Happy Friday!
Even if you don't care for opera, you probably know today's birthday boy whose work is featured not only onstage but in cartoons and television commercials. Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 9 or 10, 1813 in a small town near Parma, Italy. Baptismal records from October 11 indicates that he was "born yesterday" but Verdi celebrated his own birthday on October 9. Regardless of that minor detail, let's proceed to honor this iconic composer who dominated Italian opera after the influential Rossini, Bellini and Conizetti.
Verdi began his musical education in childhood, learning to play the organ and spinet, and became the official paid organist at his local church at age 8 (!) after the previous organist died. Also schooled in Latin and Italian, he took lessons from the co-director of the local philharmonic society. He started composing at age 13, writing marches, small symphonic pieces, piano concertos, serenades and cantatas. After graduating with honors from the Ginnasio (upper school for boys) he focused solely on music and performed in his first public event as an understudy, playing his own compositions and starting a successful career. He led the philharmonic in his early 20s while teaching singing and piano. He got engaged to the daughter (Margherita Berezzi) of his mentor who was also his pupil, whom he married in 1836. They moved to Milan – the intellectual and operatic center of Italy - where he heard operas by Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini at La Scala. His first opera, Oberto, was performed in 1837. Sadly, Margherita died of encephalitis at age 26 and both of their children died within their first 2 years of life. The loss of his family devastated him.
His first famous opera, Nabucodonosor (later changed to Nabucco, based on the biblical Nebuchadnezzar) debuted in 1842 was performed a record of 57 times at La Scala. Within 3 years, it was also performed Vienna, Lisbon, Paris, Barcelona, Hamburg, Berlin and New York. He drove himself "like a galley slave" and created 20 operas over the next 16 years, experiencing frustrations and demoralizing lows, sometimes expressing his desire to quit composing. Nabucco continued to succeed and wrote I Lombardi all prima crociata (I Lombardi) in 1843 which "confirmed...the young man's reputation". As his popularity increased, so did his finances, enabling him to purchase a fair amount of real estate.
Emanuele Muzio became his only pupil in 1844 and they had a close relationship until Muzio's death. He had a close romantic relationship with operatic soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, of questionable repute, in Parma around this time. Her voice declined shortly thereafter and she stopped performing and they separated cordially, to be reunited four years later and married in 1859.
He wrote Macbeth in 1847, revised in 1865, including the famous sleepwalking scene of Lady Macbeth. Verdi wrote the music for Rigoletto (based on Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse) in March 1851, followed by Il travatore and La traviata. While Rigoletto is now considered one of his most famous operas, it was met with French and Austrian censorship at the time, requiring him to re-work the plot and substitute a Duke for a King. The other main characters are the Duke's hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's daughter Gilda. The Duke and Rigoletto are cursed, and Rigoletto hires an assassin to kill the Duke (considered politically taboo), which Gilda prevents. The libretto was re-worked, including changing the names of some of the characters and deleting some of the raunchier scenes. Ultimately, it was a success and the Duke's aria "La donna e mobile" – being embargoed before the first performance - was sung in the streets the next morning. As with many operas, modern productions changed the original setting.
Through the 1870s, Verdi wrote Don Carlos, Aida and Requiem. Otello, based on Shakespeare's play Othello, opened in 1886, and Falstaff, an adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, debuted in 1893. From 1855-1870 he worked for the Opéra in Paris. After composing more than 25 operas, Verdi died in Milan on January 27, 1901. His works have reportedly been performed more than any other opera composer's worldwide.
Today is also famous American jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk's birth anniversary today – he was among the first creators or modern jazz and one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.
Have a superb weekend!
Deb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8-vZJNY10k