Read complete books and articles on: Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi, Giuseppe - vârˈdē, Ital. joozĕpˈpā vĕrˈdē, 1813–1901, foremost Italian composer of opera, b. Le Roncole. Verdi, the son of an innkeeper, showed a precocious talent for the organ but was refused entrance to the Milan Conservatory as having been inadequately trained. He studied with Lavigna of La Scala, and in 1839 his first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, was produced. His third opera, Nabucodonosor (1842, also known as Nabucco; the story of Nebuchadnezzar), was enormously successful. The next work I Lombardi alla prima Crociata (1843), concerning the First Crusade, assured Verdi's position at La Scala. Among his major successes of the next years were Ernani (1844), Rigoletto (1851), considered his first masterpiece, Il Trovatore (1853), and La Traviata (1853). These works showed him to be a master of dramatic composition and established him securely. Verdi's style was further developed in Un ballo in maschera [a masked ball] (1859) and La forza del destino [the power of destiny] (1862). In Aïda (1871) all the elements of his earlier style reach maturity, the music assuming a new dramatic importance to the story. Verdi next composed his great Requiem (1874) in memory of the writer Manzoni. Verdi greatly admired Shakespeare, on whose plays three of his operas are based—Macbeth (1847; rev. version 1865) and the masterpieces of his old age, Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893; based on The Merry Wives of Windsor), for both of which Boito was librettist. In these two late works, finished at ages 73 and 80, Verdi astonished the musical world with a power, subtlety, and brilliance that marked the culmination of Italian grand opera. Verdi was greatly honored during his lifetime. He was elected a senator and offered a marquisate, which he declined. His superbly melodic works are performed throughout the world.

Bibliography

See his letters, ed. by C. Osborne (1971); biographies by F. Walker (1962), G. W. Martin (1963), J. Wechsberg (1974), M. J. Phillips-Matz (1994), and J. Rosselli (2000); study of his operas by J. Budden (3 vol., 1978–81).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Giuseppe Verdi

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Works » Read Now
by Francis Toye. 498 pgs.

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2.

Verdi's Aida » Read Now
by Giuseppe Verdi, Ellen H. Bleiler. 147 pgs.

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3.

Verdi's Falstaff in Letters and Contemporary Reviews » Read Now
by Giuseppe Verdi, Hans Busch. 637 pgs.

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4.

Overtones, a Book of Temperaments: Richard Strauss, Parsifal, Verdi, Balzac, Flaubert, Nietzsche, and Turgaenieff » Read Now
by James Huneker. 340 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
5.

Makers of Opera (Chap. 14 "Verdi") » Read Now
by Kathleen O'Donnell Hoover. 257 pgs.

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6.

Viva la Liberta! Politics in Opera (Chap. 4 "Verdi: The Liberal Patriot") » Read Now
by Anthony Arblaster. 345 pgs.

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7.

Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera (Chap. Five "Uneasy Bodies: Verdi and Sublimation") » Read Now
by Mary Ann Smart. 247 pgs.

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"Mimomania is a thoughtful meditation on the persistence and transformation of the musical mimicry of bodily gesture in nineteenth-century opera. Incorporating and reacting to feminist critique, film studies, and recent, new-wave opera studies, Smart shows that this ostensibly straightforward...
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"Mimomania is a thoughtful meditation on the persistence and transformation of the musical mimicry of bodily gesture in nineteenth-century opera. Incorporating and reacting to feminist critique, film studies, and recent, new-wave opera studies, Smart shows that this ostensibly straightforward relation of music and action hides unexpected complexities. From these she rethinks important works from the period and indeed the relation of its two giants, Verdi and Wagner."--Gary Tomlinson, author of "Metaphysical Song: An Essay on Opera
"Mary Ann Smart's important and timely book documents--deftly and in rich musical detail--the ways that nineteenth-century operas reflect a character's emotive state in the music and in sometimes closely coordinated physical gestures. Opera lovers will delight in applying Smart's insights to yet other works: ones that they know, love, and sometimes puzzle over."--Ralph P. Locke, Professor of Musicology, Eastman School of Music
"An outstanding contribution to the study of nineteenth-century opera. Its focus on the relationship between music and gesture provides a new perspective that yields a dazzling array of exciting insights. Not only musicologists, but also cultural historians, theatre historians, feminist theorists and anybody interested in the study of performance will benefit from reading this book. Opera enthusiasts will also enjoy Smart's sometimes irreverent, but always illuminating interpretations of both canonized works and less frequently performed titles."--Emanuele Senici, University of Oxford
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8.

Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the Risorgimento (Chap. 3 "Liberty on (and off) the Barricades: Verdi's Risorgimento Fantasies") » Read Now
by Albert Russell Ascoli, Krystyna von Henneberg. 332 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This important new book considers many of the ways in which national identity was imagined, implemented and contested within Italian culture before, during and after the period of Italian unification in the mid-nineteenth century. Taking a fresh approach towards national icons cherished by both Left...
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This important new book considers many of the ways in which national identity was imagined, implemented and contested within Italian culture before, during and after the period of Italian unification in the mid-nineteenth century. Taking a fresh approach towards national icons cherished by both Left and Right, the collection's authors examine the complex interaction between a perceived need for national identity and the fragmented nature of the Italian peninsula. In so doing, they draw on examples from a wide range of artistic and cultural media.The book opens with an introduction which defines the case of the Italian 'Risorgimento' and places it within a large context of European and global nation-building and nationalism. Authors discuss how episodes from the distant past were used by nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists, musicians, and writers to recreate narratives of nationhood, as well as how the problem of Italian identity was before and during the Risorgimento. The question of who belonged in the new Italy, who remained outsiders, and how social and sexual differences entered into defining these groups is also addressed. The book concludes with an analysis of twentieth-century attempts to appropriate and reforge the 'spirit' of the Risorgimento, under Fascism and in our own time.
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9.

