Guiseppe Verdi (1813 1869) Sometimes, great minds come in pairs. Bach and Handel, two composers who would change the course of music in their lifetimes, were both born in the same year: 1685. This confluence of genius was extraordinary enough; yet in 1813, it happened again as both Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner were born within five months of each other. Together, they would have a greater impact on the world of opera than any other composers of their time. And, just as Wagner would become a living embodiment of his native culture, so would Verdi. For half a century, from his first great success with Nabucco in 1842 to the premiere of his final masterpiece, Falstaff, in 1893, Verdi dominated Italian opera. He still does, and not just in Italy. Of the 28 operas the Metropolitan Opera presented last year, five were by Verdi more than any other single composer. At the world s major opera houses, Verdi remains at the core of the repertoire. What accounts for such enduring influence and popularity? One reason is the sheer appeal of his music. As you will hear today, many of his best-loved melodies, such as La donna è mobile, Libiamo, The Anvil Chorus, Va pensiero, and the Triumphal March from Aida are all instantly recognizable, even to people who have never set foot in an opera house. This is no accident. Verdi wanted his music to be popular and widely enjoyed. He believed that the true measure of an opera s worth was not to be found in the reaction of critics at the first performance, but rather in the line at the box office at the sixth. Just as important, Verdi s musical gifts were fully matched by his instinct for the theater and his genius for translating drama and intense emotion into music. Verdi insisted that all unnecessary details and superfluous participants be stripped from the libretto, so that what remained would be filled with passionate characters and gripping situations. Even if you don t know the meaning of the words in a Verdi aria, you can almost always feel what they express. To 19th-century Italians, Verdi s influence was not confined to music alone. When he was born, much of Italy was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and fragmented into small states and principalities. Over the next few decades, increasing Italian nationalism grew into the Risorgimento, a movement whose goal was the unification of Italy as a sovereign state. Verdi s music was seen by many as a symbol of this rising awareness. Even his name was turned into a rallying cry: Viva Verdi! (an acronym for Vittorio Emmanuel Re D Italia Long Live Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy). When the first unified Italian parliament was formed in 1861, Verdi served a four-year term as a deputy. Verdi lived a long and highly productive life. From 1839 the year of his first opera, Oberto to Falstaff in 1893, he averaged better than two operas a year writing 28 in all. He also wrote, his agnosticism notwithstanding, two monumental sacred works, the famous Requiem the Four Sacred Pieces (Quattro Pezzi Sacri).
Completed in 1898, the Four Sacred Pieces would be Verdi s last work. He died three years later, on January 21, 1901. Although Verdi had requested a modest funeral, a state ceremony came first. On February 27, 1901, more than 200,000 people gathered on the streets of Milan to pay their respects. Arturo Toscanini conducted a huge combined orchestra and 800-voice choir composed of musicians from throughout Italy in Va pensiero from Nabucco. Verdi s funeral coach was nine feet high and was drawn by six horses draped in black. Six more coaches carried wreaths and floral arrangements. A large corps of mounted police, the entire city fire department, presidents of the Italian Senate and Chamber of Deputies were present, as were such fellow composers as Puccini, Mascagni, and Leoncavallo. Verdi s funeral remains the largest public gathering for any event in the history of Italy. Today s selections La Forza del Destino Overture The Force of Destiny was written in 1862, at the midpoint of Verdi s career and at the height of his fame. It was based on a play (Don Álvaro o La fuerza del sino) by the Spanish Romantic playwright Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas. The opera tells the story of the love affair (illfated, of course), between Leonora, daughter of a noble Marquis, and Don Álvaro, a descendant of Inca royalty. Rigoletto Aria, La donna è mobile Based on a play by Victor Hugo, Rigoletto is one of Verdi s most popular operas. It was written in 1851, between Luisa Miller and La Traviata. Rigoletto, the title character, is a hunchbacked jester at the court of the Duke of Mantua, who delights in his many amorous escapades. In this aria, the Duke sings of the fickleness of women. ( Woman is flighty, like a feather in the wind, she changes her voice and her mind. ) Rigoletto Aria, Pari Siamo The Duke has seduced Rigoletto s daughter, Gilda. Seeking revenge, Rigoletto engages the assassin Sparafucile to kill the Duke. After meeting with Sparafucile, Rigoletto ponders on the similarities between them ( Pari siamo We are alike ): the assassin Sparafucile kills with his sword; the jester Rigoletto attacks his victims with his malicious tongue. Rigoletto Quartet, Un dì, se ben rammentomi Rigoletto and Gilda are seen looking through a crack in the wall of Sparafucile s house. The Duke enters, ordering wine and a room, and reprising his aria from Act 1, La donna è mobile. Maddalena, Sparafucile s sister, joins the Duke, and the two join together in mutual seduction as he sings Un dì, se ben rammentomi ( One day, if I remember rightly, I met you.. ) Gilda, watching from outside, is shattered by the Duke s unfaithfulness. Rigoletto joins in, singing of vengeance.
