Camille du Locle (1895)

Camille du Locle (right; 1893)

Camille du Locle (16 July 1832 – 9 October 1903) was a French theatre director and a librettist. He was born in Orange, France. From 1862 he served as assistant to his father-in-law, Émile Perrin at the Paris Opéra, moving in 1870 to the Opéra-Comique.

He is best remembered for mounting the original production of Bizet's Carmen in 1875. His friendship with Ernest Reyer led to him providing libretti for Sigurd and Salammbô. Du Locle was responsible for completing the libretto of Don Carlos after the death of Joseph Mery. ^[1] He also played a key role in the genesis of Aida in 1869-70. In 1876, a financial dispute arose with Verdi, and Du Locle moved to Capri.^[2] He lived in what is called today “La Certosella”.^[3]

According to Charles Pigot, Du Locle inspired the subject, words and music of Bizet's Djamileh. He was a pall-bearer at Bizet's funeral and made a speech at his interment at Père Lachaise.^[4]

Du Locle died in Capri.

References[link]

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Willy Decker (born 1950) is a German theatre director, particularly known for his opera productions. He staged the world premieres of Hans Werner Henze's Pollicino (Montepulciano, 1980), Antonio Bibalo's Macbeth (Oslo, 1990), and Aribert Reimann's Das Schloss (The Castle) (Berlin, 1992).

Decker was born in Pulheim near Cologne and was educated first at the Rheinischen Musikschule in Cologne where he studied violin and later at the University of Cologne and the Hochschule für Musik Köln where he studied philosophy, theatre, music, and singing. In his early 20s he started work as an assistant director in Essen at the Cologne State Opera, where he eventually served as the artistic director. He went on to direct many new opera productions for major European opera houses, as well as for San Francisco Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2004 directing Korngold's Die tote Stadt and returned in 2005 for an acclaimed new production of La traviata starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón.

In 2005 he was appointed an honorary professor in musical theatre direction at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, and as of 2009 he is the artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale Festival.

In 2010 he presents Wagner's Flying Dutchman at the parisian Bastille Opera, and "Tristan und Isolde" in Hong Kong.

References[link]

• Cummings, David Cummings, "Decker, Willy", International Who's who in Music and Musicians' Directory (Classical and Light Classical), 17th edition, Routledge, 2000, p. 150. ISBN 0-948875-53-4
• Klinger, Thomas, "Stage director Willy Decker makes his debut in Salzburg", Freunde der Salzburger Festspiele Magazine, April 2004.
• Lash, Larry L., Moses und Aron, Wiener Staatsoper, 6/15/06, Opera News, September 2006, vol. 71 , no. 3
• Salzburger Nachrichten, Standing Ovations für "La Traviata" in Salzburg, 8 August 2005.

External links[link]

• Willy Decker at the Ruhrtriennale Festival official web site.
• Willy Decker on the Haydn Rawstron Ltd. (management agency) web site.

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René Pape (born 4 September 1964) is a German operatic bass.

Biography[link]

Rene Pape was born in Dresden, then part of East Germany. His mother is a hairdresser and his father a chef. His parents divorced when he was two years old and he sometimes lived with his grandmother, who opened the way for his interest in music. His maternal grandfather was an operetta tenor.

Pape received his musical education from 1974 to 1981 with Dresdner Kreuzchor (he even appeared as one of the Three Boys^[1] in Die Zauberflöte and the Dresden Conservatory in the early '80s. He had his debut with the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 1988, and achieved international recognition in 1991, when Sir Georg Solti cast him as Sarastro in a production of Die Zauberflöte, a role he sang again the same year at La Scala in Milan under Solti's direction. He sang in Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten ("The Seasons") with the Orchestre de Paris and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, both under Solti (1992), then Don Fernando (Fidelio), the Speaker and Sarastro with the Vienna State Opera during the 1992-93 season, King Philip (Don Carlo) in Basle Switzerland) and had his Bayreuth debut under the baton of James Levine as Fasolt in Das Rheingold in 1994. The year 1995 saw his debut with the Metropolitan Opera, as the Night Watchman in Die Meistersinger, where he has performed practically every year since (Fasolt and King of Egypt (Aida) in 1997, the Old Hebrew (Samson and Dalila) in 1998, King Marke (Tristan) in 1999, Escamillo (Carmen) and Rocco (Fidelio) in 2000, Oreste (Strauss's Elektra) in 2002, Gürnemanz (Parsifal) in 2003, Leporello (Don Giovanni) and King Marke in 2004, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust in 2005, King Heinrich, King Philip, and Sarastro in 2006, Banquo in Macbeth in 2008, Fasolt, Hunding in Die Walküre" in 2009, Boris Godunov in 2010). About his role as King Marke, Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times' November 30, 2008 issue : Few singers have conveyed Marke’s feelings of betrayal by his beloved nephew Tristan with such lofty, noble anguish. Rene Pape’s King Marke is a magnificent and dignified performance, sung with the utmost compassion and with an enviable richness and range of bass tone, wrote Michael Kennedy in the Sunday Telegraph on May 25, 2003. As Heinrich, Rene Pape displayed what must be the most sumptuous operatic bass in the world, wrote Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph on 5 June 2003.