Opera and the Culture of Fascism (Chap. 2 "Verdi and Imperialism: Otello") » Read Now
by Jeremy Tambling. 280 pgs.

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Tambling draws on the insights of Adorno, Benjamin, Theweleit, Bataille, Kristeva, and others to read nineteenth- and early twentieth-century opera as part of a culture which produced fascism as a crisis-state, and threatened to extinguish the genre as an influential and contemporary form of high...
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Tambling draws on the insights of Adorno, Benjamin, Theweleit, Bataille, Kristeva, and others to read nineteenth- and early twentieth-century opera as part of a culture which produced fascism as a crisis-state, and threatened to extinguish the genre as an influential and contemporary form of high art. Examining over a dozen operas in detail, Tambling discovers an ideology with both reactionary and revolutionary potentials.
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10.

Man and His Music: The Story of Musical Experience in the West ("Verdi and Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera" begins on p. 782) » Read Now
by Alec Harman, Wilfrid Mellers, Anthony Milner. 1174 pgs.

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11.

Composers on Composers ("Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)" begins on p. 149) » Read Now
by John L. Holmes. 192 pgs.

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This important compilation lends a new perspective to music criticism by gathering the comments of 85 well-known composers concerning the work of their peers. Encompassing all forms of commentary, from caustic attacks to perceptive criticism and praise, the book offers new insights into the...
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This important compilation lends a new perspective to music criticism by gathering the comments of 85 well-known composers concerning the work of their peers. Encompassing all forms of commentary, from caustic attacks to perceptive criticism and praise, the book offers new insights into the development of music and its most important creators by collecting under each composer's name the remarks made about him by other composers.
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12.

Sign-Off for the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1950-1966, Vol. 1 (Chap. Nine "Friendly Verdi," Chap. Thirteen "Verdi Renascence," and Chap. Twenty-Four "Verdi Revisited") » Read Now
by Paul Jackson. 644 pgs.

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For more than sixty-five years, the weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera have brought performances from one of the world's great opera companies to millions of listeners. Covering the period from the beginning of the Rudolf Bing era to the destruction of the old Met in...
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For more than sixty-five years, the weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera have brought performances from one of the world's great opera companies to millions of listeners. Covering the period from the beginning of the Rudolf Bing era to the destruction of the old Met in 1966, the new volume surveys two hundred broadcasts featuring luminaries inherited from the Johnson regime (Flagstad, Milanov, Albanese, Steber, Stevens, Bjorling, Di Stefano, Tucker, Warren) and Bing recruits (De Los Angeles, Della Casa, Tebaldi, Nilsson, Price, Sutherland, Crespin, Siepi, Bergonzi, Vickers, Corelli), under the leadership of such great conductors as Fritz Reiner, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Georg Solti. As in Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1931-1950, the author uses unpublished documents and letters from the Metropolitan Opera Archives to tell behind-the-scenes stories of the players involved.
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13.

The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music ("Verdi's 'Middle Period' (1849-1871)" begins on p. 374) » Read Now
by Jim Samson. 772 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The most informed reference book on nineteenth-century music currently available, this comprehensive overview of music in the nineteenth century draws on the most recent scholarship in the field. Essays investigate the intellectual and socio-political history of the time, and examine topics such as...
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The most informed reference book on nineteenth-century music currently available, this comprehensive overview of music in the nineteenth century draws on the most recent scholarship in the field. Essays investigate the intellectual and socio-political history of the time, and examine topics such as nations and nationalism, the emergent concept of an avant garde, and musical styles and languages at the turn of the century. It contains a detailed chronology, and extensive glossaries.
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14.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera ("Verdi, Giuseppe" begins on p. 534) » Read Now
by John Warrack, Ewan West. 571 pgs.

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Derived from the full Oxford Dictionary of Opera, this is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of opera available in paperback. Fully revised for this new edition, with over 3,500 entries, it is designed to be accessible to all those who enjoy opera, whether at the opera-house or at...
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Derived from the full Oxford Dictionary of Opera, this is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of opera available in paperback. Fully revised for this new edition, with over 3,500 entries, it is designed to be accessible to all those who enjoy opera, whether at the opera-house or at home. Here opera buffs will have at their fingertips opera synopses and first performance details, bibliographies of works about opera, entries on singers (including their debuts and career highlights, with notes on voice type, style, and reputation), definitions and discussions of technical terms and operatic styles, and surveys of the history of opera worldwide. Included also are plot summaries and separate entries for well-know roles, arias, and choruses. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera provides a huge amount of information and learning packed conveniently in a single volume with helpful cross-references. It will be invaluable to all opera-goers, to those professionally concerned with opera, and to anyone needing reliable information on this fascinating subject.
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