This Companion provides an accessible biographical, theatrical, and social-cultural background for Verdi’s music, examines in detail important general aspects of its style and method of composition, and discusses stylistic themes in reviews of representative works. Aspects of Verdi’s milieu, style, creative process, and critical reception are explored in essays by highly reputed specialists. Individual chapters address themes in Verdi’s life, his role in transforming the theatre business, and his relationship to Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento. Chapters on four operas representative of the different stages of Verdi’s career, Ernani, Rigoletto, Don Carlos, and Otello, synthesize analytical themes introduced in the more general chapters and illustrate the richness of Verdi’s creativity. The Companion also includes chapters on Verdi’s non-operatic songs and other music, his creative process, and writing about Verdi from the nineteenth century to the present day.
EDITED BY
Scott L. Balthazar
Professor of Music History, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
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| List of figures and table | page [vii] | |
| List of examples | [viii] | |
| Notes on contributors | [x] | |
| Preface | [xiii] | |
| Chronology | [xvii] | |
| Part I Personal, cultural, and political context | ||
| 1 | Verdi’s life: a thematic biography Mary Jane Phillips-Matz | [3] |
| 2 | The Italian theatre of Verdi’s day Alessandro Roccatagliati | [15] |
| 3 | Verdi, Italian Romanticism, and the Risorgimento Mary Ann Smart | [29] |
| Part II The style of Verdi’s operas and non-operatic works | ||
| 4 | The forms of set pieces Scott L. Balthazar | [49] |
| 5 | New currents in the libretto Fabrizio Della Seta | [69] |
| 6 | Words and music Emanuele Senici | [88] |
| 7 | French influences Andreas Giger | [111] |
| 8 | Structural coherence Steven Huebner | [139] |
| 9 | Instrumental music in Verdi’s operas David Kimbell | [154] |
| 10 | Verdi’s non-operatic works Roberta Montemorra Marvin | [169] |
| Part III Representative operas | ||
| 11 | Ernani: the tenor in crisis Rosa Solinas | [185] |
| 12 | “Ch’hai di nuovo, buffon?” or What’s new with Rigoletto Cormac Newark | [197] |
| 13 | Verdi’s Don Carlos: an overview of the operas Harold Powers | [209] |
| 14 | Desdemona’s alienation and Otello’s fall Scott L. Balthazar | [237] |
| Part IV Creation and critical reception | ||
| 15 | An introduction to Verdi’s working methods Luke Jensen | [257] |
| 16 | Verdi criticism Gregory W. Harwood | [269] |
| Notes | [282] | |
| List of Verdi’s works | [309] | |
| Select bibliography and works cited | [312] | |
| Index | [329] | |
| Figure 4.1a | Nineteenth-century Italian aria form, Rossini | page [50] |
| Figure 4.1b | Nineteenth-century Italian aria form, mid-nineteenth century | [50] |
| Figure 4.2a | Nineteenth-century Italian duet form, early Rossini | [54] |
| Figure 4.2b | Nineteenth-century Italian duet form, mid-nineteenth century | [54] |
| Figure 4.3 | Nineteenth-century Italian central finale form, mid-nineteenth century | [57] |
| Figure 4.4 | Nineteenth-century Italian ensemble introduzione form, Rossini and Verdi | [61] |
| Figure 4.5 | Nineteenth-century Italian final scene form, Verdi | [63] |
| Figure 4.6 | Verdi, Ernani, I, 1, introduzione | [66] |
| Figure 8.1a | Rigoletto, II, 10 (following the scena), duet Gilda-Rigoletto (after Powers, “One Halfstep at a Time,” 154) | [144] |
| Figure 8.1b | Rigoletto, II, 9 (following the scena), aria Rigoletto (after Powers, “One Halfstep at a Time,” 156) | [144] |
| Figure 14.1 | Keys in Verdi’s Otello | [250] |
| Table 16.1 | Winners of the Premio Internazionale Rotary Club di Parma “Giuseppe Verdi” | [274] |
| 3.1 | Verdi, Nabucco, III, 11, “Va pensiero” (chorus) | page [34] | |
| 3.2 | Pietro Cornali, Canto degli italiani | [36] | |
| 3.3 | Verdi, La battaglia di Legnano, III, 7, “Digli ch'è sangue italico” (Rolando, Lida) | [41] | |
| 3.4a | Verdi, La battaglia di Legnano, I, 2, “Viva Italia! sacro un patto” (chorus) | [43] | |
| 3.4b | Verdi, La battaglia di Legnano, III, 9, scena, terzetto, finale | [44] | |
| 5.1a | Verdi, Il trovatore, IV, 13, “Mira, di acerbe lagrime” (Leonora) | [71] | |
| 5.1b | Verdi, La traviata, II, 4, “De' miei bollenti spiriti” (Alfredo) | [71] | |
| 6.1 | Verdi, Luisa Miller, II, 8, “A brani, a brani, o perfido” (Luisa) | [90] | |
