Giuseppe Verdi

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Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi, composer of Italian romantic opera, was born in Le Roncole, near Parma, on October 10, 1813, the son of an innkeeper. His first formal musical studies were with the organist Ferdinando Provesi in the nearby town of Busseto, where he attended school. Verdi lived in Busseto in the home of the merchant Antonio Barezzi, who supported him financially and whose daughter Margherita was to become his first wife. In 1832 he applied for admission to the Milan Conservatory, but he was refused because he was over the age limit. He pursued private studies in Milan with Vincenzo Lavigna until 1835, when he returned to the post of organist in Busseto. After 3 years his desire to write for the theater brought him back to Milan, where his first opera, Oberto, was performed in 1839. The death of his wife and both his children in the space of 22 months (1838-40) interrupted Verdi's career, but in 1842 he was induced by his Milan producer to write Nabucco, the opera that brought him his first great success. For a decade thereafter he was sought by all the great opera houses of Italy, and he produced 18 operas in 15 years, culminating in Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (The Troubador, 1853), and La Traviata (The Wrongdoer, 1853).


By the early 1850s, Verdi began fulfilling commissions for theaters outside Italy: Les Vepres siciliennes (Sicilian Vespers, 1855), Don Carlos (1867), and a revision (1865) of his earlier Macbeth (1847) for Paris; La Forza del destino (The Force of Destiny, 1862) for Saint Petersburg; and Aida (1871) for a new opera house in Cairo. During this period he also became involved in politics, being elected to a term in the first Italian parliament after the unification of the country in 1861. His election was not merely a tribute to his great popularity; Verdi had introduced patriotic elements into his operas as early as Nabucco, and his name had become an acronym for "Vittorio Emanuele, Re D'Italia" ("Vittorio Emanuele, king of Italy").
After Aida, Verdi went into semiretirement with his second wife, the singer Giuseppina Strepponi. The only other major work of the 1870s was a Requiem Mass (1874) in memory of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni. He considered his operatic career finished, contenting himself with revisions of the earlier operas. But through the cajoling of his publisher Giulio Ricordi and the librettist Arrigo Boito, Verdi was induced to take up first Otello (1887) and then Falstaff (1893). These two Shakespearean operas, one tragic and the other comic, were the crowning achievements of his old age. Verdi died in Milan on Jan. 27, 1901

Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, 2 vols. (1973, 1978); Gatti, Carlo, Verdi: The Man and His Music, trans. by Elizabeth Abbott (1955); Godefroy, Vincent, The Dramatic Genius of Verdi, 2 vols. (1975, 1978); Kimbell, David R., Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism (1985); Martin, George, Verdi: His Music, Life and Times (1963); Osborne, Charles, The Complete Operas of Verdi (1969); Walker, Frank, The Man Verdi (1962); Weaver, William, Verdi: A Documentary Study (1977); Weaver, William, and Chusid, Martin, eds., The Verdi Companion (1979)

Il Rigoletto - 2 CD
DG edizione del 1998 

Artist(s)
Vladimir Chernov(Baritone)
Cheryl Studer (Soprano)
Luciano Pavarotti (Tenor)
Roberto Scandiuzzi (Bass)
Denyce Graves (Mezzo Soprano)
Jane Shaulis (Soprano)
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Bass)
Dwayne Croft (Baritone)
Paul Groves (Tenor)
Yannis Yannissis (Bass)
Heidi Grant Murphy (Soprano)
Robert Maher (Baritone)
Elyssa Lindner (Mezzo Soprano)

Ensemble Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Ensemble Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Conductor Levine, James

Rigoletto: Atto primo

01. Act One, No.1 Prld

02. Act One, Scene One: No.2 Intro: Della Mia Bella Incognita Borghese

03. Act One, Scene One: No.2 Intro: Questa O Quella

04. Act One, Scene One: No.2 Intro: Partite?...Crudele!

05. Act One, Scene One: No.2 Intro: Gran Nuova! Gran Nuova!

Rigoletto: Atto secondo

01. Act Two, No.8 Scena Ed Aria: Ella Mi Fu Rapita!

02. Act Two, No.8 Scena Ed Aria: Parmi Veder Le Lagrime

03. Act Two, No.8 Scena Ed Aria: Duca, Duca!/Ebben?

04. Act Two, No.8 Scena Ed Aria: Possente Amor Mi Chiama

05. Act Two, No.9 Scena Ed Aria: Provero Rigoletto! 

RIGOLETTO is a masterpiece of Verdi's early mid-career, when his aim was to shake the opera world with works of visceral force based on unpretty, seemingly unoperatic subjects. It tells a lurid tale of sexual libertinism, deceit and murder, centering on the hunchback Rigoletto, who is not a noble character. Even the most beloved of its arias, "La Donna e mobile," disdainfully rips womankind. Of course this is the young Verdi in full flower, the unpleasantness is brilliantly calculated and it's all delivered with unforgettable impact.

In this performance we have James Levine and his Metropolitan Opera forces, a cast led by Vladimir Chernov in the title role, Cheryl Studer as Gilda and Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke for the third time on record. With such players you'd expect knowing competence, and you get it. Chernov has a beautiful baritone, lacking just a measure of malevolence. Studer is lovely and moving in a role for which she is not known, and Pavarotti holds his substantial own in a role for which he is. The sound is excellent, both full and detailed. 

REVIEWS 

Gramophone (11/98, pp.115-18) - "...The performance is lively, distinguished in quality if not in kind, with vivid sound, and two principal singers whose appearance in their roles excites interest....Levine and his company could hardly fail to come up with an enjoyable 'Rigoletto'..."