Giuseppe Verdi biography and work briefly

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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi

(Italian: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, October 10, 1813, village of Le Roncole, Duchy of Parma, French Empire - January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy [9]) - Italian composer.

His work is one of the greatest achievements of world opera and the culmination of the development of Italian opera of the 19th century. He created 26 operas[10], a requiem, a string quartet and a number of spiritual plays. The composer's best operas: Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Trovatore, La Traviata. The pinnacle of creativity is the latest operas: “Aida”, “Othello”, “Falstaff”.

Content

• 1 Early period
• 2 Initial recognition
• 3 Master
• 4 Final years and death
• 5 Creativity 5.1 Style 5.1.1 Musical instruments

Early period[ | ]

House in the village of Le Roncole, where Giuseppe Verdi was born
Verdi was born on October 10, 1813 in the village of Le Roncole, near Busseto (Duchy of Parma). The composer's father, Carlo Verdi, ran a village tavern, and his mother, Luigia Uttini, was a spinner. The family lived poorly, and Giuseppe's childhood was difficult. He helped celebrate mass in the village church. He studied musical literacy and playing the organ with Pietro Baistrocchi. Noticing their son's passion for music, his parents gave Giuseppe a spinet. The composer kept 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 town of Busseto. He believed that Verdi would become not an innkeeper or a village organist, but a great composer. On the advice of Barezzi, ten-year-old Verdi moved to Busseto to study. 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 got a composition teacher - Fernando Provesi, director of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto. Provesi 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 most beloved 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 into the Conservatory (today named after Verdi) “due to the low level of piano playing; In addition, there were age restrictions at the conservatory”[11]. Verdi began taking private counterpoint lessons, while attending opera performances, as well as just concerts. Communication with the Milanese elite convinced him to seriously think about a career as a theater composer.

Verdi at the age of 29

Returning to Busseto, with the support of Antonio Barezzi, Verdi gave his first public performance at Barezzi's 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 deeply in love with each other and on May 4, 1836, Verdi married Margherita Barezzi. Margarita soon gave birth to two children: Virginia Maria Louise (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 died in infancy. Some time later (June 18, 1840) at the age of 26[12], the composer’s wife Margarita dies of encephalitis[13][14].

Giuseppe Verdi short biography

Giuseppe Verdi's short biography is presented in this article.

Giuseppe Verdi short biography

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi

- Italian composer, whose work is one of the greatest achievements of world opera.
He created 26 operas and one requiem.

Born on October 10, 1813 in the village of Roncole in the province of Parma, at that time part of the Napoleonic Empire. His father ran a wine cellar and grocery business.

In 1823, Giuseppe, who received his initial knowledge from the village priest, was sent to school in the neighboring town of Busseto. In 1824, at the age of 11, he began working as an organist in Roncola.

Verdi owed his musical education to the merchant Antonio Barezzi, who became his patron. Barezzi took the boy into his home, hired him the best teacher and paid for his further education.

In 1832, Verdi tried to enter the Milan Conservatory, but was not accepted, and in the same year he began studying with the conservatory professor Vincenzo Lavigna.

During the years 1835-1838, Verdi composed a huge number of works of small form: marches (up to 100), dances, songs, romances, choirs and other creations.

In 1839, the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, Count Bonifacio, took place at La Scala in Milan. The production was a success, and the young composer was commissioned to perform the comic opera “A King for a Day,” but it failed.

In 1942, the premiere of the opera “Nebuchadnezzar” (“Nabucco”), written on a biblical plot and imbued with patriotic ideas, was successfully held on the stage of La Scala.

“Nabucco” was followed by the opera “The Lombards in the First Crusade” (1843), which also featured the theme of the heroic liberation movement, and then “Ernani” (1844) based on the romantic drama by Victor Hugo - a work thanks to which Verdi’s fame went beyond Italy. A very fruitful period began in the composer’s life, during which time he wrote the operas “The Two Foscari” (1844), “Joan of Arc” (1845), “Alzira” (1845), “Attila (1846), “The Robbers” ( 1847), Macbeth (1947), The Corsair (1848), The Battle of Legnano (1849), Stiffelio (1850).

The pinnacle of Verdi's operatic creativity was the opera Othello , written in 1886. And in 1892, he turned to the genre of comic opera and wrote his last masterpiece, Falstaff , again based on the plot of William Shakespeare.

Giuseppe Verdi died on January 27, 1901 in Milan. He was buried in modest surroundings in a Milan cemetery, and national mourning was declared throughout Italy.

Giuseppe Verdi personal life

Verdi was married twice. In 1836 he married Margherita Barezzi, she bore him a son and a daughter. In 1840, one after another, the wife and children died.