| 6.2 | Verdi, Luisa Miller, II, 8, “Tu puniscimi, o Signore” (Luisa) | [95] | |
| 6.3 | Verdi, Un ballo in maschera, I, 1, “Alla vita che t’arride” (Renato) | [100] | |
| 7.1 | Verdi, La traviata, I, 5, “Ah, forse è lui” (Violetta) | [114] | |
| 7.2 | Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes, V, 2, “Merci, jeunes amies” (Hélène) | [115] | |
| 7.3 | Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes, III, 3, “Au sein de la puissance” (Montfort) | [116] | |
| 7.4 | Verdi, La battaglia di Legnano, IV, 1, “Deus meus” (priests) / “O tu che desti” (people) / “Ah se d’Arrigo” (Lida) | [119] | |
| 7.5 | Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes, II, 8–9, “C’en est trop” / “Jour d’ivresse” (chorus) | [120] | |
| 7.6a | Meyerbeer, Robert le diable, III, 7, ballet of the debauched nuns | [122] | |
| 7.6b | Verdi, Macbeth (1847), III, 4, “Ondine e Silfidi,” mm. 89–94 | [122] | |
| 7.7 | Verdi, Macbeth (1865), III, 2, ballet of witches, mm. 69–80 | [123] | |
| 7.8 | Verdi, Macbeth (1865), III, 2, ballet of witches, mm. 120–41 | [124] | |
| 7.9 | Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes, I, 2, “Viens à nous, Dieu tutélaire” (Hélène) | [125] | |
| 7.10 | Verdi, Don Carlos, II, 9, “Ô prodige!” (Carlos) | [126] | |
| 7.11 | Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes, II, 3, “Comment dans ma reconnaissance” (Hélène, Henri) | [130] | |
| 7.12 | Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes, IV, 5, “Adieu, mon pays, je succombe” (Procida) | [131] | |
| 7.13 | Verdi, Don Carlos, II, 9, “Quoi! pas un mot” (Carlos, Élisabeth) | [134] | |
| 7.14 | Verdi, Otello, I, 2, “Già nella notte densa” (Otello, Desdemona) | [137] | |
| 9.1 | Verdi, Nabucco, sinfonia, opening | [155] | |
| 9.2 | Verdi, Luisa Miller, sinfonia | [156] | |
| 9.3 | Verdi, Falstaff, II, i, related motifs | [166] | |
| 10.1a | Verdi, Sei romanze (1838), “In solitaria stanza” | [171] | |
| 10.1b | Verdi, Il trovatore, I, 3, “Tacea la notte placida” (Leonora) | [171] | |
| 10.2a | Verdi, “Cupo è il sepolcro e mutolo” (1843) | [173] | |
| 10.2b | Verdi, Ernani, IV, 14, scena e terzetto finale | [173] | |
| 11.1 | Verdi, Ernani, I, 3, “Ernani! . . . Ernani, involami” (Elvira) | [189] | |
| 11.2 | Verdi, Ernani, I, 8, “No, crudeli” (Elvira, Ernani, Carlo) | [190] | |
| 11.3 | Verdi, Ernani, motifs based on a rising interval | [193] | |
| 11.4 | Verdi, Ernani, II, 12, “horn” theme | [193] | |
| 12.1 | Verdi, Rigoletto, beginning of the prelude | [199] | |
| 12.2 | Verdi, Rigoletto, I, 3, “Quel vecchio maledivami!” (Rigoletto) | [200] | |
| 12.3 | Verdi, Rigoletto, I, 7, “Ah! la maledizione!” (Rigoletto) | [200] | |
| 12.4 | Verdi, Rigoletto, III, 14, “Ah! la maledizione!” (Rigoletto) | [201] | |
| 12.5 | Verdi, Rigoletto, III, 11, “La donna è mobile” (Duke) | [206] | |
| 13.1 | Verdi, Don Carlos, II, 11, Duo (Philip, Posa), three versions of a passage in division 1 (b) | [230] | |
| 13.2 | Verdi, Don Carlos, II, 11, Duo (Philip, Posa), two versions of a passage in division 2 | [231] | |
| 13.3 | Verdi, Don Carlos, II, 11, Duo (Philip, Posa), three versions of a passage in division 3 | [232] | |
| 13.4 | Verdi, Don Carlos, II, 11, Duo (Philip, Posa), three versions of a passage in division 4 | [232] | |
| 13.5 | Verdi, Don Carlos, V, 22, Duo (Carlos, Elisabeth), settings of corresponding French and Italian texts from division 1(a) of the opera’s finale | [233] | |
| 13.6 | Verdi, Don Carlos, V, 22, Duo (Carlos, Elisabeth), from division 2 of the opera’s finale | [234] | |
| 13.7 | Verdi, Don Carlos, V, 23, Final (Carlos, Elisabeth, Philip, Grand Inquisitor, Dominican monks, cloistered monks), from division 3(b) of the opera’s finale | [235] | |
| 13.8 | Verdi, Don Carlos, V, 23, Final (Carlos, Elisabeth, Philip, Grand Inquisitor, Dominican monks, cloistered monks), from division 3(d) of the opera’s finale | [236] | |
| 14.1 | Verdi, Otello, II, “Credo in un Dio crudel” (Jago), motifs | [245] |
Scott L. Balthazar is Professor of Music History at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. His articles on nineteenth-century Italian opera and theories of instrumental form in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of Musicological Research, Journal of Musicology, Opera Journal, Cambridge Opera Journal, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Current Musicology, Opera Quarterly, and Music and Letters.
