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Image:Verdi.jpg|thumbnail|200px|right|Giuseppe
Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery
of Modern Art, Rome)

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10,
1813 – January 27, 1901) was one of the
great composers of Italy|Italian opera. A composer
of romantic music, his work was already very
popular during his lifetime and remains so today.

==Biography==
Born in 1813 in the Duchy of Parma in Le Roncole,
at that time under Napoleon's occupation, he moved
to Busseto in 1824 where he started his musical
studies with Ferdinando Provesi. Verdi is also
known as "the swan from Busseto".

He composed an overture for Gioacchino Rossini's
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville),
then he moved to Milan, but he was not accepted at
the conservatory, so he had private studies with
Vincenzo Lavigna. Marrying his patron's daughter,
Verdi became the municipal music director of
Busseto after completing his studies.

In 1838, the leading European musical editor
Giovanni Ricordi bought his copyrights and this
business would last for the rest of his life,
passing through the generations of Ricordi's
family, with Tito and Giulio Ricordi being
considered as part of his family.

After three years as a musical director, he
returned to Milan to produce his 1839 opera
Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio which opened in
Milan's La Scala on November 17, 1839.  This
success was modest at best, but it was enough that
he was contracted for further operatic works. Un
giorno di regno which was his only attempt at
writing a comedy until Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff.
Un Giorno di Regno was a decided failure and no
wonder, it was written shortly after his first
wife and child died. Verdi loved his first wife,
Margherita Barezzi, very much and was devastated
when she died so tragically young.

In 1842, he achieved his first real success with
Nabucco. Soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, who sang
the part of Abigaille in La Scala, became his
mistress for ten years and eventually his wife,
long after the death of his first wife. 

After the success of I Lombardi alla prima
crociata (Milan, February 11, 1843), also
increased by some aspects of the political
situation (see below), Ernani scored a triumph in
La Fenice theatre in Venice. The following year,
Giovanna d'Arco and Attila (opera)|Attila would
enforce his fame, but Verdi did not find the
rendering of his scripts by La Scala sufficient,
so he asked Ricordi not to allow any more
productions of his opera in Milan; Attila, Alzira
and Macbeth were premiered in other Italian towns.
I Masnadieri was seen in London. 

While Milan was lost and reconquered by the
Austrians, Verdi wrote Il Corsaro, La battaglia di
Legnano, and Luisa Miller, and started a Manon
Lescaut which he would never finish. After the
polemics for his Stiffelio, in 1851 Rigoletto
(opera)|Rigoletto was a triumph in Venice, and in
1853 he had another great success with Il
Trovatore (in Rome) but a very sad fiasco for the
first soirées of La Traviata.  These three works
in particular were loved by the public, but
critics condemned the scandalous subjects
depicting free love, suicide and rape.

Other famous operas follow in this period: Les
Vêpres siciliennes (I Vespri Siciliani) (Paris),
Aroldo (a revision of Stiffelio), Simon Boccanegra
(La Fenice), and Un Ballo in Maschera (which was
censored).

Now wealthy from the success of his works, the
composer purchased an estate in Busseto. He then
assisted at the Italian unification|birth of the
Kingdom of Italy. In 1861, he was elected as
Deputy in the first parliament of the new nation
of Italy.  La Forza del Destino had its premiere
in St. Petersburg in 1862 and Don Carlos was first
presented in Paris.

It was in 1872 that Aida was performed at La Scala
with great success. It had been composed for the
Egyptian Khedive, on the occasion of the
inauguration of a new opera house in Cairo, and
not for the opening of the Suez Canal as often
mentioned.

Some troubles occurred in his relationship with
the Ricordi editors, who were suspected of
irregularities concerning huge amounts of money.
However, a few years later it was Giulio Ricordi
who proposed Otello, which had its premiere in
1887. Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff would follow after
other revisions of older works.

He died of a stroke in 1901 in Milan after the
completion of his "Casa di Riposo", a retirement
villa for poor artists. In keeping with his humble
origin, Verdi took pride in the engagement of the
peasant girl (Artemisa) he fathered when he was
already 63 to the Guardia Forestale Ernesto and
attended their wedding in Langhirono a few years
before his death. His funeral was extremely well
attended, and a quarter of a million mourners were
present to show their respect to one of the most
important figures in Italian music. He was
interred next to his wife in the "Famedio" (Temple
of Fame) at the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. A
month later, the bodies of Verdi and his wife were
both moved to the Casa di Riposo in Milan.  During
the procession from the Cimitero to the Casa di
Riposo, which was attended by throngs of mourners,
Arturo Toscanini conducted a choir that sang Va'
Pensiero.

