Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi(Italian: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, October 10, 1813, in the Italian village of Le Roncole, located in the northern part of Lombardy, on a lower tributary of the Po River, near the city of Busseto, French Empire - January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy) - Italian composer , whose work is one of biggest achievements world operatic art and the culmination of the development of Italian opera of the 19th century.

The composer created 26 operas and one requiem. The composer's best operas: Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Trovatore, La Traviata. The pinnacle of creativity is the latest operas: “Aida”, “Othello”, “Falstaff”.

Early period

Verdi was born into the family of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigi Uttini in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto in the department of Tarot, which at that time was part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the principalities of Parma and Piacenza. Thus, the future great Italian composer was officially born in France.

Verdi was born in 1813 (the same year as Richard Wagner, in the future his main rival and leading composer of the German opera school) in Le Roncole, near Busseto (Duchy of Parma). The composer's father, Carlo Verdi, ran a village tavern, and his mother, Luigia Uttini, was a spinner. The family lived poorly, and Giuseppe's childhood was difficult. He helped celebrate mass in the village church. Music literacy and studied organ playing with Pietro Baistrocchi. Noticing their son's passion for music, his parents gave Giuseppe a spinet. The composer kept this very imperfect instrument until the end of his life.

The musically gifted boy was noticed by Antonio Barezzi, a wealthy merchant and music lover from the neighboring town of Busseto. He believed that Verdi would become not an innkeeper or a village organist, but a great composer. On the advice of Barezzi, ten-year-old Verdi moved to Busseto to study. Thus began a new, even more difficult period of life - the years of adolescence and youth. By Sundays Giuseppe went to Le Roncole, where he played the organ during mass. Verdi also got a composition teacher - Fernando Provesi, director of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto. Provesi was not only engaged in counterpoint, he awakened in Verdi a craving for serious reading. Giuseppe's attention is attracted by the classics of world literature - Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, Schiller. One of his most beloved works is the novel “The Betrothed” by the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni.

In Milan, where Verdi went at the age of eighteen to continue his education, he was not accepted into the Conservatory (today named after Verdi) “due to the low level of piano playing; In addition, there were age restrictions at the conservatory.” Verdi began taking private counterpoint lessons, attending at the same time opera performances, as well as just concerts. Communication with the Milanese elite convinced him to seriously think about a career as a theater composer.

Returning to Busseto, with the support of Antonio Barezzi (Antonio Barezzi - a local merchant and music lover who supported Verdi's musical ambitions), Verdi gave his first public performance at the Barezzi house in 1830.

Fascinated by Verdi's musical gift, Barezzi invites him to become a music teacher for his daughter Margherita. Soon the young people fell deeply in love with each other and on May 4, 1836, Verdi married Margherita Barezzi. Margherita soon gave birth to two children: Virginia Maria Louise (March 26, 1837 - August 12, 1838) and Icilio Romano (July 11, 1838 - October 22, 1839). While Verdi was working on his first opera, both children died in infancy. Some time later (June 18, 1840), at the age of 26, the composer’s wife Margarita died of encephalitis.

Initial recognition

First production of Verdi's opera (Oberto, Count Bonifacio) ( Oberto) at La Scala in Milan was acclaimed by critics, after which the theater impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, offered Verdi a contract to write two operas. They became “King for an Hour” ( Un giorno di regno) and "Nabucco" ("Nebuchadnezzar"). Verdi's wife and two children died while he was working on the first of these two operas. After its failure, the composer wanted to stop writing opera music. However, the premiere of Nabucco on March 9, 1842 at La Scala was accompanied by great success and established Verdi's reputation as an opera composer. Over the next year, the opera was staged 65 times in Europe and has since occupied a strong place in the repertoire of the world's leading opera houses. Nabucco was followed by several operas, including Lombards on a Crusade ( I Lombardi alla prima crociata) and "Ernani" ( Ernani), which were staged and were successful in Italy.

In 1847, the opera "The Lombards", rewritten and renamed "Jerusalem" ( Jerusalem), was staged by the Paris Opera on November 26, 1847, becoming Verdi's first work in the style grand opera. To do this, the composer had to rework this opera somewhat and replace the Italian characters with French ones.

Master

At the age of thirty-eight, Verdi began an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano singer who was by then finishing her career (they married only eleven years later, and their cohabitation before the wedding was considered scandalous in many of the places where they lived) . Soon Giuseppina stopped performing, and Verdi, following the example of Gioachino Rossini, decided to end his career with his wife. He was wealthy, famous and in love. It may have been Giuseppina who convinced him to continue writing operas. The first opera written by Verdi after his “retirement” became his first masterpiece - “Rigoletto”. The libretto of the opera, based on Victor Hugo's play The King Amuses himself, underwent significant changes to please censors, and the composer intended to quit work several times until the opera was finally completed. The first production took place in Venice in 1851 and was a great success.

Rigoletto is perhaps one of the best operas in history. musical theater. Verdi's artistic generosity is presented in full force. Beautiful melodies are scattered throughout the score, arias and ensembles that have become an integral part of the classical operatic repertoire follow each other, and the comic and tragic merge together.

La Traviata, Verdi's next great opera, was composed and staged two years after Rigoletto. The libretto is based on the play “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas.

