Search results
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi]; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi.
- List of Compositions by Giuseppe Verdi
The following is a list of published compositions by the...
- Falstaff
Falstaff (Italian pronunciation:) is a comic opera in three...
- Requiem
The Messa da Requiem (at one time referred to as the Manzoni...
- Teresa Stolz
Teresa Stolz (born Tereza Stolzová; 2 June 1834 – 23 August...
- La Traviata
La traviata (Italian pronunciation: [la traˈvjaːta]; The...
- Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 – 11 January 1931) was an...
- Il Trovatore
Il trovatore ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by...
- List of Compositions by Giuseppe Verdi
- Overview
- Early years
- Early career
Giuseppe Verdi (born October 9/10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, duchy of Parma [Italy]—died January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy) leading Italian composer of opera in the 19th century, noted for operas such as Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), Aida (1871), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) and for his Requiem ...
Verdi’s father, Carlo Giuseppe Verdi, an innkeeper and owner of a small farm, gave his son the best education that could be mustered in a tiny village, near a small town of about 4,000 inhabitants, in the then-impoverished Po Valley. The child must have shown unusual talent, for he was given lessons from his fourth year, a spinet was bought for him, and by age 9 he was standing in for his teacher as organist in the village church. He attended the village school and at 10 the ginnasio (secondary school) in Busseto.
A little later he composed music (now lost) for the town church and the largely amateur orchestra. One of Busseto’s leading citizens, Antonio Barezzi, a merchant and fanatical music enthusiast, became a second father to the young prodigy, taking him into his home, sending him to study in Milan, and in 1836 giving him his daughter Margherita in marriage. Refused by the Milan Conservatory—he was past the admission age and played the piano poorly—Verdi studied privately with Vincenzo Lavigna, an older composer and an associate of La Scala opera house (Teatro alla Scala). Milan was the intellectual and operatic centre of Italy, and in the years 1832–35 Verdi seems to have learned much about literature and politics there as well as counterpoint and the elements of opera. Later, after his great success with Nabucco, he attended literary salons in the city and made lasting friendships with some cultivated aristocrats.
Barezzi’s plan was for Verdi to return to Busseto as music director, but when this post fell open in 1833 a furious political storm developed leading to long delays. Soured by this, Verdi nonetheless took a compromise position and stayed from March 1836 to October 1838, teaching and composing a good deal, though all he published was a set of songs in 1838.
Britannica Quiz
Composers & Their Music
Needless to say, he had his eye on greater things. The music that he had written during these years must have impressed the right people, for after some difficulty he succeeded in getting an opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, produced at La Scala in March 1839. Ordinary as the piece may seem today, it succeeded well enough to travel to Genoa and Turin and to gain him a commission for three more operas at Italy’s leading theatre. His rising career was deflected by tragedy: in 1840 his young wife died, following the deaths of two infant children. In addition to this personal grief, Verdi saw his next opera, Un giorno di regno (King for a Day), a comedy, hissed off the stage. This compounded trauma led to a severe depression and either caused or fixed the dour, fatalistic, sometimes harsh aspects of Verdi’s character.
Verdi overcame his despair by composing Nabucodonoser (composed 1841, first performed 1842; known as Nabucco), based on the biblical Nebuchadnezzar (Nebuchadrezzar II), though the well-known story he told later about snapping out of his lethargy only when the libretto fell open at the chorus “Va, pensiero”—by that time one of his most beloved works—is no longer credited. (The older Verdi embroidered on various aspects of his early life, exaggerating the lowliness of his origins, for example.) Nabucco succeeded as sensationally as Un giorno had failed abjectly, and Verdi at age 28 became the new hero of Italian music. The work sped across Italy and the whole world of opera; within a decade it had reached as far as St. Petersburg and Buenos Aires, Argentina. While its musical style is primitive by the composer’s later standards, Nabucco’s raw energy has kept it alive a century and a half later.
Special offer for students! Check out our special academic rate and excel this spring semester!
Learn More
There followed a period (1843–49) during which Verdi drove himself like a galley slave, as he himself put it, and to the detriment of his health, to produce nearly two operas a year. His aim was to make enough money for early retirement as a gentleman farmer at Sant’Agata, close to Roncole, where his forebears had settled. He purchased land there as early as 1844. To “produce” an opera meant, at that time, to negotiate with an impresario, secure and edit (often heavily) a libretto, find or approve the singers, compose the music, supervise rehearsals, conduct the first three performances, deal with publishers, and more—all this while shuttling from one end of Italy to the other in the days before railroads.
Though masterpieces were unlikely to emerge from a schedule like this, Verdi’s next two operas were, amazingly, just as wildly successful: I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843; The Lombards on the First Crusade) and Ernani (1844). The latter became the only work of the “galley-slave” period to gain a steady place in the opera repertory worldwide. His other operas had varying receptions. A list made in 1844 of possible subjects for librettos shows Verdi’s high-minded concern for literary and dramatic values. It included King Lear, a project he would return to and abandon several times in later years. In the 1840s he drew on Victor Hugo for Ernani, Lord Byron for I due Foscari (1844; The Two Foscari) and Il corsaro (1848; The Corsair), Friedrich von Schiller for Giovanna d’Arco (1845; Joan of Arc), I masnadieri (1847; The Bandits), and Luisa Miller (1849), Voltaire for Alzira (1845), and Zacharias Werner for Attila (1846).
Only with Macbeth (1847), however, was Verdi inspired to fashion an opera that is as gripping as it is original and, in many ways, independent of tradition. Just as the biblical theme had contributed to the grandeur of Nabucco, so the tragic theme of Shakespeare’s drama called forth the best in him. Verdi knew the value of this work and revised it in 1865, excising some of its crudities; but its greatest number, the harrowing sleepwalking scene of Lady Macbeth, could be left just as it was written in 1847.
Apr 2, 2014 · Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian composer who is known for several operas, including 'La Traviata' and 'Aida.' Updated: May 10, 2021. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. (1813-1901) Who Was...
May 24, 2023 · Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was an Italian composer best known for operas such as Rigoletto, La traviata, and Aida. Verdi is noted for his powerful scores and strong characters where anti-heroes lead the dramatic action through often complex plots.
- Mark Cartwright
- What is Giuseppe Verdi best known for?Giuseppe Verdi is best known for being a composer of 19th-century operas like Aida, La traviata, Rigoletto, and Nabucco.
- What was the tragedy in Verdi's life?Gisueppe Verdi suffered the triple tragedy of his wife dying young and both his children dying in infancy.
- What are Verdi's best operas?For most music critics, Verdi's best operas are his last two: Otello and Falstaff. For the public, Verdi's most popular operas are usually listed a...
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Giuseppe Verdi . Giuseppe Verdi, (born Oct. 9/10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, duchy of Parma—died Jan. 27, 1901, Milan, Italy), Italian composer. He was the son of an innkeeper, and he showed talent early.
Giuseppe Verdi (born Roncole near Busseto, 9 or 10 October 1813; died Milan 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer of operas. Verdi and Richard Wagner were the greatest composers of opera in the 19th century although they were completely different from one another.
People also ask
Who is Giuseppe Verdi?
Who is Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi?
Where was Giuseppe Verdi born?
What operas did Giuseppe Verdi write?