Fabrizio Della Seta is Professor in the Faculty of Musicology at the University of Pavia in Cremona. He has edited Verdi’s La traviata (1997), the autograph sketches and drafts for that opera (2000), and Rossini’s Adina (2000). He is currently general co-editor of the Edizione critica delle opere di Vincenzo Bellini.
Andreas Giger is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Louisiana State University. His recent studies have focused on Korngold (Journal of Musicology), censorship (Cambridge Opera Journal), and prosody in Verdi’s French operas (Music and Letters). He co-edited Music in the Mirror: Reflections on the History of Music Theory and Literature for the Twenty-First Century and is the founder of the Internet database Saggi musicali italiani.
Gregory W. Harwood is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Music at Georgia Southern University. His volume Giuseppe Verdi: A Guide to Research (1998) has become a standard reference tool in Verdi studies. Other research interests include topics related to Robert and Clara Schumann, Maurice Ravel, and Hector Berlioz.
Steven Huebner is the author of The Operas of Charles Gounod (1990) and French Opera at the Fin de Siècle: Wagnerism, Nationalism, and Style (1999), as well as numerous articles on Italian and French opera. He currently holds a James McGill Chair at McGill University in Montreal, where he has taught since 1985.
Luke Jensen is Director of the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equity at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he previously served as Associate Director of the Center for Studies in Nineteenth-Century Music and as Affiliate Faculty in the School of Music. His publications include Giuseppe Verdi and Giovanni Ricordi with Notes on Francesco Lucca: From ‘Oberto’ to ‘La traviata’ (1989) and a five-volume guide to the Gazzetta musicale di Milano for the series Répertoire international de la presse musicale (2000).
David Kimbell is Professor Emeritus of the University of Edinburgh, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Music from 1995 to 2001. His principal research interests are Italian opera and the music of Handel. His most recent publication was the completion, with Roger Savage, of The Classics of Music, Michael Tilmouth’s edition of the previously uncollected writings of Donald Francis Tovey (2001).
Roberta Montemorra Marvin is Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. She is editor of Verdi’s I masnadieri (2000) and his Secular Cantatas (forthcoming), co-editor of Verdi 2001: Atti del Convegno internazionale (2003), and editor of Verdi Forum. She has also published widely on Italian opera, including essays in Cambridge Opera Journal, Music and Letters, Studi verdiani, the Bollettino del Centro rossiniano di studi, the Musical Quarterly, and Verdi’s Middle Period (Martin Chusid, ed., 1997).
Cormac Newark, having been Research Fellow in Music at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, is now engaged in a two-year program of research in Italy sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust. He has published in the Cambridge Opera Journal, the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, and the Guardian, and has contributed to various collections of essays, including Reading Critics Reading (Roger Parker and Mary Ann Smart, eds., 2001) and the Cambridge Companion to Rossini (Emanuele Senici, ed., forthcoming).
Mary Jane Phillips-Matz, a Co-Founder and Executive Board member of the American Institute for Verdi Studies at New York University, is the author of Verdi: A Biography (1993), which won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in London and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award in New York, both in 1995, and has recently been published in French by Fayard and in Spanish by Paidós. Her book Puccini: A Biography appeared in 2002.
Harold Powers has taught at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (jointly in Music and South Asian Studies), and Princeton University, and has been Visiting Professor at seven American and European universities. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and honorary member of the American Musicological Society. He has published extensively on Indic musicology, Italian opera, and the history of music theory.
Alessandro Roccatagliati is Associate Professor of Musical Dramaturgy at the University of Ferrara. He is general co-editor of the Edizione critica delle opere di Vincenzo Bellini and is currently working on the critical edition of La sonnambula. His publications include “Rigoletto” di Giuseppe Verdi (1991) and Felice Romani librettista (1996).
Emanuele Senici is University Lecturer in Music at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. Among his recent Verdian publications are “Verdi’s Falstaff at Italy’s Fin de Siècle” (Musical Quarterly, 2001) and “Per Guasco, Ivanoff e Moriani: le tre versioni della romanza di Foresto nell’Attila” in Pensieri per un maestro: Studi in onore di Pierluigi Petrobelli (Stefano La Via and Roger Parker, eds., 2002).
Mary Ann Smart is Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley. She is author of the articles on Bellini and Donizetti in the New Grove, and editor of Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera (2000) and (with Roger Parker) Reading Critics Reading: Opera and Ballet Criticism in France from the Revolution to 1848 (2001). Her book Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera was published by the University of California Press in 2004.
Rosa Solinas is currently Publications Editor for Wexford Festival Opera. She has worked in the opera industry in London and Bologna and lectured at Oxford University. Her research focuses on Italian late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century opera (especially Arrigo Boito) and theatre; her published work includes contributions to Italian Studies and The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature (2001).
One of the most beloved composers of the nineteenth century, Giuseppe Verdi has rightfully enjoyed a high standing among opera lovers that continues to grow as productions and recordings of his works – including those that are lesser known – multiply and as the sophisticated artistry of his mature style becomes increasingly apparent. This Companion examines Verdi’s operas and other music in the context of his life, his social and cultural surroundings, and the tradition of nineteenth-century Italian opera. Since a number of exemplary life-and-works treatments of Verdi are already available, this volume proceeds differently. It centers on a series of essays, each investigating a different theme across Verdi’s career, that reveal aspects of his style and lines of development that might be obscured if individual operas were discussed separately.
