The Classical Music Book

175

See also: The Magic Flute 134 –137 ■ The Barber of Seville 14 8 ■ Der Freischütz 149 ■ Tosca 194 –197 ■

The Wreckers 232–239 ■ Peter Grimes 288–293

ROMANTIC 1810 –1920

daughter, unwittingly brings about

her undoing; Il trovatore tells the

melodramatic tale of the beautiful

Leonora who is caught between

two men and a gypsy woman’s

vengeance; and in La traviata (“The

fallen woman”), a courtesan named

Violetta sacrifices her love and,

ultimately, herself, for the sake of

the patriarchal society that seeks

to control her. These three operas

confirmed Verdi’s break away from

what he described as his galley

years: time spent producing works

to order for the “opera industry.”

Bending the rules

Verdi managed to manipulate and

subvert operatic conventions to

achieve a synthesis of tradition and

innovation. With La traviata, he

took a subject drawn from a well-

known novel, La Dame aux camélias

(The Lady of the Camellias) by

Alexandre Dumas, and, in a step

unprecedented then, set the

drama at the time of composition.

Ultimately, the portrayal of a fallen

woman in modern society was

rejected as too risqué by the Italian

censors, so the opera was set in the

1700s for the premiere. La traviata

was nonetheless unique as it boldly

confronted society’s hypocritical

treatment of women.

Although some of La traviata’s

most famous numbers—especially

the brindisi drinking song in Act

One—feature crowd scenes, La

traviata is an opera remarkable for

its moments of intimacy. Verdi

draws us into the world of his

heroine, and this groundbreaking

focus on a female protagonist paved

the way for others, such as the

gypsy heroine of Georges Bizet’s

Carmen (1875)—a character from

French opera, who is similarly

drawn from the literary world (from

a story by Prosper Mérimée) and

similarly exposed the hypocrisy

of 19th-century sexual mores.

Final masterpieces

Verdi’s many subsequent works

saw the composer tackle the

different conventions of grand

opéra in such masterpieces as

Don Carlos, composed for the Paris

opera in 1867. However, Aida,

written for the opening of the new

opera house in Cairo in 1871, marked

a break for Verdi, who was unhappy

with the importation of French and

German opera to Italy. Verdi began

to focus on other aspects of his

life and composed little after the

Missa da Requiem of 1874, written

in memory of the nationalist poet,

Alessandro Manzoni, until his

final two pieces, which were both

based on works by his beloved

Shakespeare: Otello (1887) and

Falstaff (1893). ■

Giuseppe Verdi Verdi was born in Busseto,

northern Italy, in 1813. His father,

an innkeeper of modest social

standing, encouraged his son’s

early education, and a wealthy

merchant in the town, Antonio

Barezzi, paid for the young Verdi

to study in Milan.

In 1836, Verdi married Barezzi’s

daughter, but both she and their

two young children died four

years later. In spite of this tragedy,

Verdi’s career began to take off.

His breakthrough came with

Nabucco in 1841. Over the

following decade, he produced

13 operas. The 1850s saw him

become the most successful

opera composer of his day, and

from the 1850s his music was

embraced by the nationalist

Risorgimento movement.

In 1859, Verdi married the

operatic soprano Giuseppina

Strepponi, staying with her until

her death in 1897. Verdi himself

died four years later, in 1901.

Other key works

1842 Nabucco

1867 Don Carlos

1874 Missa da Requiem

1887 Otello

To copy the truth can

be a good thing, but to

invent the truth is better,

much better.

Giuseppe Verdi

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