Giuseppe Verdi

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook : October 10

Considered the greatest 19^th Century Italian opera composer who raised the opera's heights. He created some of the most dramatically effective music ever heard on stage.

Giuseppe Verdi's brief biography – his life and list of major works. Famous for operas Rigoletto, Aida, Nabucco, La Traviata. Il Trovatore, and more, popular then and now.      

Verdi's operas range from the tragic to the comic. He was master of theatrical drama, who also inherited the 'bel canto' singing style from predecessors Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini. Verdi's music are instantly recognised, for example, "La donna è mobile" (woman is fickle) from Rigoletto or "Anvil Chorus" from Il Trovatore, often used in numerous TV commercials, are as acclaimed today as when it was first written.

Early Life

Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) Verdi was born in Roncole near Parma, Italy on October 10 (9?), 1813. He came from the family of small landowners and taverners. However as a composer, his success was so great that by today’s standard, he would be considered a multimillionaire. 

 

 

Verdi Opera Nabucco

Classical Music / Opera Datebook: March 9

Giuseppe Verdi's Opera Nabucco Premieres

Nabucco (English Nebuchadnezzar), is an Italian opera in four acts composed by Giuseppe Verdi in 1841 to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera.  It is based on Biblical stories from the Books of Jeremiah and Daniel. Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842.

The opera Nabucco is considered to have permanently established Verdi's reputation as a composer. He commented 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."

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Verdi Opera La forza del destino

Classical Music Dateline: November 10


November 10, 1862. The opera of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, La Forza del destino, which had been commissioned by the Russian Imperial Opera, premiered in Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of St. Petersburg. The libretto of La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny) was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Alvaro o La Fuerza de Sino (1835), by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager.



After some revisions, performances were held in Rome and Madrid. Subsequently, the opera travelled to New York, Vienna, Buenos Aires and London. Verdi made other revisions, with additions by Antonio Ghislanzoni, which premiered at La Scala, Milan in 1869. This has become the "standard" performance version. La forza del destino is part of the standard operatic repertoire. There are a number of recordings of it regularly performed.


Video Credit:

Montserrat Caballe "Pace, pace mio Dio" La forza del destino, with Vienna State Opera. Youtube, uploaded by Oneguin65. Accessed October 10, 2017.

Latest update: October 10, 2017. 

Resources:

Verdi La Forza del Destino (English Libretto).

Verdi La Forza del Destino (Italian Libretto). 


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