Pape was honored on October 27, 2010, by the Metropolitan Opera Guild as part of its Met Mastersingers series. In addition to the Metropolitan Opera, Pape sings often with the Chicago Lyric Opera (Pogner in Die Meistersinger in 1999, Rocco in 2005 and Faust in 2009). He had his first solo recital in Carnegie Hall on April 25, 2009, where he sang German lieder from Schubert, Hugo Wolf and Schumann.

Pape had his debut at London’s Royal Opera Covent Garden as King Heinrich in Lohengrin in 1997; at the Opéra National de Paris under James Conlon as King Marke in Tristan in 1998; and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago under Christian Thielemann as Die Meistersinger’s Pogner in 1999.

Pape made a highly acclaimed debut as Wotan on April 17, 2011 in Berlin in a new co-production by the Staatsoper, directed by the Belgian Guy Cassiers, with Daniel Barenboim conducting. His rendition of Wotan, both virile and lyrical, was very compelling, with all the dilemma he faces and his human frailty.

His repertoire includes virtually all the great German bass roles, such as Mozart's Figaro, Leporello, and Don Giovanni, Pogner in Wagner's Die Meistersinger, King Heinrich in Lohengrin, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Fasolt, Hunding and Wotan in the Ring des Nibelungen, Oreste in Strauss's Elektra as well as Ramfis in Aida, Filippo II in Don Carlo, Méphistophélès in Faust, Escamillo in Carmen, Gremin in Eugene Oneguine and the title role of Boris Godunov.

Pape performs regularly in major opera houses, concert halls, and symphony orchestras around the world, as well as opera festivals such as Bayreuth, Glyndebourne, Lucerne, Orange, Saint-Petersburg, Salzburg, Verbier and White Nights.

Pape made his film debut as Sarastro in Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute, which premiered simultaneously at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2006 Venice Film Festival. He has also performed in "Hunter's Bride", a film version of Der Freischütz, released in 2010, by film director Jens Neubert, in which he sang the role of the Hermit.

Pape is also known for his performances of the song cycle Mein Herz brennt, composed by Torsten Rasch and based on the music of the heavy metal band Rammstein. In 2007 he released the Rammstein-Song "Mann Gegen Mann" by the German band Rammstein in a piano version by German composer Sven Helbig.

Pape has received two Grammys for his recordings ("Die Meistersinger" in 1997 and "Tannhauser" in 2002), was named “Vocalist of the Year” by Musical America in 2002, “Artist of the Year” by the German opera critics in 2006 for his Boris Godunov at the Berlin Staatsoper, and won in 2009 an ECHO award (the German equivalent of the Grammy) for his solo arias, Gods, Kings and Demons".

Discography[link]

• Mozart: Requiem, Mar. 1992, Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Georg Solti, Decca
• Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, Apr. 1993, Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by John Mauceri, Decca
• Mendelssohn: Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Nov. 1993, Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Teldec
• Busoni: Turandot, Oct. 1993, Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by Gerd Albrecht, Capriccio
• Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Sep. 1994, Bayerischen Staatsoper conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, EMI Classics
• Mendelssohn: Antigone, Jan. 1995, Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by Stefan Soltesz, Capriccio
• Haydn: The Creation, Feb. 1995, Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti, Decca
• Busoni: Arlecchino, Mar. 1995, Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by Gerd Albrecht, Capriccio
• Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Jun. 1995, Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Georg Solti, Decca
• Beethoven: Choral Fantasy/Triple Concerto, Nov. 1995, Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Daniel Barenboim, EMI Classics
• Mendelssohn: Oedipus, Jan. 1996, Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by Stefan Soltesz, Capriccio
• Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Feb. 1997, Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti, Decca
• Mahler: Symphony No. 8, Mar. 1997, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis, RCA
• Franz Schmidt: The Book with Seven Seals, Oct. 1998, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, EMI Classics
• Wagner: Lohengrin, Nov. 1998, Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Teldec Classics
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Dec. 2000, Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Teldec Classics
• Beethoven: Fidelio, Jan. 2000, Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Teldec Classics
• Wagner: Tannhäuser, 2001, Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Teldec Classics
• Torsten Rasch: Mein Herz Brennt, 2003. Dresdner Sinfoniker conducted by John Carewe, Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon
• Rammstein: Reise, Reise, 2004, Motor/Republic
• 10th Annual Opera Gala in support of the German AIDS Foundation, May 2004, Deutsche Oper Berlin conducted by Kent Nagano, RCA
• Mozart: Bastien und Bastienne, Sep. 2005, Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig conducted by Max Pommer, Brilliant Classics
• Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, Sep. 2005, Royal Opera House Covent Garden conducted by Antonio Pappano, EMI Classics
• Rammstein: Rosenrot, Oct. 2005, Universal
• Mozart: Das Mozart Album, Jul. 2006, Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Oct. 2007, Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, Deutsche Grammophon
• Mozart: The Magic Flute, May. 2007, Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon
• Gods, Kings & Demons, Aug. 2008, Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Sebastian Weigle, Deutsche Grammophon
• Wagner: Parsifal, September 2010, Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, with the Mariinsky Chorus, Mariinsky
• Wagner: arias from Walküre, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin, Parsifal, Tannhäuser Staatskapelle Berlin, dir. Daniel Barenboim DGG, 2010