Several more operas followed, among them the constantly performed “Sicilian Supper” ( Les vêpres siciliennes; written at the request of the Paris Opera), Il Trovatore ( Il Trovatore), "Masquerade Ball" ( Un ballo in maschera), "Force of Destiny" ( La forza del destino; 1862, written by order of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theater of St. Petersburg), the second edition of the opera “Macbeth” ( Macbeth).

In 1869, Verdi composed "Libera Me" for the Requiem in memory of Gioachino Rossini (the remaining parts were written by now little-known Italian composers). In 1874, Verdi wrote his Requiem for the death of his revered writer Alessandro Manzoni, including a revised version of his previously written "Libera Me".

One of Verdi's last great operas, Aida, was commissioned by the Egyptian government to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. At first Verdi refused. While in Paris, he received a second offer through du Locle. This time Verdi met the opera script, which he liked, and agreed to write the opera.

Verdi and Wagner, each the leader of his own national opera school, always disliked each other. In their entire lives they had never met. Verdi's surviving comments about Wagner and his music are few and unkind (“He always chooses, in vain, the less traveled path, trying to fly where normal person he will simply walk, achieving much better results"). Nevertheless, upon learning that Wagner had died, Verdi said: “How sad! This name has left a huge mark on the history of art.” Only one statement by Wagner is known relating to the music of Verdi. After listening to the Requiem, the great German, always eloquent, always generous with (unflattering) comments in relation to many other composers, said: “It’s better not to say anything.”

Aida was staged in Cairo in 1871 with great success.

Last years and death

Over the next twelve years, Verdi worked very little, slowly editing some of his earlier works.

Opera "Othello" ( Othello), based on the play by William Shakespeare, was staged in Milan in 1887. The music of this opera is “continuous”; it does not contain the traditional Italian opera division into arias and recitatives - this innovation was introduced under the influence of the operatic reform of Richard Wagner (after the death of the latter). In addition, under the influence of the same Wagnerian reform, the style of the late Verdi acquired greater degree recitativeness, which gave the opera the effect of greater realism, although it scared off some fans of traditional Italian opera.

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff ( Falstaff), the libretto of which Arrigo Boito, librettist and composer, wrote based on Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor ( Merry Wives of Windsor) in its translation into French by Victor Hugo, developed the manner of “end-to-end development”. The brilliantly written score of this comedy is thus much closer to Wagner's Die Meistersinger than to the comic operas of Rossini and Mozart. The elusiveness and effervescence of the melodies makes it possible not to delay the development of the plot and creates a unique effect of confusion, so close to the spirit of this Shakespearean comedy. The opera ends with a seven-voice fugue, in which Verdi fully demonstrates his brilliant mastery of counterpoint.

On January 21, 1901, while staying at the Grand Et De Milan Hotel (Milan, Italy), Verdi suffered a stroke. Being stricken with paralysis, he could read with his inner ear the scores of the operas “La Bohème” and “Tosca” by Puccini, “Pagliacci” by Leoncavallo, “ Queen of Spades Tchaikovsky, but what he thought about these operas written by his immediate and worthy heirs remains unknown. Verdi grew weaker every day and six days later, early in the morning of January 27, 1901, he died.

Verdi was originally buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. A month later, his body was transferred to Casa Di Riposo in Musicisti, also in Milan, a rest home for retired musicians that Verdi had created.

He was an agnostic. His second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, described him as "a man of little faith."

Style

Verdi's predecessors who influenced his work were Rossini, Bellini, Meyerbeer and, most importantly, Donizetti. The last two operas, Othello and Falstaff, show the influence of Richard Wagner. Respecting Gounod, whom contemporaries considered greatest composer era, Verdi nevertheless did not borrow anything from the great Frenchman. Some passages in Aida indicate the composer's familiarity with the works of Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt popularized in Western Europe, returning from a tour of Russia.

Throughout his career, Verdi refused to use high C in tenor parts, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of a full audience distracted performers before, after, and while singing the note.

Although Verdi's orchestration is at times masterful, the composer relied mainly on his melodic gifts to express the emotions of the characters and the drama of the action. Indeed, very often in Verdi's operas, especially during solo vocal numbers, the harmony is deliberately ascetic, and the entire orchestra sounds like one accompanying instrument (Verdi is credited with the words: “The orchestra is a big guitar!” Some critics argue that Verdi paid attention to technical the aspect of the score lacks attention because it lacks school and sophistication. Verdi himself once said, “Of all composers, I am the least knowledgeable.” But he hastened to add, “I say this seriously, but by “knowledge” I do not mean knowledge of music at all.” "

However, it would be incorrect to say that Verdi underestimated the expressive power of the orchestra and did not know how to use it to the fullest when he needed it. Moreover, orchestral and contrapuntal innovation (for example, the strings soaring across the chromatic scale in the Monterone scene in Rigoletto, in order to emphasize the drama of the situation, or, also in Rigoletto, the chorus humming close notes offstage, depicting, quite effectively, approaching storm) - characteristic of Verdi's work - so characteristic that other composers did not dare to borrow some of his bold techniques because of their instant recognition.

