Verdi
GIUSEPPE, an Italian composer; born in Roncole near Busseto, Italy, Oct. 9, 1813. At 10 years he was organist of the small church in his native village; at 16 he was provided with funds to prosecute his studies at the conservatorium at Milan; at Milan; but at the entrance examination he showed so little evidence of musical talent that the authorities declined to enroll him. Nothing daunted, he pursued his studies under Lavigna from 1831 to 1833, when, according to agreement, he returned to Busseto to take the place of his old teacher Provesi, then deceased. After five unhappy years in a town where he was little appreciated, Verdi returned to Milan. His first opera, "Oberto, Conte di S. Bonifacio," is chiefly indebted to Bellini, and the next, "Un Giorno di Regno" (which fulfilled its own title, as it was only once performed), has been styled "un Bazar de Reminiscences."
GIUSEPPE VERDI "Nabucodonosor" (1842) was his first hit, and in the next year "I Lombardi," was even more successful-partly owing to the revolutionary feeling which in no small degree was to help him to his future high position. Indeed, his name was a useful acrostic to the revolutionary party, who shouted "Viva Verdi," when they meant "Viva Vittorio Emanuele, Re D'Italia." "Ernani," produced at Venice in 1844, also scored a success, owing to the republican sentiment in the libretto, which was adapted from Victor Hugo's "Hernani." Many works followed in quick succession, each rousing the enthusiasm of the audiences chiefly when an opportunity was afforded them of expressing their feelings against the Austrian rule. Only with his 16th opera did Verdi win the supremacy when there were no longer any living com- VERDIGRIS petitors; and "Rigoletto" (1851) "Il Trovatore," and "La Traviata" (1853) must be called the best, as they are the last of the Italian opera school. "I Vespri Siciliani" (1855) and "Simon Boccanegra" (1857) were not so successful as "Un Ballo in Maschera" (1859); and none of them any more than "La Forza del Destino" (1862) or "Don Carlos" (1867) added anything to the fame of the composer of "Il Trovatore." Only now begins the interest which the student of musical history finds in Verdi's life. Hitherto he had proved a good man struggling with adversity and poverty, a successful composer ambitious to succeed to the vacant throne of Italian opera. But the keen insight into dramatic necessity which had gradually developed and had given such force to otherwise unimportant scenes in earlier operas also showed him the insufficiency of the means hitherto at the disposal disposal of Italian composers, and from time to time he had tried to learn the lessons taught in the French Grand Opera school, but with poor success. Now a longer interval seemed to promise a more careful, a more ambitious work, and when "Aïda" was produced at Cairo (1871) it was at once acknowledged that a revolution had taken place in Verdi's mind and method, which might produce still greater results. The influence of Wagner and the music drama is distinctly to be felt, and the andvantage of more deliberate work. But Verdi was apparently not yet satisfied. For 16 years the successful composer maintained absolute silence in opera, when whispers of a great music drama roused the expectation of musical Europe to an extraordinary pitch; nor were the highest expectations disappointed when "Othello" was produced at Milan in 1887. The surrender of Italian opera was complete, and Verdi took his right place at the head of the vigorous new school which has arisen in Italy and which promises to regain for the "Land of Song" some of her ancient pre-eminence in music. A comic opera, "Falstaff," was produced in 1893 by by the composer; a Requiem Mass (1874) is his only important non-operatic work. He died in Milan, Italy, Jan. 27, 1901.