Verdi and The Opera: Everything You Need To Know
Verdi and The Opera: Everything You Need To Know
Verdi and The Opera: Everything You Need To Know
the Opera
Giuseppe Verdi and the Italian
Opera
What is Opera?
Shortened word for opera in musica
An opera is generally referred to as a stage presentation or
work that combines music, costumes, and scenery to relay
a story.
Most operas are sung, with no spoken lines.
Journey
First lessons in composition in Busseto
By the age of seven he was an organist at San
Michele Arcangelo, and by 13, assistant conductor
of the Busseto Orchestra.
Age 20, he went to Milan to continue his education.
Milan beaumonde association convinced him to
pursue a career as a theatre composer.
First producation was Oberto, held in Milans La
Scala in November of 1839.
La Scalas impresario offered a contract for three
more works.
Journey
The contract was the start to his illustrious
career in opera.
His second opera, Un giorno di regno, was
considered as a comedy. Premiered on Sept. 5,
1840.
Nabucco, on March 1842, made Verdi famous.
Remarried to Giuseppina Strepponi
Contributions
By 182930, Verdi had established himself as a leader of
the Philharmonic
Verdi began in 1859 to take an active interest in Italian
politics
1894 published a song for earthquake victims in Sicily
1895 planning, building and endowing a rest-home for
retired musicians in Milan, and also built a hospital
his librettos, penetrate the soul and profoundly affect the
human psyche. Operas were not written to be marveled for
their technical prowess or how well they stuck to the rules
(though it certainly helps if the opera possesses such
qualities).
Contributions
SPREZZATURA
The Italians have a word for the sense of
dazzling beauty produced by effortless
mastery: "sprezzatura." Perhaps no cultural
form associated with Italy is as steeped in the
love ofsprezzaturaas opera, a genre the
Italians invented. And no artist working in
opera has embodied the ideal ofsprezzaturaas
magnificently as that gruff, self-described
"farmer" from the Po Valley and composer of
28 operas, Giuseppe Verdi (18131901).