Verdi was the first composer to specifically search for a plot for a libretto that would best suit the characteristics of his talent as a composer. Working closely with librettists and knowing that dramatic expression is what main force his talent, he sought to eliminate “unnecessary” details and “superfluous” heroes from the plot, leaving only characters in which passions boil and scenes rich in drama.

Operas by Giuseppe Verdi

Vanity Fair, 1879

• Oberto, Count of San Bonifacio - 1839
• King for an Hour (Un Giorno di Regno) - 1840
• Nabucco, or Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) - 1842
• Lombards in the First Crusade (I Lombardi") - 1843
• Ernani- 1844. Based on the play of the same name by Victor Hugo
• Two Foscari (I due Foscari)- 1844. Based on the play by Lord Byron
• Joan of Arc (Giovanna d'Arco)- 1845. Based on the play “The Maid of Orleans” by Schiller
• Alzira- 1845. Based on Voltaire’s play of the same name
• Attila- 1846. Based on the play “Attila, Leader of the Huns” by Zacharius Werner
• Macbeth- 1847. Based on Shakespeare's play of the same name
• Robbers (I masnadieri)- 1847. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
• Jerusalem- 1847 (Version Lombards)
• Corsair- 1848. Based on the poem of the same name by Lord Byron
• Battle of Legnano (La battaglia di Legnano)- 1849. Based on the play “The Battle of Toulouse” by Joseph Mery
• Louisa Miller- 1849. Based on the play “Cunning and Love” by Schiller
• Stiffelio- 1850. Based on the play “The Holy Father, or the Gospel and the Heart,” by Emile Souvestre and Eugene Bourgeois.
• Rigoletto- 1851. Based on the play “The King Amuses himself” by Victor Hugo
• The Troubadour (Il Trovatore)- 1853. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez
• La Traviata- 1853. Based on the play “Lady with Camellias” by A. Dumas the son
• Sicilian Vespers (Les vêpres siciliennes)- 1855. Based on the play “The Duke of Alba” by Eugene Scribe and Charles Devereux
• Giovanna de Guzman(Version of "Sicilian Vespers").
• Simon Boccanegra- 1857. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez.
• Aroldo- 1857 (Version "Stiffelio")
• Masquerade ball (Un ballo in maschera)- 1859. Based on the real murder of Gustav III, which formed the basis of the play by Eugene Scribe
• The Power of Destiny (La forza del destino)- 1862. Based on the play “Don Alvaro, or the Force of Destiny” by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas. The premiere took place at the Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theater in St. Petersburg
• Macbeth ( Macbeth) - 1865. Second edition of the opera commissioned by the Parisian Grand Opera
• Don Carlos- 1867. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
• Aida- 1871. The premiere took place in Opera House Khedive in Cairo, Egypt
• Othello- 1887. Based on Shakespeare's play of the same name
• Falstaff- 1893. Based on “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and two parts of “Henry IV” by Shakespeare

Other writings

• String quartet e-moll - 1873
• Requiem (Messa da Requiem) - 1874
• Four Sacred Pieces (Quattro Pezzi Sacri) - 1892

Literature

• Bushen A., The Birth of Opera. (Young Verdi). Roman, M., 1958.
• Gal G. Brahms. Wagner. Verdi. Three masters - three worlds. M., 1986.
• Ordzhonikidze G. Verdi's operas based on Shakespeare's plots, M., 1967.
• Solovtsova L. A. J. Verdi. M., Giuseppe Verdi. Vital and creative path, M. 1986.
• Tarozzi Giuseppe Verdi. M., 1984.
• Ese Laszlo. If Verdi kept a diary... - Budapest, 1966.

Films and TV series about the life and work of the composer

• “Giuseppe Verdi” (in Russian known as “The Story of a Life”; 1938, Italy). Directed by Carmine Gallone. IN leading role- Fosco Giachetti.
• "Giuseppe Verdi" (1953, Italy). Director: Raffaello Matarazzo. Starring Pierre Cressois.
• “The Life of Giuseppe Verdi (Verdi)” (1982, Italy - France - Germany - Great Britain - Sweden). Director: Renato Castellani. Starring Ronald Pickup.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi(Italian Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, October 10, Roncole, near Busseto, Italy - January 27, Milan) - Italian composer, central figure of the Italian opera school. His best operas ( Rigoletto, Traviata, Aida), known for its richness of melodic expressiveness, are often performed in opera houses around the world. In the past, often disparaged by critics (for "indulging the tastes of ordinary people", "simplified polyphony" and "shameless melodramatization"), Verdi's masterpieces form the basis of the ordinary operatic repertoire a century and a half after they were written.

Early period

Several more operas followed, among them the constantly performed “Sicilian Supper” ( Les vêpres siciliennes; written at the request of the Paris Opera), Il Trovatore ( Il Trovatore), "Masquerade Ball" ( Un ballo in maschera), "Force of Destiny" ( La forza del destino; written by order of the Imperial Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg), the second edition of Macbeth ( Macbeth).

