VERDI, GIUSEPPE ( 1813-1901 ) . The greatest Italian composer of the nineteenth cen tury. Be was horn at Roncole, a small town in the Duchy of Parma, October 9, 1313. At the age of seven he received regular instruction from the organist of the village church. The boy's progress was so rapid that after three years his father decided to give him a liberal education, and sent him to Russet°. where he attended the academy. Two years later, upon the eompletion of the course, lie was ap prentieed to Antonio Barezzi„ president of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto. Provesi, the conductor of the society. instructed him in com position and orchestration. When Provesi tired as conductor Verdi was unanimously chosen his successor. Verdi had reached his six teenth year Barezzi and Prove4:i sent him to Milan to enter the conservatory. The director, Francesco Basili. rejected him for lack of musi cal ability, hut, nothing daunted, the young man applied to Vincenzo Lavigna, at that time con ductor at La Scala. Lavigna quickly detected his pupil's talent and confined his instruction chiefly to the practical side of operatic compo sition. Of the pieces written at this time none has been published, although Verdi used a few of them in his earliest operas.
When Provesi died in 1833 Barezzi asked Verdi to come back to Busseto as conductor of the Philharmonic Society. Verdi returned, and hound himself for three years at a salary of 300 francs. Upon the expiration of his contract he went back to Milan. There Verdi met a young poet. Solera. who wrote for him the text of his first opera. Oberto. Conte di San Bonifario, which was produced with a splendid cast on Notember 17, 1339. Rieordi offered the young composer 2000 lire for the score of °beet°, and guaranteed the sum of 4000 lire for each of three operas to be written at intervals of eight months. Verdi at once began work on a book furnished by Merelli, Un. Giorno di Regno. a comic opera. But the death of his children and his wife in succes sion so affected him that the opera was a failure.
Reluctantly, Morelli released him from his con tract. After a two years' retirement, Verdi came out again with a new opera, Nabuecodonosor (1842). The success of this opera made the young composer a celebrity. In the following year 1 Lombardi appeared, and thereafter Verdi was re garded as the foremost composer of Italy. Ir. 1844 Eenuni was produced at Vwlice, and proved the greatest of successes.
For a number of years Verdi's genius seemed to have suffered au eclipse. for of ;ill the operas written between 1344 and 1851 none rises above mediocrity. Some were complete failures. These works are: I due Foscari ( 1844), Gioranna (Vireo and .1 hire (1845), .111i/a ( 1846), Mae bellt and 1 ilasmolicri (1847), 11 Corsaro La Bat laylia di Legnano and Lisa Miller (1849), Stiffelio (1850). With the Stiffelio closes the first period of Verdi's career.
In 1844 Verdi married the famous prima donna Giuseppina Strepponi, who had appeared in several of his operas. The second period of his life is ushered in by Rif/We/to (1851), fol lowed at the end of 1852 by 11 Trora tore, and only a few weeks later by La Trariata. The suc cess of each of these works was phenomenal and carried the composer's name over the civilized world. For the Paris Exposition of .1855 Verdi
was commissioned to write a festival opera. This was Les lepres 8iciliennes, produced with very moderate success at the Grand Opera. Still more coolly the next work, Simone Boecanegra (1857), was received. Un Ballo in Jlaschera (1359) once more was an emphatic success. whereas La Forza del Destino (1862) was received with less favor. The next five years Verdi was busy with revising and partly rewriting older operas. Another French opera, Don Carlos, was written for and produced during the Paris Exposition of 1867. The score of this work is written far more carefully than that of any of his former works, and there is less evidence of Verdi's chief faults. These operas constitute the composer's second period. All of them show the influence of the style of the Paris Grand Opera, but instead of being influenced by the grace and esprit of this school, Verdi seems to have been attracted chiefly by its worst qualities, as shown in its brutal effects of masses, its violent contrasts, commonplace melo dies. distorted rhythms, and an instrumentation which is either overloaded or too meagre. But in spite of these glaring faults the works of this period are full of passages which show Verdi's great creative genius in its most favorable light.
Although he wrote very little between 1860 and 1370, he was not idle, for he devoted his time to a close study of the great 'Italian masters, thus perfecting his own technic and educating and re fining his artistic taste. Close upon the age of threescore Verdi turned his back upon the style that had made him famous and wealthy. ids (1871). written for the Khedile of Egypt, was the first opera produced in accordance with his newly acquired artistic convictions. The suc cess of this new work was most emphatic. Verdi had a still greater surprise in store for the musical world when he came out with the Man zoni Requiem (1874). After this work Verdi was silent for thirteen years, but in 1887 Otello appeared, a work that surpasses all his previous efforts, and which is a real drama. On the same lines is constructed his last and perhaps greatest work, Falstaff (1893). It is remarkable that Verdi, whose only comic opera had been a signal failure, should close his career with the most delightful musical comedy which the world pos sesses, with the single exception of Wagner's Meistersinger. The list of Verdi's works is com pleted by the mention of a dramatic cantata, In no Belle Naziimi (1802). a string quartet (1573), several romances, a notturiio for three voices with flute obligato, and his last compo sition, ()natio) Pezzi Sacri (1595).
In 1874 Verdi was made Senator. In 1890 he donated the SUM of one million lire to the city of Milan for the purpose of erecting a home for old and invalid musicians of both sexes. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at his villa, Sant' Ag,ata, where lie died. Consult: Berinello. Giuseppe Verdi (Berlin. 15991: Sof fredini, Le opere di Verdi (Milan, 1901) ; Crow est. 'Verdi, Man and .1Insician ; His Biography New York. 1597) : Poneln, 'Verdi. an Anecdotic History of Ilis Life and Works (translated from the French by Matthew, London and New York, 1587).