The Companion to Verdi, like other volumes in the series, is aimed primarily at students and opera lovers who already have a broad background in music history and theory but have not proceeded to a specialized level. Authors have provided the foundation for students and performers to begin reading more specialized literature and pursuing their own investigations or for other opera lovers to expand and enrich their experiences of Verdi’s music. At the same time, many chapters offer the fruits of new research and explore a particular thesis, and consequently may interest scholars already working in the field. Although each chapter constitutes a free-standing article, the Companion has been designed to create a readably intensive, integrated overview of Verdi’s oeuvre while avoiding unnecessary overlaps. So it might, for example, serve as a focus for all or parts of a course on Verdi, on nineteenth-century Italian opera, or on topics in nineteenth-century music.
The Companion’s opening chapters treat Verdi’s personal and cultural environment. Mary Jane Phillips-Matz’s biographical sketch introduces the reader to the composer’s boyhood and education, his difficult entry into the operatic world, his relationships with librettists and performers, his involvement in Italian politics, and his activities in semi-retirement. Verdi’s success as a composer depended to a great extent on understanding the conventions of the Italian theatre and surmounting its many obstacles. Alessandro Roccatagliati’s chapter on the theatre business explains the basic circumstances of opera production when Verdi came onto the scene, then discusses the effect of Verdi’s rising status on his dealings with management, performers, and censors, and on attitudes toward the integrity of the musical score. Mary Ann Smart reexamines Verdi’s ambivalent engagement with Italian Romanticism and the Risorgimento, the “myth” of his artistic leadership of the revolutionary movement, and his handling of patriotic themes in political opera.
The next section explores aspects of musical and textual style in Verdi’s compositions. The vast majority of Verdi’s lyrical set pieces are based on conventional schemata that are the Italian equivalent of the Viennese Classical forms yet are much less familiar to students of opera. My own chapter explains the designs of arias, duets, concertato finales, introduzioni, and scenes that end operas, suggesting ways in which Verdi modified the practices of his predecessors to fit his increasingly plot-oriented approach, and also examines his principles for constructing choruses. Fabrizio Della Seta’s introduction to Verdi’s librettos provides a primer in the essentials of Italian versification and compares the ways in which Verdi and his librettists adapted literary sources, distributed singers’ workloads, treated versification, and chose wording in four operas across his career. Verdi’s music changed remarkably over the years as he personalized the style inherited from his predecessors and developed a remarkably flexible and acute language. Emanuele Senici looks at ways in which music amplifies text at an immediate expressive level, analyzing the interaction between melodic form and poetic syntax and meaning, dramatization of evocative words and visual gestures, and musical word painting. Verdi’s introduction to French grand opera during his first sojourn in Paris (1847–49) left an indelible impression: from the 1850s on, virtually all of his operas synthesize French and Italian elements to varying degrees. Andreas Giger describes some of the broader textual and musical features of French grand opera and French influence on the forms of Verdi’s arias and on his treatment of chorus and ballet, instrumentation, and melodic style. Verdi set himself apart from his predecessors and paved the way for such later composers as Puccini by viewing his mature operas as unified wholes rather than as sequences of independent scenes. Steven Huebner investigates scholarly theories of structural coherence involving sonority, musical motive, and tonality, and the problem of “historical” analysis, particularly in Rigoletto, Il trovatore, and Un ballo in maschera. Verdi was a leader among Italian composers in redefining the operatic role of the orchestra. David Kimbell introduces the various types of orchestral music in the operas – overtures and preludes for the opera and for individual acts, scenic music, dances and full-fledged ballets, mimetic music that captures localized gestures – and discusses Verdi’s cultivation of parlante, vocal music in which the orchestra plays the lead role. In addition to operas, Verdi created a substantial body of other works for chorus, solo voices, and, to a much lesser extent, instruments. Roberta Montemorra Marvin surveys Verdi’s non-operatic songs, chamber and keyboard music, and choral works, giving special attention to the Requiem.
The following chapters discuss in detail four operas that represent different stages of Verdi’s career: Ernani, an early success from Verdi’s “galley years”; Rigoletto, one of his most popular operas from his middle period; Don Carlos, perhaps the greatest of his French grand operas; and Otello, one of the two sublime masterpieces of Verdi’s old age. Though the focus of each of these chapters was chosen by its author, three of them deal, in different ways, with the theme of “otherness,” a coincidence indicative of recent scholarly directions. Rosa Solinas relates the evolution of the tenor role in the mid-nineteenth century to characterization of the hero in Ernani and his status as an outcast. Cormac Newark examines the alleged importance of the curse motive in the musical structure and genesis of Rigoletto and the detachment of the three leads – and even the most famous song in the opera, “La donna è mobile” – from their social, historical, and stylistic contexts. My chapter on Otello discusses ways in which Desdemona’s defeat by Iago in their contest over control of her husband and her subsequent alienation are conveyed not only through words and actions but also through shifts in her musical style and through Verdi’s organization of keys. In contrast to these three interpretive essays, Harold Powers introduces Don Carlos with a discussion of Verdi’s adaptation of the source play, production history, and aspects of French style, and compares in close detail the several variants of this opera, guiding the reader through the extremely complicated textual problems created by the principal Italian revision (and others) of the French original. Powers also comments on recorded performances of various versions of this opera.