Aida Triumphal March Legend has it that Aida was written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Verdi had been asked to compose an ode for the event, but declined because it was not his practice to write occasional pieces. Two years later, the Khedive of Egypt commissioned the opera for a payment of 150,000 francs. The story of the opera is one of conflicted loyalties. Rhadames, the Egyptian general, is in love with the Aida, a slave to the Pharaoh s daughter Amneris who, in turn is in love with Rhadames. Aida s father, Amonsaro, commands the Ethiopian armies that Rhadames is sent to defeat. The Triumphal March commemorates Rhadames victory, and depicts the procession of the conquering Egyptian forces, their spoils of war, and their captured enemies (Amonasaro among them). In composing Aida, Verdi took advantage of recent archaeology, which had discovered evidence that ancient Egyptians had used valveless trumpets. So he had special trumpets designed that he hoped would recreate the sound of the vanished instruments. In 1925, a pair of horns was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen. One was tuned in A flat, the other in B the same two keys Verdi had chosen for his triumphal march. Aida Aria, Celeste Aida In Act I, before his successful campaign against the Ethiopians, Rhadames sings of his love for Celeste ( heavenly ) Aida. La Traviata Prelude La Traviata (the fallen woman), is based on a highly popular play, La Dame aux Camellias, by Alexandre Dumas, fils. It tells the story of Violetta Valery, a famed courtesan who continually pursues pleasure while secretly succumbing to tuberculosis. The bittersweet music of the prelude foreshadows Violetta s inevitable end, and her doomed search for love. La Traviata E strano sempre libera The opera opens on a party in Violetta s house. A guest has brought along Alfredo Germont, an aristocrat who is secretly in love with her. During a quiet interlude away from the festivities, Alfredo confesses his feelings. Violetta sends him away, but not before giving him a flower and telling him to return when it has wilted. After the party, Violetta wonders if Alfredo could be her true love, but then decides that she must have the freedom to live her own life. She expresses this conviction in Sempre libera ( Forever free ). La Traviata Chorus, Libiamo Before Alfredo has his moment alone with Violetta, he is urged by her partygoing guests to offer a toast. He does so in the form of a brindisi, an operatic drinking song, often in the form of a solo duet with chorus. Libiamo ne' lieti calici, Alfredo sings, Let us drink from the joyful cup. Nabucco Overture
Nabucco is the Italian form of Nebuchadnezzar, the legendary Babylonian ruler, upon whose biblical story the opera is based. It follows the plight of the Israelites as they are conquered and driven into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. Premiered in 1842, the work is generally considered to be the one that firmly established Verdi as a major composer. He later wrote 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. Like many opera overture, the one to Nabucco introduces a number of themes that will reappear over the course of the opera, including Va pensiero. In the faster music that follows, themes associated with the Hebrew slaves and their Babylonian captors are contrasted, foreshadowing the opera s central conflict. Nabucco Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ( Va pensiero ) One of the major reasons for the success of Nabucco was the emotional impact of the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, which came to be interpreted by Italian patriots as a symbol for their desire to be rid of foreign rule, and became an unofficial anthem of the Risorgiomento. In this scene, the captive Hebrews rest from their labor as slaves, and long for their lost homeland: Va', pensiero, sull'ali dorate; Va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli, ove olezzano tepide e molli l'aure dolci del suolo natal! Del Giordano le rive saluta, di Sionne le torri atterrate Oh mia Patria sì bella e perduta! ( Go, thoughts on golden wings. Hasten and rest on the densely wooded hills, where warm and fragrant and soft are the gentle breezes of our native land! The banks of the Jordan we greet and the towers of Zion. O, my homeland, so beautiful and lost! ) Otello Aria, Credo in un Dio Crudel After Aida, Verdi decided it was time to retire, like Rossini, at the height of fame and fortune. His publisher, Giulio Ricordi, thought otherwise, and hatched a plan to coax Verdi back on the stage. Ricordi and the librettist Arrifo Boito capitalized on Verdi s longtime admiration for Shakespeare, and presented him with an outline based on Othello. Verdi finally relented and went on to create one of his greatest works. Reflecting his centrality to the plot, the opera was originally titled Iago. Iago is one of Shakespeare s darkest and most destructive characters, doing evil simply for the sake of doing evil. Samuel Taylor Coleridge described his actions as motiveless malignancy. The aria Credo in uno dio ( I believe in a cruel God ) is Iago s nihilistic declaration of his belief that a cruel and unfelling God created man to be wicked and that life has no meaning. In Trovatore Anvil Chorus/Stride la vampa Described by one Verdi scholar as "a high-flown, sprawling melodrama flamboyantly defiant of the Aristotelian unities, packed with all manner of fantastic and bizarre incidents," Il Trovatore (The Troubador) remains, for all its dramatic improbabilities, one of the most popular of all Verdi operas. One reason is surely the profusion of indelible melodies that Verdi lavished on the opera, especially the Anvil Chorus.
The Anvil Chorus is the English name for what Verdi called the Coro di zingari (Gypsy Chorus). It depicts Gypsies striking their anvils and singing their love of hard work, good wine, and Gypsy women. Stride la vampa ( The fire shrieks ) immediately follows the Anvil Chorus. In it, the old Gypsy woman Azucena affirms her eternal vengeance against the nobleman who murdered her mother many years before. # # # {Draft 2 Segal/TMM 9-20-13}