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Louise T. Guinther, Cover Feature: René Pape, Opera news, January 2007

External links[link]

• Official website
• Rayfield Allied profile
• René Pape: Career, roles, performances, CDs and DVDs

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2011)

Samuel Edward Ramey (born March 28, 1942 in Colby, Kansas) is an American operatic bass with a long, distinguished career.^{[1] [2]} At the height of his career, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique to enable him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart, Rossini, yet power enough to handle the more overtly dramatic roles written by Verdi and Puccini.

He married his third wife, soprano Lindsey Larsen, on June 29, 2002.

Early life[link]

Samuel Ramey is a 1960 graduate of Colby High School in the town of Colby, Kansas. He studied music in high school and in college at Kansas State University, as well as at Wichita State with Arthur Newman. In college at Kansas State, Ramey was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. After further study in Central City (where he was in the chorus of Don Giovanni in 1963, with Norman Treigle in the title role) and as an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera, he went to New York where he worked for an academic publisher before he had his first breakthrough at the New York City Opera, debuting on March 11, 1973 singing the role of Zuniga in the 1875 Bizet opera Carmen, after which, among other roles, he took over the Faustian devils in Gounod's Faust and Boito's Mefistofele left empty by the early death of Treigle.

As his repertoire expanded, he spent more and more time in the theatres of Europe, notably in Berlin, Hamburg, London, Paris, Vienna, and the summer festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Pesaro, and Salzburg.

Later career[link]

In January 1984, Ramey made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Handel's Rinaldo. He has since become a fixture at the Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New York City Opera, and the San Francisco Opera.

In the bel canto repertoire, Ramey has excelled in Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro and in Rossini's Semiramide, The Barber of Seville, Il Turco in Italia, L'italiana in Algeri; in Donizetti's Anna Bolena and Lucia di Lammermoor and Bellini's I puritani.

In the dramatic repertoire, Ramey has been acclaimed for his "Three Devils": Boito's Mefistofele, Gounod's Faust, and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust

Other dramatic roles have included Verdi's Nabucco, Don Carlo, I Lombardi and Jérusalem and Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (portraying all four villains). A number of previously obscure operas with strong bass/bass-baritone roles have been revived solely for Ramey, such as Verdi's Attila, Rossini's Maometto II and Massenet's Don Quichotte.

Recordings[link]

Ramey has made an exceptionally large number of recordings that feature nearly all of his main operatic roles as well as collections of miscellaneous arias, other classical pieces and crossover discs of popular American music. He has also appeared on television and video productions of the Met's productions of Carmen and Bluebeard's Castle, San Francisco's production of Mefistofele, Glyndebourne's production of The Rake's Progress and Salzburg's production of Don Giovanni.

In 1996, Ramey gave a concert at New York's Avery Fisher Hall titled "A Date with the Devil" in which he sang 14 arias representing the core of this repertoire, and he continues to tour this program throughout the world. In 2000, Ramey presented this concert at Munich's Gasteig Concert Hall. This performance was recorded live and was released on compact disc in the northern summer of 2002. In recent years, however, his singing has been criticized for a wobble.