Two final chapters introduce the reader to some important tools of Verdi scholarship – the documentary sources used in studying the creative process and in editing scores – and to directions taken by Verdi scholars over the past century. Luke Jensen gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at Verdi’s collaboration with librettists, theatre managers, performers, and publishers by tracing seven creative stages – from the scenario to revisions of the published score – and proposes subdividing Verdi’s career into four periods based on shifts in his working methods. Gregory Harwood chronicles Verdi’s rising fortunes in the critical literature, discussing the principal biographical and stylistic studies and identifying recent scholarly trends.
A word concerning citation of sources. Scenes from the play on which an opera was based are designated with the act and scene in upper- and lower-case roman numerals and the line(s) in arabic numerals (e.g. III, ii, 24); operatic scenes defined by locale are designated with upper- and lower-case roman numerals (e.g. III, ii); individual musical pieces follow Martin Chusid’s A Catalog of Verdi’s Operas and are given with acts in roman numerals and pieces, numbered continuously across the opera, in arabic numerals (e.g. III, 12).
I wish to thank all the authors and my editors for their patience with the lengthy process of bringing the Companion to completion. Special thanks to my copyeditor Laura Davey for her superhuman attention to detail. Dean Timothy Blair of the West Chester University School of Music provided grants for translating two of the chapters. Roger Parker offered consistently helpful input concerning the selection of contributors. Judy Balthazar edited my own chapters and this preface. I am grateful to her and to our son David for their support during the minor trials involved in preparing this volume.
Scott L. Balthazar
| Year | Biography | Music and musicians |
| 1813 | Verdi born, October 9 or 10, in Roncole near Busseto, son of Carlo Verdi and Luigia (née Uttini) | Rossini, Tancredi, Venice, La Fenice, February 6 Wagner born, Leipzig, May 22 |
| Grétry dies, Paris, September 24 | ||
| Teresa Brambilla, soprano, born, Cassano d’Adda, October 23 | ||
| Felice Varesi, baritone, born, Calais | ||
| 1814 | Napoleon exiled to Elba, April | |
| 1815 | Napoleon defeated at Waterloo, June 18, and exiled to St. Helena, ending the “Hundred Days” | |
| Giuseppina Strepponi, soprano, born, Lodi, September 8 | ||
| Léon Escudier born, Castelnaudary, September 15 | ||
| Temistocle Solera, librettist, born, Ferrara, December 25 | ||
| 1816 | Gaetano Fraschini, tenor, born, Pavia, February 16 | |
| Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rome, Argentina, February 20 | ||
| Paisiello dies, Naples, June 5 | ||
| Rossini, Otello, Naples, Fondo, December 4 | ||
| 1817 | Prior to age four, begins instruction in music and other subjects with local priests | Rossini, La Cenerentola, Rome, Valle, January 25 Madame de Staël dies, Paris, July 14 |
| Méhul dies, Paris, October 18 | ||
| 1818 | Marianna Barbieri-Nini, soprano, born, Florence, February 18 | |
| Erminia Frezzolini, soprano, born, Orvieto, March 27 | ||
| Gounod born, Paris, June 17 | ||
| Rossini, La donna del lago, Naples, San Carlo, October 24 | ||
| 1819 | Offenbach born, Cologne, June 20 | |
| 1820 | Age seven, father buys him a spinet | Vittorio Emanuele II born, Turin, March 14 |
| Jenny Lind, soprano, born, Stockholm, October 6 | ||
| Carbonari-led Neapolitan revolution forces King Ferdinand I to promise a constitution | ||
| 1821 | Weber, Der Freischütz, Berlin, Schauspielhaus, June 18 | |
| 1822 | Age nine, becomes permanent organist at local church, San Michele | E. T. A. Hoffmann dies, Berlin, June 25 |
| 1823 | Moves with family to Busseto | Rossini, Semiramide, Venice, La Fenice, February 3 |
| 1824 | Age eleven, enters ginnasio in Busseto, is trained in Italian, Latin, humanities, and rhetoric | Bruckner born, Ansfelden, September 4 Antonio Ghizlanzoni born, Lecco, November 25 |
| Cornelius born, Mainz, December 24 | ||
| Leone Giraldoni, baritone, born, Paris | ||
| 1825 | Begins lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo in Busseto, director of municipal music school and local Philharmonic Society | Winter dies, Munich, October 17 Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi sposi (1825–27) |
| 1826 | Begins composing instrumental and vocal music | Sophie Cruvelli, soprano, born, Bielefeld, March 12 |