In the late 1840s, Verdi began a close relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano who was a leading performer in many of the composer's operas. In 1859 they formalized their relationship. Giuseppina died in 1897.

Source

Initial recognition[ | ]

Oberto , Count Bonifacio)

) at La Scala in Milan was acclaimed by critics, after which the theater impresario, 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 March 9, 1842 at La Scala was a great success and established Verdi's reputation as an opera composer. Over the next year, the opera was staged 65 times in Europe and has since occupied a strong place in the repertoire of the world's leading opera houses. Nabucco was followed by several operas, including I Lombardi alla prima crociata
and Ernani
,
which were staged and met with success in Italy.

In 1847, the opera "The Lombards", rewritten and renamed "Jerusalem "

), was produced by the Paris Opera on November 26, 1847, becoming Verdi's first work in the
grand opera
. To do this, the composer had to rework this opera somewhat and replace the Italian characters with French ones.

First works

Verdi lived in Busseto from 1835 to 1838 and worked as a conductor in the municipal orchestra. Giuseppe created his first opera in 1837, entitled Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio. This work was staged 2 years later in Milan. It was a great success. Verdi wrote a comic opera commissioned by La Scala, the famous Milan theater. He called it “Imaginary Stanislav, or one day of reign.” It was staged in 1840 (“The King for an Hour”). Another work, the opera Nabucco, was presented to the public in 1842 (Nebuchadnezzar). In it, the composer reflected the aspirations and feelings of the Italian people, who in those years began the struggle for independence, for deliverance from the Austrian yoke. The audience saw in the suffering of the Jewish people who found themselves in captivity an analogy with contemporary Italy. The choir of captive Jews from this work caused active political demonstrations. Giuseppe's next opera, Lombards on Crusade, also echoed calls for the overthrow of tyranny. It was staged in Milan in 1843. And in Paris in 1847, the second edition of this opera with ballet (“Jerusalem”) was presented to the public.

Master[ | ]

Verdi's wife and muse was Giuseppina Strepponi, an outstanding singer of her time.
At the age of thirty-eight, Verdi began an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano singer who was ending her career by that time (they married only eleven years later, and their cohabitation before the wedding was considered scandalous in many of the places where they lived). Soon Giuseppina stopped performing, and Verdi, following the example of Gioachino Rossini, decided to end his career with his wife. He was wealthy, famous and in love. It may have been Giuseppina who convinced him to continue writing operas. The 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 to please censors, and the composer intended to quit work several times until the opera was finally completed. The first production took place in Venice in 1851 and was a great success.

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

Giuseppe Verdi in 1870

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

This was followed by several more operas, among them the constantly performed “Sicilian Vespers” ( Les vêpres siciliennes)

;
written by order of the Paris Opera), “ Il
, “
Un ballo in maschera
”, “The Force of Destiny” (
La forza del destino
; 1862, written by order of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theater of St. Petersburg ), second edition of the opera "Macbeth" (
Macbeth
).

In 1869, Verdi composed "Libera Me" for the Requiem in memory of Gioachino Rossini (the remaining parts were written by now little-known Italian composers). In 1874, Verdi wrote his Requiem for the death of his revered writer Alessandro Manzoni, including a revised version of his 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 offer through du Locle. This time Verdi met the opera script, which he liked, and agreed to write the opera.

Verdi and Wagner, each the leader of his own national opera school, always disliked each other. In their entire lives they had never met. Verdi's surviving comments about Wagner and his music are few and unkind (“He always chooses, in vain, the path less traveled, trying to fly where a normal person would simply walk, achieving much better results”). Nevertheless, upon learning that Wagner had died, Verdi said: “How sad! This name has left a huge mark on the history of art.” Only one statement by Wagner is known relating to the music of Verdi. After listening to the Requiem, the great German, always eloquent, always generous with (unflattering) comments in relation to many other composers, said: “It’s better not to say anything.”

Aida was staged in Cairo in 1871 with great success.

Last years and death[ | ]

Verdi at the age of 84 “Grand Et De Milan”
For the next twelve years, Verdi worked very little, leisurely editing his early works.

Opera Othello

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

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff

), the libretto of which Arrigo Boito, librettist and composer, wrote based on Shakespeare’s play “Merry Wives of Windsor” (
Merry Wives of Windsor
) in its translation into French by Victor Hugo, developed the manner of “through development”.
The brilliantly written score of this comedy is thus much closer to Wagner's Die Meistersinger than to the comic operas of Rossini and Mozart. The elusiveness and effervescence of the melodies makes it possible 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. Verdi's grave
On January 21, 1901, while staying at the Grand Et De Milan Hotel [15] (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.