Current activities[link]

Ramey lives in Glenview, Illinois and has participated in some 70 performances a year. He serves as a member of the faculty at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. ^[3]

Notes[link]

1. ^ Ralph Blumenthal, "The Devil? He's a Basso Whose Voice Is Heavenly", The New York Times, February 17, 1998
2. ^ Anthony Tommasini, "An Aw Shucks Manner, but Don't Be Fooled: He's an Absolute Devil", The New York Times, November 5, 1999
3. ^ Delta Omicron

References[link]

• Samuel Ramey's website, samuelramey.com Retrieved 25 January 2010
• Article on Samuel Ramey with Bach cantata recordings, on bach-cantatas.com Retrieved 25 July 2010
• List of "Articles on Samuel Ramey", New York Times Retrieved 25 July 2010

Bibliography[link]

• Samuel Ramey: American Bass, by Jane Scovell, Baskerville Publishers, 2010. ISBN 978-1-880909-76-8

External links[link]

• Samuel Ramey's website

Giuseppe Verdi

Signature G. Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi]; 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture – such as "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata and the "Grand March" from Aida.

Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard opera repertoire a century and a half after their composition.

Early life[link]

Giuseppe Verdi in Vanity Fair (1879)

Verdi was born the son of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro which was a part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. The baptismal register, on 11 October lists him as being "born yesterday", but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. The next day, he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin as Joseph Fortuninus Franciscus. The day after that (Tuesday), Verdi's father took his newborn the three miles to Busseto, where the baby was recorded as Joseph Fortunin François; the clerk wrote in French. "So it happened that for the civil and temporal world Verdi was born a Frenchman."^[1]

When he was still a child, Verdi's parents moved from Piacenza to Busseto, where the future composer's education was greatly facilitated by visits to the large library belonging to the local Jesuit school. Also in Busseto, Verdi was given his first lessons in composition.

Verdi went to Milan when he was twenty to continue his studies. He took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances, as well as concerts of, specifically, German music. Milan's beaumonde association convinced him that he should pursue a career as a theatre composer. During the mid 1830s, he attended the Salotto Maffei salons in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei.

Returning to Busseto, he became the town music master and, with the support of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and music lover who had long supported Verdi's musical ambitions in Milan, Verdi gave his first public performance at Barezzi’s home in 1830.

Because he loved Verdi’s music, Barezzi invited Verdi to be his daughter Margherita's music teacher, and the two soon fell deeply in love. They were married on 4 May 1836 and Margherita gave birth to two children, Virginia Maria Luigia (26 March 1837 – 12 August 1838) and Icilio Romano (11 July 1838 – 22 October 1839). Both died in infancy while Verdi was working on his first opera and, shortly afterwards, Margherita died of encephalitis^[2][3]on 18 June 1840, aged only 26.^[4] Verdi adored his wife and children, and he was devastated by their untimely deaths.

Initial recognition[link]

	"O sommo Carlo" Ernani (1844), Act 3, sung by Mattia Battistini, Emilia Corsi, Luigi Colazza, Aristodemo Sillich, and the La Scala chorus in 1906.
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The production by Milan's La Scala of his first opera, Oberto in November 1839 achieved a degree of success, after which Bartolomeo Merelli, La Scala's impresario, offered Verdi a contract for two more works.

It was while he was working on his second opera, Un giorno di regno, that Verdi's wife died. The opera, given in September 1840, was a flop and he fell into despair and vowed to give up musical composition forever. However, Merelli persuaded him to write Nabucco and its opening performance in March 1842 made Verdi famous. Legend (and Verdi's own "An Autobiographical Sketch" of 1879^[5]) has it that it was the words of the famous Va pensiero chorus of the Hebrew slaves that inspired him to write music again. A large number of operas – 14 in all – followed in the decade after 1843, a period which Verdi was to describe as his "galley years". These included his I Lombardi in 1843, and Ernani in 1844. For some, the most original and important opera that Verdi wrote is Macbeth in 1847. For the first time, Verdi attempted an opera without a love story, breaking a basic convention in 19th century Italian opera.

In 1847, I Lombardi, which was revised and renamed Jérusalem, was produced by the Paris Opera. Due to a number of Parisian conventions that had to be honored (including extensive ballets), it became Verdi's first work in the French Grand opera style.

Middle years[link]

	"Bella figlia dell'amore" Rigoletto (1851), Act 3. A 1907 Victor Records recording with Enrico Caruso, Bessie Abott, Louise Homer and Antonio Scotti. "Stride la vampa" Il trovatore (1853), Act 2. Sung by Gabriella Besanzoni in 1920. "Ah, fors'è lui" ... "Sempre libera" La traviata (1853), Act 1. Sung by Lucrezia Bori.
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Sometime in the mid-1840s, after the death of Margherita Barezzi, Verdi began an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano in the twilight of her career.^[6] Their cohabitation before marriage was regarded as scandalous in some of the places they lived, but Verdi and Giuseppina married on 29 August 1859 at Collonges-sous-Salève, near Geneva.^[7] While living in Busseto with Strepponi, Verdi bought an estate two miles from the town in 1848. Initially, his parents lived there, but, after his mother's death in 1851, he made the Villa Verdi at Sant'Agata in Villanova sull'Arda his home until his death.