| Weber dies, London, June 5 | ||
| 1827 | Beethoven dies, Vienna, March 26 Bellini, Il pirata, Milan, La Scala, October 27 | |
| Victor Hugo, preface to Cromwell | ||
| 1828 | Auber, La muette de Portici, Paris, Opéra, February 29 | |
| Schubert dies, Vienna, November 19 | ||
| 1829 | Applies unsuccessfully for position as organist in Soragna | Rossini, Guillaume Tell, Paris, Opéra, August 3 |
| 1830 | Goldmark born, Keszthely, May 18 Donizetti, Anna Bolena, Milan, Carcano, December 26 | |
| Hugo, Hernani | ||
| 1831 | In May, moves into the house of Antonio Barezzi, his first patron | Bellini, La sonnambula, Milan, Carcano, March 6 |
| Begins relationship with Barezzi’s daughter Margherita | Meyerbeer, Robert le diable, Paris, Opéra, November 21 | |
| Is granted a scholarship by the local Monte di Pietà e d’Abbondanza for 1833; Barezzi supplies funds for 1832 | Bellini, Norma, Milan, La Scala, December 26 Unsuccessful Carbonari-led revolutions occur in Bologna, Parma, and Modena | |
| Mazzini founds nationalist society, Young Italy | ||
| 1832 | In May, Verdi moves to Milan, is rejected for admission to the Conservatory | Camille Du Locle, librettist, born, Orange, July 16 Hugo, Le roi s’amuse |
| Begins private study of counterpoint and free composition with Vincenzo Lavigna, previously maestro concertatore at La Scala | ||
| 1833 | Brahms born, Hamburg, May 7 Provesi dies, Busseto, July 26 Donizetti, Lucrezia Borgia, Milan, La Scala, December 26 | |
| 1834 | Assists at the keyboard in performances of Haydn’s Creation by a Milanese Philharmonic Society directed by Pietro Massini | Ludovic Halévy, librettist, born, Paris, January 1 Teresa Stolz, soprano, born, Elbekosteletz (now Kostelec nad Labem), June 2 or 5 |
| Ponchielli born, Paderno Fasolaro (now Paderno Ponchielli), August 31 | ||
| 1835 | Completes studies with Lavigna Co-directs Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Massini | Bellini, I puritani, Paris, Italien, January 24 Bellini dies, Puteaux, September 23 Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor, Naples, San Carlo, September 26 |
| 1836 | Appointed maestro di musica in Busseto | Meyerbeer, Les huguenots, Paris, Opéra, February 29 |
| Marries Margherita Barezzi | ||
| Moves back to Busseto; directs and composes for the Philharmonic Society and gives private music lessons Composes cantata for Massini’s Philharmonic Society to honor Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I | Lavigna dies, Milan, September 14 Maria Malibran, mezzo-soprano, dies, Manchester, September 23 Giuseppe Mazzini, Filosofia della musica | |
| Composes first opera, Rocester | ||
| 1837 | March 26, daughter Virginia is born | Mercadante, Il giuramento, Milan, La Scala, March 11 |
| Zingarelli dies, Torre del Greco, May 5 | ||
| 1838 | July 11, son Icilio Romano is born August 12, Virginia dies | Bizet born, Paris, October 25 |
| October, resigns position in Busseto | ||
| First publication, Sei romanze, appears in Milan | ||
| 1839 | February, moves back to Milan October 22, Icilio Romano dies | Paer dies, Paris, May 3 |
| November 17, Oberto (revision of Rocester) performed, Milan, La Scala | ||
| 1840 | June, Margherita dies September 5, Un giorno di regno fails, Milan, La Scala Verdi temporarily gives up composing | Paganini dies, Nice, May 27 Pacini, Saffo, Naples, San Carlo, November 29 Giulio Ricordi born, Milan, December 19 |
| 1841 | ||
| 1842 | March 9, Nabucco succeeds famously, Milan, La Scala | Boito born, Padua, February 24 Cherubini dies, Paris, March 15 |
| Massenet born, Montand, Saint-Étienne, May 12 | ||
| Wagner, Rienzi, Dresden, Kgl. Sächsisches Hoftheater, October 20 | ||
| Maria Waldmann, mezzo-soprano, born, Vienna | ||
| Gazzetta musicale di Milano founded by Ricordi | ||
| 1843 | February 11, I lombardi performed, Milan, La Scala Visits Vienna | Wagner, Der fliegende Holländer, Dresden, Kgl. Sächsisches Hoftheater, January 2 |
| Donizetti, Don Pasquale, Paris, Italien, January 3 | ||
| Adelina Patti, soprano, born, Madrid, February 19 | ||
| Pacini, Medea, Palermo, Carolino, November 28 | ||
| 1844 | March 9, Ernani performed, Venice, La Fenice | |
| November 3, I due Foscari performed, Rome, Argentina | ||
| Begins to buy property in and near Busseto | ||
| 1845 | February 15, Giovanna d’Arco performed, Milan, La Scala | Wagner, Tannhäuser, Dresden, Kgl. Sächsisches Hoftheater, October 19 |
| August 12, Alzira performed, Naples, San Carlo | Mayr dies, Bergamo, December 2 | |
| 1846 | March 17, Attila performed, Venice, La Fenice | |