Operas by Giuseppe Verdi

• Oberto, Count of San Bonifacio - 1839
• King for an Hour (Un Giorno di Regno) - 1840
• Nabucco or Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) - 1842
• Lombards in the First Crusade (I Lombardi") - 1843
• Ernani- 1844. Based on the play of the same name by Victor Hugo
• Two Foscari (I due Foscari)- 1844. Based on the play by Lord Byron
• Joan of Arc (Giovanna d'Arco)- 1845. Based on the play “The Maid of Orleans” by Schiller
• Alzira- 1845. Based on the play of the same name by Voltaire
• Attila- 1846. Based on the play “Attila, Leader of the Huns” by Zacharius Werner
• Macbeth- 1847. Based on Shakespeare's play of the same name
• Robbers (I masnadieri)- 1847. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
• Jerusalem- 1847 (Version Lombards)
• Corsair- 1848. Based on the poem of the same name by Lord Byron
• Battle of Legnano (La battaglia di Legnano)- 1849. Based on the play “The Battle of Toulouse” by Joseph Mery
• Louisa Miller- 1849. Based on the play “Cunning and Love” by Schiller
• Stiffelio- 1850. Based on the play “The Holy Father, or the Gospel and the Heart,” by Emile Souvestre and Eugene Bourgeois.
• Rigoletto- 1851. Based on the play “The King Amuses himself” by Victor Hugo
• The Troubadour (Il Trovatore)- 1853. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio García Gutierrez
• La Traviata- 1853. Based on the play “Lady with Camellias” by A. Dumas the son
• Sicilian Vespers (Les vêpres siciliennes)- 1855. Based on the play “The Duke of Alba” by Eugene Scribe and Charles Devereux
• Giovanna de Guzman(Version of "Sicilian Vespers").
• Simon Boccanegra- 1857. Based on the play of the same name by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez.
• Aroldo- 1857 (Version "Stiffelio")
• Masquerade ball (Un ballo in maschera) - 1859.
• The Power of Destiny (La forza del destino)- 1862. Based on the play “Don Alvaro, or the Force of Destiny” by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, adapted for the stage by Schiller under the title “Wallenstein”. The premiere took place at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg
• Don Carlos- 1867. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
• Aida- 1871. Premiered at the Khedive Opera House in Cairo, Egypt
• Othello- 1887. Based on Shakespeare's play of the same name
• Falstaff- 1893. Based on Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor”

Musical fragments

Attention! Music fragments in Ogg Vorbis format

• “The heart of a beauty is prone to betrayal”, from the opera “Rigoletto”(info)

Notes

Links

• Giuseppe Verdi: Sheet music of works at the International Music Score Library Project

Operas Giuseppe Verdi

Oberto (1839) King for an Hour (1840) Nabucco (1842) Lombards in the First Crusade (1843) Ernani (1844) The Two Foscari (1844)

Joan of Arc (1845) Alzira (1845) Atilla (1846) Macbeth (1847) The Robbers (1847) Jerusalem (1847) Corsair (1848) Battle of Legnano (1849)

Louise Miller (1849) Stifellio (1850) Rigoletto (1851) Troubadour (1853) La Traviata (1853) Sicilian Vespers (1855) Giovanna de Guzman (1855)

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901) was an Italian composer who became famous throughout the world for his incredibly beautiful operas and requiems. He is considered the man thanks to whom Italian opera was able to fully take shape and become what is called “an all-time classic.”

Childhood

Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 10 in Le Roncole, an area near the city of Busseto, Parma province. It just so happened that the child was very lucky - he became one of the few people of that time who had the honor of being born during the emergence of the First French Republic. Moreover, Verdi’s date of birth is also connected with another event - the birth on the same day of Richardo Wagner, who later became the composer’s sworn enemy and constantly tried to compete with him in the musical field.

Giuseppe's father was a landowner and ran a large village tavern for those times. The mother was an ordinary spinner who sometimes worked as a laundress and nanny. Even though Giuseppe was only child in the family, they lived very poorly, like most of the residents of Le Roncole. Of course, my father had some connections and was familiar with the managers of other, more famous taverns, but they were only enough to buy the bare essentials to support the family. Only occasionally did Giuseppe and his parents go to Busseto for fairs, which began in early spring and lasted almost until mid-summer.

Verdi spent most of his childhood in church, where he learned to read and write. At the same time, he helped the local ministers, who in return fed him and even taught him how to play the organ. It was here that Giuseppe first saw a beautiful, huge and majestic organ - an instrument that from the first second captivated him with its sound and made him fall in love forever. By the way, as soon as the son began to type the first notes on the new instrument, his parents gave him a spinet. According to the composer himself, this was a turning point in his fate, and he kept the expensive gift for the rest of his life.

Youth

During one mass, Giuseppe's playing on the organ is heard by the wealthy merchant Antonio Barezzi. Since the man has seen many good and bad musicians throughout his life, he immediately understands that the young boy is destined for a grand destiny. He believes that little Verdi will eventually become a person who will be recognized by everyone, from village residents to the rulers of countries. It is Barezzi who recommends Verdi to finish his studies at Le Roncole and move to Busseto, where the director of the Philharmonic Society, Fernando Provesi, can study.

Giuseppe follows the stranger’s advice and after a while Provesi himself sees his talent. However, at the same time, the director understands that without proper education the guy will have nothing to do except play the organ during masses. He undertakes to teach Verdi literature and instills in him a love of reading, for which the young guy is incredibly grateful to his mentor. He is interested in the works of such world celebrities as Schiller, Shakespeare, Goethe, and the novel “The Betrothed” (Alexander Mazzoni) becomes his most favorite work.