As the "galley years" were drawing to a close, Verdi created one of his greatest masterpieces, Rigoletto, which premiered in Venice in 1851. Based on a play by Victor Hugo (Le roi s'amuse), the libretto had to undergo substantial revisions in order to satisfy the epoch's censorship, and the composer was on the verge of giving it all up a number of times. The opera quickly became a great success.

With Rigoletto, Verdi sets up his original idea of musical drama as a cocktail of heterogeneous elements, embodying social and cultural complexity, and beginning from a distinctive mixture of comedy and tragedy. Rigoletto's musical range includes band-music such as the first scene or the song La donna è mobile, Italian melody such as the famous quartet "Bella figlia dell'amore", chamber music such as the duet between Rigoletto and Sparafucile and powerful and concise declamatos often based on key-notes like the C and C# notes in Rigoletto and Monterone's upper register.

There followed the second and third of the three major operas of Verdi's "middle period": in 1853 Il Trovatore was produced in Rome and La traviata in Venice. The latter was based on Alexandre Dumas, fils' play The Lady of the Camellias, and became the most popular of all Verdi's operas, placing second in the Operabase list of most performed operas worldwide.^[8]

Later compositions[link]

	"È scherzo od è follia" Un ballo in maschera (1859), Act 1, Scene 2. Performed by Enrico Caruso, Frieda Hempel, Maria Duchêne, Andrés de Segurola and Léon Rothier. "Nè gustare m'è dato un'ora..." La forza del destino (1862), Act 3, Scene 3. Sung by Enrico Caruso and Giuseppe de Luca.
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Between 1855 and 1867, an outpouring of great Verdi operas followed, among them such repertory staples as Un ballo in maschera (1859), La forza del destino (commissioned by the Imperial Theatre of Saint Petersburg for 1861 but not performed until 1862), and a revised version of Macbeth (1865). Other somewhat less often performed include Les vêpres siciliennes (1855) and Don Carlos (1867), both commissioned by the Paris Opera and initially given in French. Today, these latter two operas are most often performed in their revised Italian versions. Simon Boccanegra followed in 1857.

Giuseppe Verdi in 1876 by Etienne Carjat

In 1869, Verdi was asked to compose a section for a requiem mass in memory of Gioachino Rossini and proposed that this requiem should be a collection of sections composed by other Italian contemporaries of Rossini. The requiem was compiled and completed, but it was cancelled at the last minute (and was not performed in Verdi's lifetime). Verdi blamed this on the lack of enthusiasm for the project by the intended conductor, Angelo Mariani, who had been a longtime friend of his. The episode led to a permanent break in their personal relations. The soprano Teresa Stolz (who later had a strong professional – and, perhaps, romantic – relationship with Verdi) was at that time engaged to be married to Mariani, but she left him not long after. Five years later, Verdi reworked his "Libera Me" section of the Rossini Requiem and made it a part of his Requiem Mass, honoring the famous novelist and poet Alessandro Manzoni, who had died in 1873. The complete Requiem was first performed at the cathedral in Milan on 22 May 1874.

Verdi's grand opera, Aida, is sometimes thought to have been commissioned for the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, but, according to one major critic,^[9] Verdi turned down the Khedive's invitation to write an "ode" for the new opera house he was planning to inaugurate as part of the canal opening festivities. The opera house actually opened with a production of Rigoletto. Later in 1869/70, the organizers again approached Verdi (this time with the idea of writing an opera), but he again turned them down. When they warned him that they would ask Charles Gounod instead and then threatened to engage Richard Wagner's services, Verdi began to show considerable interest, and agreements were signed in June 1870.

Teresa Stolz was associated with both Aida and the Requiem (as well as a number of other Verdi roles). The role of Aida was written for her, and although she did not appear in the world premiere in Cairo in 1871, she created Aida in the European premiere in Milan in February 1872. She was also the soprano soloist in the first and many later performances of the Requiem. It was widely believed that she and Verdi had an affair after she left Angelo Mariani, and a Florence newspaper criticised them for this in five strongly worded articles. Whether there is any truth to the accusation may never be known with any certainty. However, after Giuseppina Strepponi's death, Teresa Stolz became a close companion of Verdi until his own death.