| 1847 | March 14, Macbeth performed, Florence, Pergola | Mendelssohn dies, Leipzig, November 4 |
| March until mid-1849, takes long trip beginning in London; lives in Paris with Strepponi for approximately two years | Romilda Pantaleoni, soprano, born, Udine | |
| July 22, I masnadieri performed, London, Her Majesty’s | ||
| November 26, Jérusalem (revision of I lombardi) performed, Paris, Opéra | ||
| 1848 | Visits Milan October 25, Il corsaro performed, Trieste, Grande | Victor Maurel, baritone, born, Marseilles, June 17 Donizetti dies, Bergamo, November 29 |
| First Italian War of Independence (1848–49) | ||
| 1849 | January 27, La battaglia di Legnano performed, Rome, Argentina | Meyerbeer, Le prophète, Paris, Opéra, April 16 Nicolai dies, Berlin, May 11 |
| Returns to Bussetto with Strepponi | Chopin dies, Paris, October 17 | |
| December 8, Luisa Miller performed, Naples, San Carlo | ||
| 1850 | November 16, Stiffelio performed, Trieste, Grande | Wagner, Lohengrin, Weimar, Grossherzoglisches Hoftheater, August 28 |
| Francesco Tamagno, tenor, born, Turin, December 28 | ||
| 1851 | March 11, Rigoletto performed, Venice, La Fenice | Spontini dies, Maiolati, January 24 |
| With Strepponi, moves to farm of Sant’Agata, near Busseto | ||
| 1852 | Salvatore Cammarano, librettist, dies, Naples, July 17 | |
| 1853 | January 19, Il trovatore performed, Rome, Apollo March 6, La traviata performed, Venice, La Fenice | Giovanni Ricordi dies, Milan, March 15 Tito Ricordi becomes director of the Casa Ricordi (through 1888) |
| 1854 | Through 1855, spends two years in Paris, in which he completes and supervises production of Les vêpres siciliennes | Catalani born, Lucca, June 19 Humperdinck born, Siegburg, September 1 Wagner, Das Rheingold (first performed Munich, Kgl. Hof- und National, September 22, 1869) |
| 1855 | June 13, Les vêpres siciliennes performed, Paris, Opéra | |
| 1856 | Wagner, Die Walküre (first performed Munich, Kgl. Hof- und National, June 26, 1870) | |
| Schumann dies, Endenich, July 29 | ||
| 1857 | March 12, Simon Boccanegra performed, Venice, La Fenice | Leoncavallo born, Naples, April 23 |
| Substantially expands his estate at Sant’Agata | ||
| August 16, Aroldo (revision of Stiffelio) performed, Rimini, Nuovo | ||
| 1858 | Offenbach, Orphée aux enfers, Paris, Bouffes-Parisiens, October 21 | |
| Puccini born, Lucca, December 22 or 23 | ||
| 1859 | February 17, Un ballo in maschera performed, Rome, Apollo | Gounod, Faust, Paris, Lyrique, March 19 |
| Marries Strepponi “Viva VERDI” appears as an acrostic message (standing for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D’Italia) of Italian nationalism | Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (first performed Munich, Kgl. Hof- und National, June 10, 1865) Spohr dies, Kassel, October 22 Second Italian War of Independence (1859–60) | |
| 1860 | Renovates estate at Sant’Agata | Mahler born, Kaliste, July 7 Garibaldi conquers Sicily and Naples 1860–80, period of the scapigliati led by Boito |
| 1861 | Through 1865, serves as deputy for Borgo San Donnino (now Fidenza) in the first Italian parliament | Eugène Scribe, librettist, dies, Paris, February 20 Cavour becomes first prime minister of Italy |
| Cavour dies, Turin, June 6 | ||
| Marschner dies, Hanover, December 14 | ||
| Vittorio Emanuele II becomes King of united Italy | ||
| 1862 | Through 1863, travels twice to Russia for La forza del destino, and to Paris, London, and Madrid Collaborates with Arrigo Boito on the Inno delle nazioni, performed London, Her Majesty’s, May 24 | Gustave Vaëz, librettist, dies, Paris, March 12 Debussy born, Saint-Germain-en- Laye, August 22 Alessandro Lanari, impresario, dies, Florence, October 3 |
| November 10, La forza del destino performed, St. Petersburg, Imperial | ||
| 1863 | Mascagni born, Livorno, December 7 Bizet, Les pêcheurs de perles, Paris, Lyrique, September 30 | |
| 1864 | Meyerbeer dies, Paris, May 2 Richard Strauss born, Munich, June 11 | |
| Antonio Somma, librettist, dies, Venice, August 8 | ||
| 1865 | April 21, revised Macbeth performed, Paris, Lyrique | Meyerbeer, L’africaine, Paris, Opéra, April 28 |
| Felice Romani, librettist, dies, Moneglia, January 28 | ||
| Joseph Méry, librettist, dies, Paris, June 17 | ||
| 1866 | Through 1867, travels to Paris for Don Carlos With Strepponi, sets up winter retreat in Genoa | Cilea born, Palmi, July 26 Sophie Loewe, soprano, dies, Budapest, November 29 Annexation of Venetia |
| 1867 | March 11, Don Carlos performed, Paris, Opéra | Arturo Toscanini born, Parma, March 25 |
