Days with Giuseppe Verdi — Overview

Messa da Requiem

Saturday, Oct. 7, 11 am

Requiem, also called Requiem Mass, Italian in full Messa da requiem per l’anniversario della morte di Manzoni 22 maggio 1874 (“Requiem Mass for the Anniversary of the Death of Manzoni May 22, 1874”), requiem mass by Giuseppe Verdi, intended as a memorial to a departed hero—the poet, playwright, and novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Requiem premiered in Milan on May 22, 1874. It is Verdi’s largest-scale nonoperatic work.

The leading Italian writer of the 1800s, Manzoni played the role in Italy that Goethe had for an earlier generation of Germans: that of the country’s literary soul. On May 22, 1873, when Manzoni passed away, all Italy mourned. Verdi, in a letter to his publisher, expressed a wish to write something in memory of Manzoni. Determined to conduct the work himself on the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death, Verdi arranged with the city of Milan that the premiere would take place in San Marco.

In the opening “Requiem Aeternam,” “Te Decet Hymnus,” and “Kyrie” sections, Verdi gradually builds up energy on flowing lines of imitative polyphony.

The second movement, which has 10 sections, begins with a “Dies Irae” that spans roughly half an hour by itself. It opens with strident brass, swirling strings and the tumultuous fury of the chorus’s lines. For the “Tuba Mirum” portion, the solo trumpet grows to a trumpet ensemble as the composer evokes the trumpet that on Judgment Day calls forth the dead from their graves. Also of note in this movement are the virtuosic use of the vocal quartet in the “Rex Tremendae” section and the tenor aria in the “Ingemisco”.

The “Offertorio” (third movement) sets the chorus aside in favour of the vocal quartet, though the chorus returns in force for the “Sanctus” (fourth movement). The “Agnus Dei” (fifth movement) begins with the soprano and mezzo-soprano in lullaby-like a capella lines, before being joined gently by the chorus and orchestra. The “Lux Aeterna” (sixth movement) combines the mezzo-soprano not with the soprano, but rather with the tenor and bass, as shimmering string tremolos seek to capture the sense of that eternal light.

For the seventh and final movement, “Libera Me,” Verdi provides assertive lines for the solo soprano, while the chorus is set in a far more soft-spoken fashion, at least until the return of the tempest of sound that is the “Dies Irae.” The “Requiem Aeternam” of the first movement is also repeated. In the final section of the work, Verdi layers the choral parts into a restless fugue.
– Betsy Schwarm / Britannica

Falstaff

Sunday, Oct. 8, 1 pm

Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare’s plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi’s last opera, written in the composer’s ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy. It was also the third of Verdi’s operas to be based on a Shakespearean play, following his earlier Macbeth and Otello. (Verdi had toyed, too, with writing an opera based on King Lear and Arrigo Boito later tried to interest him in Antony and Cleopatra, but neither project was ever brought to fruition.)

While it has not proved to be as immensely popular as the Verdi works that immediately preceded it, namely Aida and Otello, Falstaff has long been an admired favorite with critics and musicians because of its brilliant orchestration, scintillating libretto and refined melodic invention. It is in the standard repertoire of many opera companies.
– Opera Arias

Aida

Monday, Oct. 9, 3 pm

A tragic tale of forbidden love, Aida follows the struggle of the Ethiopian princess, Aida, and the young Egyptian warrior, Radamès, as they try to decide between their love for each other or loyalty to their countries.

Aida has been captured by the Egyptians, who do not know her true identity, and is being held as a slave. She and Radamès have secretly fallen in love. The Princess of Egypt, Amneris, is also in love with Radamès. When she learns of Aida and Radamès’s relationship, Amneris threatens her, and promises that she will be victorious in this fight.

Aida’s father, King Amonasro, discovers that his daughter has been captured and declares war on Egypt. In response, the King of Egypt declares Radamès as the leader of his army. and launches a ferocious campaign against the Ethiopians. The Egyptians are victorious, and return with several prisoners of war, including Amonasro, who hides his true identity from them. Amonasro finds out about the relationship between Radamès and Aida, and asks his daughter to find out military secrets.

In celebration of the victory, the King of Egypt declares that Radamès and Amneris will be married. Radamès desperately wants to reveal his relationship with Aida, to prevent the marriage, but Aida convinces him to run away with her instead. With her father hiding in the same room, Aida asks him to tell her where the Egyptian troops will be, so they might plan their escape. But before anyone can take action, Amneris reveals herself; she heard everything and declares Radamès a traitor. While Amneris calls for them to be captured, Amonasro and Aida escape.

Radamès is tried in the temple by Ramfis, and although offered the chance to save himself by giving up the traitors, he refuses. He is sentenced to be buried alive beneath the altar in the temple of Vulcan. As he enters his tomb, Aida is there waiting for him. Amonasro was killed in the escape and now her only remaining loyalty is to the man she loves. Together, they accept their fate, as Amneris prays for peace over the tomb.
– Stage Agent

Otello

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 3 pm

Otello, opera in four acts by Verdi (libretto by Arrigo Boito), is based on William Shakespeare’s play Othello. Verdi’s next-to-last opera brought the composer to the peak of his dramatic power.