At the age of 18, Verdi travels to Milan and tries to enter the Music Conservatory, but fails the entrance exam and hears from teachers that “he is not trained in playing well enough to qualify for a place at the school.” The guy partly agrees with their position, because all this time he has received only a few private lessons and still doesn’t know much. He decides to take a break for a while and visits several opera houses in Milan over the course of a month. The atmosphere at the performances makes him change his mind about his own musical career. Now Verdi is sure that he wants to be an opera composer.

Career and recognition

Verdi's first public performance occurred in 1830, when he returned to Busseto after Milan. By that time, the guy is impressed by the opera houses of Milan and at the same time completely devastated and angry that he did not enter the Conservatory. Antonio Barezzi, seeing the composer's confusion, undertakes to independently organize his performance in his tavern, which at that time was considered the largest entertainment establishment in the city. The audience receives Giuseppe with a standing ovation, which again instills confidence in him.

After this, Verdi lived in Busseto for 9 years and performed in Barezzi establishments. But in his heart he understands that he will achieve recognition only in Milan, since his hometown is too small and cannot provide him with a wide audience. So, in 1839 he goes to Milan and almost immediately meets the impresario of La Scala theater Bartolomeo Merelli, who offers talented composer sign a contract to create two operas.

Having accepted the offer, Verdi wrote the operas “The King for an Hour” and “Nabucco” for two years. The second was first staged in 1842 at La Scala. I was waiting for the piece incredible success. Within a year, it spread around the world and was staged over 65 times, which allowed it to firmly gain a foothold in the repertoires of many famous theaters. After “Nabucco,” the world heard several more operas by the composer, including “Lombards on a Crusade” and “Ernani,” which became incredibly popular in Italy.

Personal life

Even while Verdi was performing in Barezzi establishments, he had an affair with the merchant’s daughter Margherita. After asking their father's blessing, the young people get married. They have two wonderful children: daughter Virginia Maria Luisa and son Icilio Romano. However living together after a while it becomes more of a burden for the spouses than happiness. Verdi at that time began writing his first opera, and the wife, seeing her husband’s indifference, spent most of her time in her father’s establishment.

In 1838, a tragedy occurred in the family - Verdi’s daughter died from illness, and a year later, his son. The mother, unable to withstand such a serious shock, died in 1840 from a long and serious illness. At the same time, it is not known for certain how Verdi reacted to the loss of his family. According to some biographers, this unsettled him for a long time and deprived him of inspiration, while others are inclined to believe that the composer was too absorbed in his work and took the news relatively calmly.

Name: Giuseppe Verdi

Age: 87 years old

Activity: composer, conductor

Family status: widower

Giuseppe Verdi: biography

Giuseppe Verdi ( full name– Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi) is a great Italian composer. His musical works are “treasures” of world opera. Verdi's work is the culmination of the development of Italian opera of the 19th century. Thanks to him, opera became what it is now.

Childhood and youth

Giuseppe Verdi was born in the small Italian village of Le Roncole, near the town of Busseto. At that moment, this territory belonged to the First French Empire. Thus, official documents indicate the country of birth as France. He was born on October 10, 1813 into a peasant family. His father Carlo Giuseppe Verdi ran a local tavern. And mother Luigia Uttini worked as a spinner.

The boy showed his love for music as a child, so his parents first gave him a spinet - a keyboard stringed instrument, similar to a harpsichord. And soon he began to study musical literacy and learn to play the organ in the village church. His first teacher was the priest Pietro Baistrocchi.

At the age of 11, little Giuseppe began performing the duties of an organist. Once at a service he was noticed by a wealthy city merchant Antonio Barezzi, he offered to help the boy get a good musical education. First, Verdi moved to Barezzi’s house, the man paid for the best teacher for him, and later paid for Giuseppe’s education in Milan.

During this period of time, Verdi became interested in literature. Gives preference classical works , .

Music

Upon arrival in Milan, he tries to enter the Conservatory, but is immediately refused. He is not accepted due to his insufficient level of piano playing. And his age, at that time he was already 18 years old, exceeded that established for admission. It is noteworthy that now the Milan Conservatory bears the name of Giuseppe Verdi.

But the young man does not despair; he hires a private teacher and studies the basics of counterpoint. He attends opera performances, concerts of various orchestras, and communicates with the local elite. And at this time he begins to think about becoming a composer for the theater.

Upon Verdi's return to Busseto, Antonio Barezzi organized for young man the first performance in his life that created a real sensation. After this, Barezzi invited Giuseppe to become a teacher for his daughter Margherita. Soon sympathy arose between the young people, and they began an affair.

At the beginning of his career, Verdi wrote small works: marches, romances. The first significant production was his opera Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio, which was presented to the Milanese audience at La Scala. After the resounding success, a contract was signed with Giuseppe Verdi to write two more operas. Within the agreed time frame, he created “King for an Hour” and “Nabucco”.

The production of “The King for an Hour” was poorly received by the audience and failed, and at first the theater impresario completely refused “Nabucco”. Its premiere did take place, however, two years later. And this opera had resounding success.