Verdi and Wagner, who were the leaders of their respective schools of music, seemed to resent each other greatly. They never met. Verdi's comments on Wagner and his music are few and hardly benevolent ("He invariably chooses, unnecessarily, the untrodden path, attempting to fly where a rational person would walk with better results"), but at least one of them is kind: upon learning of Wagner's death, Verdi lamented, "Sad, sad, sad! ... a name that will leave a most powerful impression on the history of art."^[10] Of Wagner's comments on Verdi, only one is well-known. After listening to Verdi's Requiem, the German, prolific and eloquent in his comments on some other composers, stated, "It would be best not to say anything."

Final years and death[link]

	"Sì, pel ciel marmoreo giuro!" Otello (1887), Act 2. Performed by Titta Ruffo and Enrico Caruso.
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During the following years, Verdi worked on revising some of his earlier scores, most notably new versions of Don Carlos, La forza del destino, and Simon Boccanegra.

Otello, based on William Shakespeare's play, with a libretto written by the younger composer of Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito, premiered in Milan in 1887. Its music is "continuous" and cannot easily be divided into separate "numbers" to be performed in concert. Some^[who?] feel that although masterfully orchestrated, it lacks the melodic lustre so characteristic of Verdi's earlier, great, operas,  while many critics consider it Verdi's greatest tragic opera, containing some of his most beautiful, expressive music and some of his richest characterizations. In addition, it lacks a prelude, something Verdi listeners are not accustomed to. Arturo Toscanini performed as cellist in the orchestra at the world premiere and began his friendship with Verdi (a composer he revered as highly as Beethoven).

Verdi's statue in the Piazza G. Verdi, Busseto

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, whose libretto was also by Boito, was based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and Victor Hugo's subsequent translation. It was an international success and is one of the supreme comic operas which shows Verdi's genius as a contrapuntist.

In 1894, Verdi composed a short ballet for a French production of Otello, his last purely orchestral composition. Years later, Arturo Toscanini recorded the music for RCA Victor with the NBC Symphony Orchestra which complements the 1947 Toscanini performance of the complete opera.

In 1897, Verdi completed his last composition, a setting of the traditional Latin text Stabat Mater. This was the last of four sacred works that Verdi composed, Quattro Pezzi Sacri, which are often performed together or separately. The first performance of the four works was on 7 April 1898, at the Grande Opéra, Paris. The four works are: Ave Maria for mixed chorus; Stabat Mater for mixed chorus and orchestra; Laudi alla Vergine Maria for female chorus; and Te Deum for double chorus and orchestra.

On 29 July 1900, King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated, a deed that horrified the aged composer^[11].

While staying at the Grand Hotel et de Milan^[12] in Milan, Verdi had a stroke on 21 January 1901. He grew gradually more feeble and died six days later, on 27 January. Arturo Toscanini conducted the vast forces of combined orchestras and choirs composed of musicians from throughout Italy at the state funeral for Verdi in Milan. To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event in the history of Italy.^[13]

Verdi was initially buried in Milan’s Cimitero Monumentale. A month later, his body was moved to the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a rest home for retired musicians that Verdi had established.

He was an agnostic.^[14]

Role in the Risorgimento[link]

Giuseppe Verdi, the bust outside of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy by Antonio Ugo.

Music historians have long perpetuated a myth about the famous Va, pensiero chorus sung in the third act of Nabucco. The myth reports that, when the Va, pensiero chorus was sung in Milan, then belonging to the large part of Italy under Austrian domination, the audience, responding with nationalistic fervor to the exiled slaves' lament for their lost homeland, demanded an encore of the piece. As encores were expressly forbidden by the government at the time, such a gesture would have been extremely significant. However, recent scholarship puts this to rest. Although the audience did indeed demand an encore, it was not for Va, pensiero but rather for the hymn Immenso Jehova, sung by the Hebrew slaves to thank God for saving His people. In light of these new revelations, Verdi's position as the musical figurehead of the Risorgimento has been correspondingly downplayed.^[15]Claudio, Verdi, Milan: Rusconi, 1982

On the other hand, during rehearsals, workmen in the theater stopped what they were doing during Va, pensiero and applauded at the conclusion of this haunting melody^[16] while the growth of the "identification of Verdi's music with Italian nationalist politics" is judged to have begun in the summer 1846 in relation to a chorus from Ernani in which the name of one of its characters, "Carlo", was changed to "Pio", a reference to Pope Pius IX's grant of an amnesty to political prisoners.^[17]

After Italy was unified in 1861, many of Verdi's early operas were re-interpreted as Risorgimento works with hidden Revolutionary messages that probably had not been intended by either the composer or librettist. Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy, the slogan "Viva VERDI" was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Viva Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), referring to Victor Emmanuel II, then king of Sardinia.^[18][19]

The Chorus of the Hebrews (the English title for Va, pensiero) has another appearance in Verdi folklore. Prior to Verdi's body's being driven from the cemetery to the official memorial service and its final resting place at the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, Arturo Toscanini conducted a chorus of 820 singers in "Va, pensiero". At the Casa, the Miserere from Il trovatore was sung.^[20]

Verdi was elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1861 following a request of Prime Minister Cavour but in 1865 he resigned from the office.^[21] In 1874 he was named Senator of the Kingdom by King Victor Emanuel II.

