![]() ![]() In this final opera, Verdi astonished the world with his warmth, uncanny comic timing, and youthful exuberance. This triumph was followed by Falstaff (1893), adapted from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV. Otello, brilliantly distilled from Shakespeare’s play by Boito and set to music of the highest order by Verdi, soon took its place among the greatest Italian lyric tragedies. Their first major collaboration was the 1881 revision of Verdi’s earlier Simon Boccanegra (1857). Verdi would achieve the peak of his career in collaboration with the Italian poet and composer Arrigo Boito. An invitation from the Khedive of Egypt to compose an opera for Cairo led eventually to the hugely successful Aida of 1871. In 1867 he composed Don Carlos, his most ambitious work, for the Paris Opéra. He spent most of the remainder of his life going in and out of retirement, writing only when a particular commission interested him. These successes allowed him to be very selective about his choice of projects in subsequent decades. Verdi achieved international acclaim in the 1850s, especially from three major successes in a row Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata(1853). His chorus, “Va pensiero,” from Nabucco would become an anthem for the Risorgimento. Verdi’s operas of the 1840s are imbued both overtly and covertly with the interests of the Risorgimento-Italian citizens who sought the reunification of Italy. At a low point of his career, he would make another attempt, Nabucco (1842), which was a spectacular success that changed the course of his life. Eventually he would find his way to the Teatro alla Scala, where his first opera, Oberto (1839) was a modest success and his second, Un giorno di regno (1840), a comic opera written shortly after the tragic death of his young wife and two children, was a fiasco. Born to a family of modest means, his musical abilities became apparent early on and were guided and nurtured by a kind patron, Antonio Barezzi (who later became his father-in-law).ĭenied admission to the Milan Conservatory, he was forced to study privately. Verdi’s early life and career fit the mold we have come to expect of the Romantic Era artist. ![]()
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