For Verdi, who, after the failure of “The King for an Hour” and the loss of his wife and children, was about to leave the musical field, “Nabucco” was a breathtaking fresh air. He gained a reputation as a successful composer. “Nabucco” was staged 65 times in the theater during the year; by the way, it has not left the world’s stages to this day.

This period in Verdi's life can be described as a creative upsurge. After the opera “Nabucco”, the composer wrote several more operas, which were also well received by the audience - “Lombards on a Crusade” and “Ernani”. Later, the production of “The Lombards” was staged in Paris, however, for this Verdi had to make changes to original version. First of all, he replaced the Italian heroes with French ones, and secondly, he renamed the opera “Jerusalem”.

But one of Verdi's most famous works was the opera Rigoletto. It was written based on Hugo's play "The King Amuses himself." The composer himself considered this work his best creation. Russian viewers are familiar with “Rigoletto” from the song “The Heart of a Beauty Is Prone to Treason.” The opera has been staged thousands of times in various theaters around the world. The arias of the main character, the jester Rigoletto, were performed by,.

Two years later, Verdi wrote La Traviata based on the work “Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas Jr.

In 1871, Giuseppe Verdi received an order from the Egyptian ruler. He is asked to write an opera for the Cairo Opera House. The premiere of the opera "Aida" took place on December 24, 1871 and was timed to coincide with the opening of the Suez Canal. The most famous aria of the opera is “Triumphal March”.

The composer wrote 26 operas and a requiem. In those years, opera houses were visited by all levels of society, both the local aristocracy and the poor. Therefore, Italians rightfully consider Giuseppe Verdi the “people's” composer of Italy. He created music in which the common Italian people felt their own experiences and hopes. In Verdi's operas, people heard a call to fight injustice.

It is noteworthy that Giuseppe Verdi and his main “rival” were born in the same year. The work of the composers is unlikely to be confused, but they are considered the reformers of the art of opera. Of course, the composers had heard a lot about each other, but never met. However, in their musical works partly they tried to polemicize with each other.

Books have been written and even films made about the life and work of Giuseppe Verdi. The most famous film work was the mini-series “The Life of Giuseppe Verdi” by Renato Castellani, which was released in 1982.

Personal life

In 1836, Giuseppe Verdi married the daughter of his benefactor, Margherita Barezzi. Soon the girl gave birth to a daughter, Virginia Maria Louise, but at the age of one and a half years the girl dies. In the same year, a month earlier, Margarita gave birth to a son, Icilio Romano, who also dies in infancy. A year later, Margarita herself died from encephalitis.

At the age of 26, Verdi was left alone: ​​both his children and his wife left him. He rents a house near the Church of Santa Sabina, and it’s hard for him to cope with this loss. At some point he even decides to stop composing music.

At 35, Giuseppe Verdi fell in love. His lover was Italian Opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi. They lived for 10 years in a so-called “civil” marriage, which caused extremely negative talk in society. The couple married in 1859 in Geneva. And from evil tongues the couple preferred to hide away from the city - in the Villa Sant'Agata. By the way, the design of the house was created by Verdi himself; he did not want to resort to the help of architects.

The house turned out to be laconic. But the garden surrounding the villa was truly luxurious: flowers and exotic trees were everywhere. The fact is that free time Verdi loved to devote himself to gardening. By the way, it was in this garden that the composer buried his beloved dog, leaving on its grave the inscription: “Monument to my friend.”

Giuseppina became the composer’s main muse and support in life. In 1845, the singer lost her voice, and she decided to end her opera career. Following Strepponi, Verdi decided to do this; at that time the composer was already rich and famous. But the wife persuades her husband to continue his musical career, and just after his “departure” a masterpiece of operatic art was created - “Rigoletto”. Giuseppina supported and inspired Verdi until her death in 1897.

Death

On January 21, 1901, Giuseppe Verdi was in Milan. At the hotel he had a stroke, the composer was paralyzed, but he continued to read the scores of the operas “Tosca” and “La Bohème”, “The Queen of Spades”, but his opinion on these works remained unexpressed. Every day the strength of the great composer left him, and on January 27, 1901 he passed away.

The great composer was buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. But a month later, his body was reburied on the territory of a rest home for retired musicians, which the composer himself had once created.

Works

• 1839 – “Oberto, Count di San Bonifacio”
• 1940 – “King for an Hour”
• 1845 – “Joan of Arc”
• 1846 – “Attila”
• 1847 – “Macbeth”
• 1851 – “Rigoletto”
• 1853 – “Troubadour”
• 1853 – “La Traviata”
• 1859 – “Masquerade Ball”
• 1861 – “Force of Destiny”
• 1867 – “Don Carlos”
• 1870 – “Aida”
• 1874 – Requiem
• 1886 – “Othello”
• 1893 – “Falstaff”

Biography

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi is an Italian composer whose work is one of the greatest achievements of world opera and the culmination of the development of Italian opera of the 19th century.

The composer created 26 operas and one requiem. The composer's best operas: Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Trovatore, La Traviata. The pinnacle of creativity is the latest operas: “Aida”, “Othello”, “Falstaff”.