Style[link]

Verdi caricatured by Delfico (1860)

Verdi's predecessors who influenced his music were Rossini, Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer and, most notably, Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. With the exception of Otello and Aida, he was free of Wagner's influence. Although respectful of Gounod, Verdi was careful not to learn anything from the Frenchman whom many of Verdi's contemporaries regarded as the greatest living composer. Some strains in Aida suggest at least a superficial familiarity with the works of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt, after his tour of the Russian Empire as a pianist, popularized in Western Europe.

Throughout his career, Verdi rarely utilized the high C in his tenor arias, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of an audience distracts the performer before and after the note appears. However, he did provide high Cs to Duprez in Jérusalem and to Tamberlick in the original version of La forza del destino. The high C, often-heard in the aria "Di quella pira" from Il trovatore , does not appear in Verdi's score.

Some critics maintain he paid insufficient attention to the technical aspect of composition, lacking as he did schooling and refinement.^{[citation needed]} Verdi himself once said, "Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned." He hastened to add, however, "I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music."

Giuseppe Verdi. Portrait by Giovanni Boldini, 1886. This famous portrait was the main inspiration of Luchino Visconti in creating the character played by Burt Lancaster in his film Il Gattopardo.

However, it would be incorrect to assume that Verdi underestimated the expressive power of the orchestra or failed to use it to its full capacity where necessary. Moreover, orchestral and contrapuntal innovation is characteristic of his style: for instance, the strings producing a rapid ascending scale in Monterone's scene in Rigoletto accentuate the drama, and, in the same opera, the chorus humming six closely grouped notes backstage portrays, very effectively, the brief ominous wails of the approaching tempest. Verdi's innovations are so distinctive that other composers do not use them; they remain, to this day, some of Verdi's signatures.

Verdi was one of the first composers who insisted on patiently seeking out plots to suit his particular talents. Working closely with his librettists and well aware that dramatic expression was his forte, he made certain that the initial work upon which the libretto was based was stripped of all "unnecessary" detail and "superfluous" participants, and only characters brimming with passion and scenes rich in drama remained.

Many of his operas, especially the later ones from 1851 onwards, are a staple of the standard repertoire. With the possible exception of Giacomo Puccini, no composer of Italian opera has managed to match Verdi's popularity.

Works[link]

Verdi's operas, and their date of première are:

• Oberto, 17 November 1839
• Un giorno di regno, 5 September 1840
• Nabucco, 9 March 1842
• I Lombardi alla prima crociata, 11 February 1843
• Ernani, 9 March 1844
• I due Foscari, 3 November 1844
• Giovanna d'Arco, 15 February 1845
• Alzira, 12 August 1845
• Attila, 17 March 1846
• Macbeth, 14 March 1847
• I masnadieri, 22 July 1847
• Jérusalem (a revision and translation of I Lombardi alla prima crociata) 26 November 1847
• Il corsaro, 25 October 1848
• La battaglia di Legnano, 27 January 1849
• Luisa Miller, 8 December 1849
• Stiffelio, 16 November 1850
• Rigoletto, 11 March 1851
• Il trovatore, 19 January 1853
• La traviata, 6 March 1853
• Les vêpres siciliennes, 13 June 1855
• Simon Boccanegra, (Original Version), 12 March 1857
• Aroldo (A major revision of Stiffelio), 16 August 1857
• Un ballo in maschera, 17 February 1859
• La forza del destino, 10 November 1862
• Don Carlos, 11 March 1867
• Aida, 24 December 1871
• Simon Boccanegra, (Revised Version), 24 March 1881
• Otello, 5 February 1887
• Falstaff, 9 February 1893

Political significance[link]

Unlike most of the visual arts, opera was commercially profitable, accessible to most classes of society, and thus an effective means of reaching the 19th-century public. Verdi used musical theater to contrast noble ideals with the corrosive effects of power, love of country with the inevitable call for sacrifice and death, and the lure of passion with the need for social order.^[22]

Media[link]

Cultural depictions and references[link]

• The 1985 play After Aida is a play-with-music similar to Amadeus. It is an accurate and learned, yet dramatic and humorous, depiction of Verdi's relationship with his librettist Arrigo Boito, and the attempts of Giulio Ricordi and Franco Faccio to get the two to collaborate on a project, Otello.
• He is a character in the opera, Risorgimento! (2010) by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero, written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

Eponyms[link]

• There are many theatres named after Verdi in Italy.
• The Verdi Inlet on the Beethoven Peninsula of Alexander Island just off Antarctica
• Verdi Square at Broadway and West 72nd Street in Manhattan features the Giuseppe Verdi Monument.
• Asteroid 3975 Verdi
• Verdi Football Club, an association football club founded in Parma in July 1913, is after a series of name changes known today as the Parma F.C..

