading singer of that time thesoprano Giuseppina Strepponi performed the role of Abigail. The singer would be Verdi's companion, but long after the death of his first wife, he married her.

I Lombardi ( Milan , 11 February 1843 ) was also a success, partly because of the political situation (see below), as later Ernani, in the Teatro La Fenice in Venice . The following year confirmed Giovanna d'Arco and La Forza del Destino his fame, but because he found the substandard performance at the Scala, he asked Ricordi to not let them perform this work. The premieres of Attila ,Alzira and Macbeth were held in other Italian cities. I Masnadieri was performed in London .

While Milan lost and then recaptured by the Austrians, Verdi wrote Il corsaro , La Battaglia di Legnano, and Luisa Miller , and he began to never completed Manon Lescaut. After the polemics for his Stiffelio he triumphed in 1851 in Venice with Rigoletto (by Victor Hugo ) and in 1853 in Rome with Il trovatore . The first soirées of La traviata by contrast were a fiasco.

Other famous operas follow in this period, namely Les Vêpres siciliennes ( Paris ), Aroldo (revised Stiffelio), Simon Boccanegra (at the Teatro La Fenice), and the censored Un Ballo in Maschera . Verdi was then involved in the Italian unification and made ​​minor revisions to earlier work until 1866, when Don Carlos (to Schiller ) for the first time was in Paris. On the occasion of the World Exhibition of 1862 in London he wrote the Inno delle nazioni .

In 1872 was Aida first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, with great success. Originally it was thought that the opera was written by Verdi to celebrate the opening of a new opera house in Cairo or the opening of the Suez Canal. However, this is not true. Verdi wrote Aida for the Egyptian Khedive (Viceroy of Egypt) to order. In this order the subject of the opera was recorded and this was the goal to become a work that the Egyptians could take as a national opera. [1]

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Italian tenor Francesco Tamagnosings "Niun mi tema" (Morte d'Otello) from Otello . Sung in 1903, Tamagno died two years later.

Around this time, there are problems in Verdi's relationship with Ricordi's suspected of serious financial irregularities. Nevertheless, it was a suggestion that led to Giulio Ricordi in 1887 cast Otello, which is considered as the perfect Italian tragic opera. After more revisions of earlier work, often in collaboration with the composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, followed Falstaff .

Verdi's work often contains some resonances with Italian nationalism. Of the "Choir of the Jewish slaves" (the Slavenkoor) from Nabucco example, also known as Va, Pensierowas and is often said to be a good Italian national anthem would be.

Political cartoon from 1859 illustrating that the name Verdi as acronym or symbol was used to Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia

The name Verdi was used as an acronym of Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), if someone fell during the Austrian occupation of Milan, which was considering Victor Emmanuel II support in his efforts to unification of Italy and did later. Partisans began a campaign to ensure that this king of Sardinia conquer Milan, a campaign that was known for its severe Austrian censorship "Viva VERDI" ("Long live VERDI"). The composer was aware of this use of his name and is supposed to have approved this. Also, I Lombardi refers to political events.

After the completion of his "Casa di Riposo" ("rest"), a retirement home for poor artists he died in 1901 in Milan by a stroke. His funeral was extremely well attended: The Slavenkoor 'Va, Pien Siero' by tens of thousands of people sang in the streets during his funeral. [2] About a quarter of a million mourners paid respect to Verdi, one of the main representatives of the Italian music. Verdi's opera composer par excellence. Many find the party that has the orchestra in an opera is often 'simple', the accompaniments are not technically complicated. Yet he knows exactly to create the right sounds that support and generating certain feelings very beneficial.

Apart from operas Verdi also composed quite a few religious works. Called to be the Requiem (1874), composed on the death of the poet Alessandro Manzoni, and theQuattro Pezzi Sacri.

Museums [ Edit ]

 * Busseto, Museo Nazionale Giuseppe Verdi
 * Sant'Agata, Villa Verdi
 * Milan, Museum of the Opera "Scala"