7 Giuseppe Verdi 7opera that is as gripping as it is original and in many ways
independent of tradition. Verdi knew the value of this
work and revised it in 1865.
By that time he was receiving lucrative commissions
from abroad—from London (I masnadieri) and Paris
(Jérusalem, a thorough revision of I Lombardi, 1847). La
battaglia di Legnano (1849; The Battle of Legnano), a tale of
love and jealousy set against the Lombard League’s victory
over Frederick Barbarossa in 1176 CE, was Verdi’s response
to the Italian unification movement, or Risorgimento,
which spilled over into open warfare in 1848, the year of
revolutions.
The Middle Years
The prima donna who created Abigaille in Nabucco,
Giuseppina Strepponi, who also had helped Verdi as early
as 1839 with Oberto, ultimately became his second wife.
The new richness and depth of Verdi’s musico-dramatic
characterization in these years may have developed out of
his relationship with Strepponi. She is often evoked in
connection with the portrayal of Violetta in La traviata
(The Fallen Woman). With Strepponi Verdi moved back to
Busseto in 1849 and then to Sant’Agata.
In the meantime he had composed three operas that
remain his best-known and best-loved: Rigoletto (1851), Il
trovatore (1853; The Troubadour), and La traviata (1853).
Rigoletto makes an important technical advance toward a
coherent presentation of the drama in music, especially
in the famous third act; there is less distinction between
the recitatives (the parts of the score that carry the plot
forward in imitation of speech), which tend toward arioso
(melodic, lyric quality), and the arias, which are treated
less formally and dovetailed into their surroundings,
sometimes almost unobtrusively.