==Verdi's role in the Risorgimento==

In the 1840s, the popularity of Verdi's music
coincided with the Risorgimento, the campaign for
a unified Italian nation. The wild success of
Nabucco in particular put Verdi's name and music
in the minds of many Italians at the time. They
saw in Verdi's works a sadness which reflected
many of their own unhappinesses with the status
quo, and a vibrance which conjured romantic
visions of Italian unification. Verdi's songs were
especially resonant in Milan, then under Austrian
occupation.

In particular, Nabuccos "Chorus of the Hebrew
Slaves", the tender lament of Hebrew captives in
Babylonia, was an immense success, and reportedly
could be heard sung in the streets of Milan in
1843. Also known as Va' Pensiero from its first
line, the song has been proposed from time to time
as the Italian national anthem. It begins:




Fly, thought, on wings of gold;

go settle upon the slopes and the hills

where the sweet airs of our

native soil smell soft and mild!

...Oh, my country, so lovely and lost!

Oh remembrance so dear yet unhappy!



Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate;

va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli

ove olezzano tepide e molli

l'aure dolci del suolo natal!

...Oh, mia patria sì bella e perduta!

Oh, membranza sì cara e fatal!



Full lyrics can be found here:
http://www.r-ds.com/opera/verdiana/lyrics.htm#Va,%
20pensiero and a recording (MP3 format) here:
http://www.r-ds.com/domingo/Soundfiles/vapensiero.
mp3.

Milan was still under Austrian occupation and was
beginning to consider supporting Victor Emmanuel
II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel's effort in Italian
reunification, as it afterwards did. Clandestine
partisans started therefore plotting to have the
then-King of Sardinia conquer Milan. Due to severe
Austrian censorship, this campaign was given a
codename: "Viva VERDI." Verdi was a secret acronym
for Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia
(Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy). This enabled
nationalists to freely shout their support for
Victor Emmanuel, while outsiders assumed they were
fans of the composer. Giuseppe Verdi was aware of
this use of his name and is supposed to have
consented.

Other references to political events have been
seen in Verdi's I Lombardi.

==Musical style==
The music of Verdi served the audience of the mass
public rather than that of the musical elite. 
Opera as his medium is appropriate as opera was
not the interest of that elite crowd.  The
subjects of his works, Verdi said, should be
"original, interesting...and passionate; passions
above them all!" (Kamien 243) His most mature
works, except for Falstaff, are serious and end
tragically.  These fast-paced works deal with
emotional extremes and the music emphasizes the
dramatic situation.

It is the expression of the melodies given to the
singers that represents the key expressive spirit
of Verdi's work.  He uses duets, trios and
quartets along with significant and memorable
passages for chorus.  As he aged, his works became
increasingly unconventional.  The division between
aria and recitative passages blurred and overall
there was a greater continuity in the music.  The
orchestration became more imaginative, and
accompaniments were richer.  His final work, the
comic Falstaff, presents this with its care-free
finale: a fugue declaring "All the world's a
joke!"

==List of major works==
* Sei romanze  (Six Romances), 1838
* Oberto, 1839
* Un giorno di regno, 1840
* Nabucco, 1842
* I Lombardi alla prima crociata, 1843
* Ernani, 1844
* I due Foscari, 1844
* Giovanna d'Arco, 1845
* Alzira, 1845
* Macbeth (opera)|Macbeth, 1847
* I masnadieri, 1847
* Luisa Miller, 1849
* Rigoletto (opera)|Rigoletto, 1851
* Il trovatore, 1853
* La traviata, 1853
* Les vêpres siciliennes, 1855
* Aroldo, 1857
* Simon Boccanegra, 1857
* Un ballo in maschera, 1859
* La forza del destino, 1862
* Don Carlo, 1867
* Messa per Rossini, 1869 (with twelve other
composers)
* Aida, 1871
* Requiem (Verdi)|Requiem Mass, 1874
* Otello, 1887
* Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff, 1893

==See also ==
* List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi
* 3975 Verdi|Asteroid 3975 Verdi, an asteroid
named after him.
===Media===
multi-listen start
multi-listen item|filename=La Donna E Mobile
Rigoletto.ogg|title=La donna è
mobile|description=Enrico Caruso sings La donna è
mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto (opera)|Rigoletto,
circa 1908|format=Ogg
multi-listen end

===External links===
* http://www.giuseppeverdi.it Giuseppe Verdi
Official Site

==References==
# Kamien, Roger. Music : An Appreciation. 
Mcgraw-Hill College; 3rd edition (August 1, 1997)
ISBN 0070365210