Verdi was originally buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. A month later, his body was transferred to Casa Di Riposo in Musicisti, also in Milan, a rest 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.”[16]

Origin, childhood

Giuseppe was born in Roncola. This village was located in the province of Parma, which at that time was part of the Napoleonic Empire. The photo below shows the house in which the composer was born and spent his childhood. It is known that his father ran a grocery business and maintained a wine cellar.

Giuseppe received his first lessons in Verdi's music from the local church organist. His biography was marked by the first important event in 1823. It was then that the future composer was sent to Busseto, a neighboring town, where he continued his studies at school. At the age of 11, Giuseppe began to show pronounced musical abilities. The boy began to perform the duties of organist in Ronkola.

Giuseppe was noticed by A. Barezzi, a wealthy merchant from Busseto, who supplied the shop of the boy's father and had a great interest in music. The future composer owes the musical education he received to this man. Barezzi took him into his house, hired the boy the best teacher and began to pay for his education in Milan.

Creativity[ | ]

Style[ | ]

Verdi's predecessors who influenced his work were Rossini, Bellini, Meyerbeer and, most importantly, Donizetti. The last two operas, Othello and Falstaff, show the influence of Richard Wagner. 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 indicate the composer's familiarity with the works of Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt popularized in Western Europe after returning from a tour of Russia.

Verdi and the author of the libretto of his last two operas, composer Arrigo Boito

Throughout his career, Verdi refused to use high C in tenor parts, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of a full audience distracted performers before, after, and while singing the note.

Although Verdi's orchestration is at times masterful, the composer relied mainly on his melodic gifts 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 entire orchestra sounds like one accompanying instrument (Verdi is credited with the words: “The orchestra is a big guitar!” Some critics argue that Verdi paid attention to technical aspect of the score is not given enough attention because it lacks school and refinement. Verdi himself once said, “Of all composers, I am the least knowledgeable.” But he hastened to add, “I say 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 fullest when he needed it. Moreover, orchestral and contrapuntal innovation (for example, the strings soaring across the chromatic scale in the Monterone scene in Rigoletto, in order to emphasize the drama of the situation, or, also in Rigoletto, the chorus humming close notes offstage, depicting, quite effectively, the approaching storm) is 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 to specifically search for a plot for a libretto that would best suit the characteristics of his talent as a composer. Working in close collaboration with librettists and knowing that dramatic expression 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 boil and scenes rich in drama.

Musical instruments[ | ]

As a child, Giuseppe Verdi played in the Barezzi house[17] on the piano of the master Anton Tomashek[18]. He also liked the instruments of Johann Fritz, and the composer used his Viennese six-pedal grand piano from the creation of Rigoletto in 1851 to Aida in 1871. It is this instrument that can be seen at Villa Verdi in the province of Piacenza in Italy.[19] In 1857, at the inauguration of the Teatro A. Galli in Rimini, Giuseppe Verdi played a concert grand piano designed by Joseph Danck[20].

Portrait of Verdi by Giovanni Boldini, 1886

Operas[ | ]

1. Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio (Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio)
   - 1839; in 2 acts.
2. The King for an Hour (Un Giorno di Regno)
   - 1840; in 2 acts.
3. Nabucco, or Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco)
   - 1842; in 4 acts.
4. Lombards in the First Crusade (I Lombardi')
   - 1843;
   in 4 acts. Second edition entitled Jerusalem (Jérusalem)
   - 1847.
5. Ernani -
   1844; in 4 acts.
6. Two Foscari (I due Foscari)
   - 1844; in 3 acts.
7. Joan of Arc (Giovanna d'Arco)
   - 1845; in 3 acts with a prologue.
8. Alzira -
   1845; in 2 acts with a prologue.
9. Attila -
   1846; in 3 acts with a prologue.
10. Macbeth -
    1847; in 4 acts. Second edition - 1865.
11. The Robbers (I masnadieri)
    - 1847; in 4 acts.
12. Corsair (Il corsaro)
    - 1848; in 3 acts.
13. Battle of Legnano (La battaglia di Legnano)
    - 1849; in 4 acts.
14. Louisa Miller
    - 1849; in 3 acts.
15. Stiffelio -
    1850;
    in 3 acts. Second edition entitled Aroldo -
    1857; in 4 acts.
16. Rigoletto -
    1851; in 3 acts.
17. The Troubadour (Il Trovatore)
    - 1853; in 4 acts.
18. La Traviata
    - 1853; in 3 acts.
19. Sicilian Vespers (Les vêpres siciliennes)
    - 1855; in 5 acts. Second edition entitled “Giovanna de Guzman” - 1855.
20. Simon Boccanegra
    - 1857; in 3 acts with a prologue. Second edition - 1881.
21. Masquerade ball (Un ballo in maschera)
    - 1859; in 3 acts.
22. Power of Destiny (La forza del destino)
    - 1862; in 4 acts.
23. Don Carlos -
    1867; in 5 acts. Second edition - 1884; in 4 acts.
24. Aida -
    1871; in 4 acts.
25. Othello -
    1887; in 4 acts.
26. Falstaff -
    1893; in 3 acts.