| Giordano born, Foggia, August 28 | ||
| Pacini dies, Pescia, December 6 | ||
| Rome won from France, becomes capital of Italy | ||
| 1868 | Takes first substantial trip to Milan in twenty years; meets Alessandro Manzoni | Boito, Mefistofele, Milan, La Scala, March 5 |
| Proposes the collaborative Messa per Rossini, to be created under the auspices of the Ricordi publishing house in Milan | Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Munich, Kgl. Hof- und National, June 21 Rossini dies, Passy, November 13 | |
| 1869 | Supervises production of revised Forza del destino in Milan, his first work with La Scala since 1845; performed February 27 | Berlioz dies, Paris, March 8 Suez Canal completed |
| 1870 | Mercadante dies, Naples, December 17 | |
| 1871 | December 24, Aida performed, Cairo, Opera | Auber dies, Paris, May 12 or 13 Wagner, Siegfried (first performed Bayreuth, Festspielhaus, August 16, 1876) |
| 1872 | Enters semi-retirement at Sant’Agata | Mazzini dies, Pisa, March 10 |
| 1873 | Manzoni dies, Milan, May 22 | |
| 1874 | May 22, Messa da Requiem in honor of Manzoni performed, Milan, San Marco | Cornelius dies, Copenhagen, October 26 Wagner, Götterdämmerung (first performed Bayreuth, Festspielhaus, August 17, 1876) |
| 1875 | Tours Europe directing the Requiem | Benjamin Lumley, impresario, dies, London, March 17 |
| Alphonse Royer, theatre manager and librettist, dies, Paris, April 11 | ||
| Montemezzi born, Vigasio, May 31 | ||
| Bizet dies, Bougival, June 3 | ||
| Bizet, Carmen, Paris, Comique, March 3 | ||
| 1876 | Conflict with Strepponi over his relationship with Teresa Stolz reaches a crisis | Wolf-Ferrari born, Venice, January 12 Francesco Maria Piave, librettist, dies, Milan, March 5 Wagner, first complete performance of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Bayreuth, Festspielhaus, August 13, 14, 16, 17 Ponchielli, La gioconda, Milan, La Scala, April 8 |
| 1877 | ||
| 1878 | Vittorio Emanuele II dies, Rome, January 9 | |
| Solera dies, Milan, April 21 | ||
| 1879 | Giulio Ricordi and Boito propose an operatic Othello | Merelli dies, Milan, April 10 |
| 1880 | Pizzetti born, Parma, September 20 Offenbach dies, Paris, October 5 | |
| 1881 | March 24, revised Simon Boccanegra performed, Milan, La Scala | Vincenzo Jacovacci, impresario, dies, Rome, March 30 |
| Escudier dies, Paris, June 22 | ||
| 1882 | Malipiero born, Venice, March 18 Wagner, Parsifal, Bayreuth, Festspielhaus, July 26 Garibaldi dies, Caprera, June 2 | |
| 1883 | Wagner dies, Venice, February 13 Giovanni Mario, tenor, dies, Rome, December 11 | |
| 1884 | January 10, Don Carlo (revision of Don Carlos) performed, Milan, La Scala | Massenet, Manon, Paris, Comique, January 19 |
| Puccini, Le villi, Milan, Dal Verme, May 31 | ||
| Frezzolini dies, Paris, November 5 | ||
| 1885 | Hugo dies, Paris, May 22 | |
| 1886 | Ponchielli dies, Milan, January 16 Liszt dies, Bayreuth, July 31 | |
| 1887 | February 5, Otello performed, Milan, La Scala | Fraschini dies, Naples, May 23 Lind dies, Wynds Point, Herefordshire, November 2 |
| Barbieri-Nini dies, Florence, November 27 | ||
| 1888 | Verdi’s hospital, Villanova sull’Arda, Piacenza, opens | Tito Ricordi dies, Milan, September 7 Giulio Ricordi becomes director of the Casa Ricordi (through 1912) |
| 1889 | Boito proposes an opera based primarily on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor | Varesi dies, Milan, March 13 |
| 1890 | Giorgio Ronconi, baritone, dies, Madrid, January 8 | |
| Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana, Rome, Costanzi, May 17 | ||
| 1891 | ||
| 1892 | Leoncavallo, I pagliacci, Milan, Dal Verme, May 21 Massenet, Werther, Vienna, Hofoper, February 16 | |
| 1893 | February 9, Falstaff performed, Milan, La Scala | Puccini, Manon Lescaut, Turin, Regio, February 1 |
| Ghizlanzoni dies, Caprino Bergamasco, July 16 | ||
| Catalani dies, Milan, August 7 | ||
| Gounod dies, Saint-Cloud, October 18 | ||
| 1894 | ||
| 1895 | Brambilla dies, Milan, July 15 | |
| 1896 | Begins building the Casa di Riposo | Puccini, La bohème, Turin, Regio, February 1 |
| Bruckner dies, Vienna, October 11 | ||
| 1897 | November 14, Strepponi dies, Sant’Agata | Brahms dies, Vienna, April 3 Giraldoni dies, Moscow, September 19 or October 1 |
| 1898 | ||
| 1899 | Casa di Riposo opens | |
| 1900 | December, arranges for his youthful compositions to be burned after his death | Puccini, Tosca, Rome, Costanzi, January 14 |
| 1901 | January 21, suffers a stroke January 27, Verdi dies |