Early period

Verdi was born into the family of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigi Uttini in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto in the department of Tarot, which at that time was part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the principalities of Parma and Piacenza. It so happened that Verdi was officially born in France.

Verdi was born in 1813 (the same year as Richard Wagner, his future main rival and leading composer of the German opera school) in Le Roncole, near Busseto (Duchy of Parma). The composer's father, Carlo Verdi, ran a village tavern, and his mother, Luigia Uttini, was a spinner. The family lived poorly, and Giuseppe's childhood was difficult. He helped celebrate mass in the village church. He studied musical literacy and playing the organ with Pietro Baistrocchi. Noticing their son's passion for music, his parents gave Giuseppe a spinet. The composer kept this very imperfect instrument until the end of his life.

The musically gifted boy was noticed by Antonio Barezzi, a wealthy merchant and music lover from the neighboring town of Busseto. He believed that Verdi would become not an innkeeper or a village organist, but a great composer. On the advice of Barezzi, ten-year-old Verdi moved to Busseto to study. Thus began a new, even more difficult period of life - the years of adolescence and youth. On Sundays, Giuseppe went to Le Roncole, where he played the organ during mass. Verdi also got a composition teacher - Fernando Provesi, director of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto. Provesi was not only engaged in counterpoint, he awakened in Verdi a craving for serious reading. Giuseppe's attention is attracted by the classics of world literature - Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, Schiller. One of his most beloved works is the novel “The Betrothed” by the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni.

In Milan, where Verdi went at the age of eighteen to continue his education, he was not accepted into the Conservatory (today named after Verdi) “due to the low level of piano playing; In addition, there were age restrictions at the conservatory.” Verdi began taking private counterpoint lessons, while attending opera performances, as well as just concerts. Communication with the Milanese elite convinced him to seriously think about a career as a theater composer.

Returning to Busseto, with the support of Antonio Barezzi (Antonio Barezzi - a local merchant and music lover who supported Verdi's musical ambitions), Verdi gave his first public performance at the Barezzi house in 1830.

Fascinated by Verdi's musical gift, Barezzi invites him to become a music teacher for his daughter Margherita. Soon the young people fell deeply in love with each other and on May 4, 1836, Verdi married Margherita Barezzi. Margherita soon gave birth to two children: Virginia Maria Louise (March 26, 1837 - August 12, 1838) and Icilio Romano (July 11, 1838 - October 22, 1839). While Verdi was working on his first opera, both children died in infancy. Some time later (June 18, 1840), at the age of 26, the composer’s wife Margarita died of encephalitis.

Initial recognition

The first production of Verdi's opera Oberto, Count Bonifacio (Oberto) at Milan's La Scala was critically acclaimed, after which the theater's impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, offered Verdi a contract to write two operas. They were “The King for an Hour” (Un giorno di regno) and “Nabucco” (“Nebuchadnezzar”). Verdi's wife and two children died while he was working on the first of these two operas. After its failure, the composer wanted to stop writing opera music. However, the premiere of Nabucco on March 9, 1842 at La Scala was a great success and established Verdi's reputation as an opera composer. Over the next year, the opera was staged 65 times in Europe and has since occupied a strong place in the repertoire of the world's leading opera houses. Nabucco was followed by several operas, including I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Ernani, which were staged and met with success in Italy.

In 1847, the opera Les Lombards, rewritten and retitled Jérusalem, was staged by the Paris Opera on November 26, 1847, becoming Verdi's first work in the grand opera style. To do this, the composer had to rework this opera somewhat and replace the Italian characters with French ones.

Master

At the age of thirty-eight, Verdi began an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano singer who was by then finishing her career (they married only eleven years later, and their cohabitation before the wedding was considered scandalous in many of the places where they lived) . Soon Giuseppina stopped performing, and Verdi, following the example of Gioachino Rossini, decided to end his career with his wife. He was wealthy, famous and in love. It may have been Giuseppina who convinced him to continue writing operas. The first opera written by Verdi after his “retirement” became his first masterpiece - “Rigoletto”. The libretto of the opera, based on Victor Hugo's play The King Amuses himself, underwent significant changes to please censors, and the composer intended to quit work several times until the opera was finally completed. The first production took place in Venice in 1851 and was a great success.

Rigoletto is perhaps one of the best operas in the history of musical theater. Verdi's artistic generosity is presented in full force. Beautiful melodies are scattered throughout the score, arias and ensembles that have become an integral part of the classical operatic repertoire follow each other, and the comic and tragic merge together.

La Traviata, Verdi's next great opera, was composed and staged two years after Rigoletto. The libretto is based on the play “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas.

Then several more operas followed, among them the constantly performed “Sicilian Supper” (Les vêpres siciliennes; written at the request of the Paris Opera), “Il Trovatore”, “Un ballo in maschera”, “Power” fate" (La forza del destino; 1862, commissioned by the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theater of St. Petersburg), second edition of the opera "Macbeth".

In 1869, Verdi composed "Libera Me" for the Requiem in memory of Gioachino Rossini (the remaining parts were written by now little-known Italian composers). In 1874, Verdi wrote his Requiem for the death of his revered writer Alessandro Manzoni, including a revised version of his previously written "Libera Me".