Verdi's name literally translates as "Joseph Green" in English (although verdi is the plural form of "green"). Musical comedian Victor Borge often referred to the famous composer as "Joe Green" in his act, saying that "Giuseppe Verdi" was merely his "stage name". The same joke-translation is mentioned in Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun by Patrick Redfern to Hercule Poirot – a prank which inadvertently gives Poirot the answer to the murder.

References[link]

Notes

Cited sources

• Budden, Julian (1973). The Operas of Verdi, Volume I (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816261-8. 
• Budden, Julian (1973). The Operas of Verdi, Volume II (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816262-6. 
• Budden, J. (1973). The Operas of Verdi, Volume III (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816263-4. 
• Casini, Claudio, Verdi, Milan: Rusconi, 1982
• De Van, Gilles (trans. Gilda Roberts), Verdi’s Theater: Creating Drama Through Music. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1998 ISBN 0-226-14369-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-226-14370-8
• Hunt, Lynn (2009 (3rd edition)). The Making of the West. Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-46510-6. 
• Martin, G. (1963). Verdi: His Music, Life and Times (1st ed.). Dodd, Mead & Company. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/2-00-145672-0|2-00-145672-0]]. 
• Newman, Earnest, Stories of the Great Operas. Philadelphia: The Blakinson Company, 1930
• Parker, Roger (2001). "Giuseppe Verdi". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. 
• Parker, Roger (1992). "The New Grove Dictionary of Opera". In ed. Stanley Sadie. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. ISBN 0-333-73432-7. 
• Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1993). Verdi: A Biography (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-313204-4. 
• Schonberg, Harold C. (1997). The Lives of the Great Composers. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-03857-2. http://books.google.com/?id=VawrK1CRFJgC&pg=PA260&lpg=PA260&dq=wagner's+death+verdi. Retrieved 9 January 2008 
• Tintori, Giampiero, Guida all'ascolto di Giuseppe Verdi, Milano: Mursia, 1983.
• Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul, Verdi: The Man and His Letters, New York: Vienna House 1973 ISBN 0-8443-0088-8

Other sources

• Kamien, R. (1997). Music: an appreciation – student brief (3rd ed.). McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-036521-0. 
• Gal, H. (1975). Brahms, Wagner, Verdi: Drei Meister, drei Welten. Fischer. ISBN 3-10-024302-1. 
• Michels, Ulrich (1992). dtv-Atlas zur Musik: Band Zwei (7th ed.). Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-423-03023-2. 
• (IT) Polo, Claudia, Immaginari verdiani. Opera, media e industria culturale nell'Italia del XX secolo, Milano: BMG/Ricordi, 2004

• Verdi's life in and around Busseto

• Associazione Amici di Verdi (ed.), Con Verdi nella sua terra, Busseto, 1997, (in English)
• Maestrelli, Maurizio, Guida alla Villa e al Parco (in Italian), publication of Villa Verdi, 2001
• Mordacci, Alessandra, An Itinerary of the History and Art in the Places of Verdi, Busseto: Busseto Tourist Office, 2001 (in English)
• Villa Verdi: the Visit and Villa Verdi: The Park; the Villa; the Room (pamphlets in English), publications of the Villa Verdi

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Giuseppe Verdi

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Giuseppe Verdi

• Giuseppe Verdi Official Site
• National Museum Giuseppe Verdi - Busseto
• Stanford University list of Verdi operas, premiere locations and dates, etc.
• Works by Giuseppe Verdi at Project Gutenberg
• "Album Verdi" from the Digital Library of the National Library of Naples (Italy)
• Free scores by Verdi at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Giuseppe Verdi in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Giuseppe Verdi in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Giuseppe Verdi
• Works by or about Giuseppe Verdi in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Detailed listing of "complete" recordings of Verdi's operas and of extended excerpts
• "Verdi and Milan", lecture by Roger Parker on Verdi, given at Gresham College, London 14 May 2007
• Verdi cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library
• Sheet music for "Ah! I have sigh'd to rest me.", Macon, GA: John C. Schreiner & Son. From Confederate Imprints Sheet Music Collection.