Stavros
10-10-2013, 10:17 PM
The Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi was born in a village in Italy 200 years ago today, or yesterday, nobody is quite sure.
Le Roncole was at the time in the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, but it is interesting that while Shakespeare was born into a prosperous family in a prosperous market town in Stratford-upon-Avon, Verdi, whose settings of Shakespeare are amongst the finest in opera, was poorer than the English bard, yet both brought to Theatre and the performing arts something different, and something that has endured because of its quality. Born in the same year as Wagner, both men were committed to a concept of opera as something which demanded both audience attention (it's not just a pleasant way to dress up and go out in the evening), and artistic commitment: the best singing, and thoughtful production giving the experience a total sense of artistic expression. Verdi was prone to depression, his first wife and two children died when he was young, and he scandalously co-habited with a soprano for years before marrying her. He used part of his fortune from opera to build a retirement home for singers in Milan -Casa Verdi, it's still there- and died in 1901 when my grandmothers were 19 and 17 years old. Verdi is an heroic figure in Italy on the same level as Dante, Leonardo, Manzoni and the other great creative genii of that country; he elevated the art of singing to new levels, he was honest, modest, and endowed the world of music with a legacy that will continue to inspire long after we are gone.
Maria Callas canta "D'amor sull'ali rosee" da Il trovatore - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf15oAdOPHs)
Anna Netrebko Elina Garanca Ramon Vargas Ludovic Tezier Bella figlia dellamore from Rigoletto Baden Baden 2007 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xDkYkOHj20)
Angela Gheorghiu - Verdi's Requiem: Libera me - Berlin 2001 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vm_uIKVHQo)
Le Roncole was at the time in the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, but it is interesting that while Shakespeare was born into a prosperous family in a prosperous market town in Stratford-upon-Avon, Verdi, whose settings of Shakespeare are amongst the finest in opera, was poorer than the English bard, yet both brought to Theatre and the performing arts something different, and something that has endured because of its quality. Born in the same year as Wagner, both men were committed to a concept of opera as something which demanded both audience attention (it's not just a pleasant way to dress up and go out in the evening), and artistic commitment: the best singing, and thoughtful production giving the experience a total sense of artistic expression. Verdi was prone to depression, his first wife and two children died when he was young, and he scandalously co-habited with a soprano for years before marrying her. He used part of his fortune from opera to build a retirement home for singers in Milan -Casa Verdi, it's still there- and died in 1901 when my grandmothers were 19 and 17 years old. Verdi is an heroic figure in Italy on the same level as Dante, Leonardo, Manzoni and the other great creative genii of that country; he elevated the art of singing to new levels, he was honest, modest, and endowed the world of music with a legacy that will continue to inspire long after we are gone.
Maria Callas canta "D'amor sull'ali rosee" da Il trovatore - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf15oAdOPHs)
Anna Netrebko Elina Garanca Ramon Vargas Ludovic Tezier Bella figlia dellamore from Rigoletto Baden Baden 2007 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xDkYkOHj20)
Angela Gheorghiu - Verdi's Requiem: Libera me - Berlin 2001 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vm_uIKVHQo)