Giuseppe Verdi His Life And Works

Based on more than 30-years of research and drawing on both public and private archives, this biography of the great Italian composer is unprecedented in its unraveling of the facts and legends of his life and in portraying the man and his times. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The works of no great composer between the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries have undergone a more spectacular reassessment than those of Giuseppe Verdi. His death brought a crowd of several hundred thousand people to mourn not only the passing of a great artist but also a beloved national hero. It is not surprising that a figure such as Verdi should have inspired an enormous amount of books, articles, essays, and critical evaluation. Today, Verdi scholars build their work on a vast foundation of earlier research. For those who have not spent years with Verdi literature or who may just be starting to explore some aspect of the giant's life and works, this foundation may seem daunting indeed. It is primarily for these researchers that this volume is intended, although it is hoped that specialists will also find it to be useful. Its purpose is to index and describe some of the most significant studies about the composer and his music, presenting enough material - in a sort of stream of consciousness, using annotations that readers may survey the myriad directions Verdi research has gone, ascertain the relevance of individual items to their individual interests, and easily pursue significant patterns and threads in which they are interested. This Verdi biography is dealt with as a simple story to be read in one go - in which thoughts concerning personal and professional events in his life flow in simplicity, while continuing to respect the importance of chronological order.

Giuseppe Verdi was born in obscurity in a tiny Italian village in 1813. When he died in 1901, hundreds of thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the man whom many people consider as the best opera composer of all time. His career spanned more than half a century and included such successes as Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Otello, Falstaff, and Aida, the most often-performed work at New York's Metropolitan Opera. Yet when he applied at a famous music school in Milan, he was turned down because he was "lacking in musical talent." He not only proved the school wrong but became an important figure in Italian politics during the turbulent era when the scattered provinces came together to form a new nation. Along the way, he overcame obstacles such as the death of his first wife and two small children and the humiliation of being booed during the premiere of one of his early operas.

Along with learning about various opera jobs, opera production, what takes place at rehearsals, and opera house history, inquisitive kids will gain a fuller understanding of the influential 19th century composer's life, times, and music and how Verdi intersected with the great musicians and events of his lifetime.

Relates the life of a boldly innovative composer whose operas still fill theatres today.