One of Verdi's last great operas, Aida, was commissioned by the Egyptian government to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. At first Verdi refused. While in Paris, he received a second offer through du Locle. This time Verdi met the opera script, which he liked, and agreed to write the opera.

Verdi and Wagner, each the leader of his own national opera school, always disliked each other. In their entire lives they had never met. Verdi's surviving comments about Wagner and his music are few and unkind (“He always chooses, in vain, the path less traveled, trying to fly where a normal person would simply walk, achieving much better results”). Nevertheless, upon learning that Wagner had died, Verdi said: “How sad! This name has left a huge mark on the history of art.” Only one statement by Wagner is known relating to the music of Verdi. After listening to the Requiem, the great German, always eloquent, always generous with (unflattering) comments in relation to many other composers, said: “It’s better not to say anything.”

Aida was staged in Cairo in 1871 with great success.

Last years and death

The opera Othello, based on the play by William Shakespeare, was staged in Milan in 1887. The music of this opera is “continuous”; it does not contain the traditional Italian opera division into arias and recitatives - this innovation was introduced under the influence of the operatic reform of Richard Wagner (after the death of the latter). In addition, under the influence of the same Wagnerian reform, the style of the late Verdi acquired a greater degree of recitativeness, which gave the opera the effect of greater realism, although it scared off some fans of traditional Italian opera.

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, the libretto of which Arrigo Boito, the librettist and composer, wrote based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and translated into French by Victor Hugo, developed the style of "through development" " The brilliantly written score of this comedy is thus much closer to Wagner's Die Meistersinger than to the comic operas of Rossini and Mozart. The elusiveness and effervescence of the melodies makes it possible not to delay the development of the plot and creates a unique effect of confusion, so close to the spirit of this Shakespearean comedy. The opera ends with a seven-voice fugue, in which Verdi fully demonstrates his brilliant mastery of counterpoint.

On January 21, 1901, while staying at the Grand Et De Milan Hotel (Milan, Italy), Verdi suffered a stroke. Being stricken with paralysis, he could read with his inner ear the scores of the operas “La Bohème” and “Tosca” by Puccini, “Pagliacci” by Leoncavallo, “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky, but what he thought about these operas written by his immediate and worthy heirs remained unknown . Verdi grew weaker every day and six days later, early in the morning of January 27, 1901, he died.

Verdi was originally buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. A month later, his body was transferred to Casa Di Riposo in Musicisti, a holiday home for retired musicians that Verdi created.

He was an agnostic. His second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, described him as "a man of little faith."

Style

Verdi's predecessors who influenced his work were Rossini, Bellini, Meyerbeer and, most importantly, Donizetti. The last two operas, Othello and Falstaff, show the influence of Richard Wagner. Respecting Gounod, whom his contemporaries considered the greatest composer of the era, Verdi nevertheless did not borrow anything from the great Frenchman. Some passages in Aida indicate the composer's familiarity with the works of Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt popularized in Western Europe after returning from a tour of Russia.

Throughout his career, Verdi refused to use high C in tenor parts, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of a full audience distracted performers before, after, and while singing the note.

Although Verdi's orchestration is at times masterful, the composer relied mainly on his melodic gifts to express the emotions of the characters and the drama of the action. Indeed, very often in Verdi's operas, especially during solo vocal numbers, the harmony is deliberately ascetic, and the entire orchestra sounds like one accompanying instrument (Verdi is credited with the words: “The orchestra is a big guitar!” Some critics argue that Verdi paid attention to technical the aspect of the score lacks attention because it lacks school and sophistication. Verdi himself once said, “Of all composers, I am the least knowledgeable.” But he hastened to add, “I say this seriously, but by “knowledge” I do not mean knowledge of music at all.” "

However, it would be incorrect to say that Verdi underestimated the expressive power of the orchestra and did not know how to use it to the fullest when he needed it. Moreover, orchestral and contrapuntal innovation (for example, the strings soaring across the chromatic scale in the Monterone scene in Rigoletto, in order to emphasize the drama of the situation, or, also in Rigoletto, the chorus humming close notes offstage, depicting, quite effectively, approaching storm) - characteristic of Verdi's work - so characteristic that other composers did not dare to borrow some of his bold techniques because of their instant recognition.

Verdi was the first composer to specifically search for a plot for a libretto that would best suit the characteristics of his talent as a composer. Working in close collaboration with librettists and knowing that dramatic expression was the main strength of his talent, he sought to eliminate “unnecessary” details and “superfluous” characters from the plot, leaving only characters in which passions boil and scenes rich in drama.

Operas by Giuseppe Verdi

The Force of Destiny (La forza del destino) - 1862. Based on the play “Don Alvaro, or the Force of Destiny” by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas. The premiere took place at the Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theater in St. Petersburg

Don Carlos - 1867. Based on the play of the same name by Schiller
Aida - 1871. Premiered at the Khedive's Opera House in Cairo, Egypt
Othello - 1887. Based on Shakespeare's play of the same name
Falstaff - 1893. Based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor

Other writings

Literature

The feature film "The Twentieth Century" (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci) begins on the day of the death of Giuseppe Verdi, when the two main characters are born.