Giuseppe Verdi in Vanity Fair, 1879

Other works[ | ]

• String quartet e-moll – 1873
• Requiem (Messa da Requiem)
  - 1874
• Four Sacred Pieces (Quattro Pezzi Sacri)
  - 1892

Memory[ | ]

In sculpture[ | ]

• Verdi Memorial in Parma
• Monument in Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, Busseto
• Monument to Verdi in Milan
• Bust of Giuseppe Verdi by Antonio Ugo next to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy.
• Monument to Verdi in Trieste
• Bust of Verdi in Venice
• Bust of Verdi in San Francisco

In philately[ | ]

• KhMK, Russia, 2013
• USSR postage stamp dedicated to Verdi, 1963, 4 kopecks (TsFA 2879, Scott 2745A)
• Postage stamp of Romania, 1963

In astronomy[ | ]

A crater on Mercury is named after Giuseppe Verdi.

• Media files on Wikimedia Commons

Giuseppe becomes a conductor, studying with V. Lavigny

At the age of 15 he was already the conductor of Giuseppe Verdi's small orchestra. His short biography continues with his arrival in Milan. He went here with money raised by his father’s friends. Giuseppe's goal was to enter the conservatory. However, he was not accepted into this educational institution due to lack of ability. Nevertheless, V. Lavigna, a Milanese conductor and composer, appreciated Giuseppe’s talent. He started teaching him compositions for free. Giuseppe Verdi learned operatic writing and orchestration in practice in the opera houses of Milan. His short biography is marked by the appearance of his first works a few years later.

Notes[ | ]

1. ↑ 12
   Giuseppe Verdi // Internet Broadway Database (English) - 2000.
2. ↑ 1 2 Itaú Cultural
   Giuseppe Verdi // Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural (port.) - São Paulo: Itaú Cultural, 1987. - ISBN 978-85-7979-060-7
3. Giuseppe Verdi // Discogs (English) - 2000.
4. BeWeB
5. Bibliothèque nationale de France
   BNF identifier (French): open data platform - 2011.
6. Verdi Giuseppe // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ed. A. M. Prokhorov - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969.
7. https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,428319,00.html
8. Archivio Storico Ricordi - 1808.
9. Biography of Giuseppe Verdi (unspecified)
   . RIA Novosti (October 10, 2013). Access date: August 5, 2014.
10. Giuseppe Verdi Operas (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link). Giuseppe-Verdi.Net. Access date: April 30, 2014. Archived May 2, 2014.
11. I.
    Molchanova, I. Okhalova, D. Petrov, E. Tsareva.
    Musical literature of foreign countries: For students of music schools / Ed. E. Tsarevoy. - M.: Music, 2010. - Issue. 4. - 704 p. — ISBN 978-5-7140-1200-6.
12. museocasabarezzi.it (in Italian): “She died the following year [1840] on June 18, aged only 26 years, while Verdi was working on his ill-fated second opera, Un Giorno di Regno
    .”
13. on magiadellopera.com (in Italian): “On 18 June 1840 Margherita Barezzi's life was cut short by violent encephalitis.”
14. reocities.com (in Italian): Archived copy from August 24, 2013 on the Wayback Machine “…on 20 [ sic
    ] June 1840 his young wife Margherita died, struck down by a severe form of acute encephalitis.”
15. The hotel's website contains a brief history of the composer's stay and a few photographs of those days
16. Tintori, p. 232.
17. Kerman, Joseph and Hussey, Dyneley. "Giuseppe Verdi". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jan. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giuseppe-Verdi.
18. Casa Barezzi: where Verdi was discovered (English) (undefined)
    .
    Italian Ways
    (January 23, 2019). Access date: April 14, 2021.
19. Villa Verdi website (English). Villa Verdi
    . Access date: April 14, 2021.
20. "Il pianoforte di Verdi suona all'Accademia dei Musici." Cronache Ancona (in Italian). 2017-10-28.