Verdi had a particular affection for the works of Shakespeare. He described the Bard as “the great searcher of the human heart” and wrote:

He is one of my very special poets, and I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth, and I read and reread him continually.
Certainly, Shakespeare’s strong characters, as well as the mixing of comic and dramatic situations, translate very well to the operatic stage. As early as 1856 or 1857, the composer was ready to work on a long-planned Re Lear (King Lear), but he could not come to terms with a theatre or find satisfactory singers (Un ballo in maschera was quickly completed instead). At the end of his life, he was still considering Re Lear, as well as an opera based on Antony and Cleopatra. As it is, the completed works—Macbeth (1847), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893)—are among the greatest operas ever based on Shakespearean themes.

By the time he wrote Otello, Verdi was fully in control of both the musical and the dramatic components of opera. His sensitive and nuanced use of orchestration and harmony to underscore character and emotion—especially in his last operas—have prompted comparisons with German composer Richard Wagner.

Boito’s libretto provided Verdi with great flexibility in setting the text to music, and the composer used that opportunity to create a seamless musical-dramatic experience. Its great demands on singers (in stamina as well as vocal range and flexibility) and its lack of stand-alone arias, however, make Otello more difficult to produce and less well known than several other works by Verdi.
– Britannica

Simon Boccanegra

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 3 pm

A child born out of wedlock, to the daughter of a wealthy family, is hidden away by her father until the two of them can be reunited. He puts her into the care of an old lady, while he is working at sea. When the old lady watching over her dies, the young girl wanders until no one could find her.

Her distraught father tries to visit the child’s mother, but she is being kept from him by her family. Before he has chance to see her again, she dies. Now, the two distraught fathers cannot make amends until the grandfather can hold his granddaughter in his arms.

Twenty-five years later, in a convent near Pisa, another family loses their daughter. An orphan girl steps in to take her place so that family’s fortune does not go to the state. A man who remembers the loss of his own daughter takes her in, and protects her. In a story of corruption, plotting, vengeance, and suspense, a lost daughter is found and reunited with her father, and her grandfather, despite being under their protection all along.

Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra is an opera deeply set in the historical political turmoil of Genoa in the years 1339-1363, but at its heart it is a story of familial love and grief which transcends history.
– Stage Agent

Ernani

Thursday, Oct. 12, 10 pm

Ernani thinks of his beloved Elvira and prepares to stop her from getting married to the old Silva. Elvira is worried about her incoming marriage and ponders her love for Ernani. King Carlos, disguised as a peasant shows up to woe Elvira, but is thwarted by Ernani who confronts him. Suddenly, Silva shows up to stop them all but the King reveals his identity and leaves.

Ernani appears at Silva’s palace disguised as a pilgrim. He asks for shelter and Silva obliges. Ernani confronts Elvira for agreeing to marry Silva, but she reveals that she is ready kill herself at the altar. They pledge love to one another, but Silva finds them. The King arrives seeking out Ernani and Silva is obliged, through the code of honor, to protect his guest. The King is upset with Silva’s refusal to turn over Ernani and takes Elvira away with him.

Ernani and Silva agree to work together to find Elvira but Ernani swears that he will forfeit his life when he hears the sound of his horn.

Carlo considers his destiny as Emperor and promises to be a great and noble ruler. Ernani, Silva, and a band of conspirators arrive to murder the King. They are caught and the Emperor demands the nobleman be executed. Ernani reveals himself to be Don Juan of Aragon. Elvira pleads for her lover and Carlo forgives all. Ernani and Elvira are to be married.

Their bliss lasts little as Silva sounds the horn and demands Ernani’s suicide. He ultimately obliges.
– Opera Wire

La Traviata

Friday, Oct. 13, 3 pm

In one of the greatest operatic love stories, Violetta Valery, a courtesan serving Paris’s high society meets the young Alfredo Germont, who offers her a taste of freedom from this life. Alfredo first met Violetta when she was suffering badly from consumption, and on visiting her every day, his initial affection for her turned into love. He offers her the chance to escape this life and live with him.

Violetta accepts, and they enjoy a dreamy romance in the countryside. However, Violetta receives a visit from Alfredo’s father, Giorgio Germont. He asks Violetta to end the relationship and leave Alfredo, so that the Germont family’s honor might be restored and his daughter’s marriage will be able to go ahead. Violetta loves Alfredo and does not want to leave him, but she makes the sacrifice and returns to her old life.

Alfredo knows nothing of the arrangement with his father, and believes Violetta has left him for financial reasons, and returned to her old relationship with Barone Douphol. He finds her in Paris, and makes an awful scene throwing money at her feet in payment for their relationship. Douphol challenges Alfredo to duel for disgracing Violetta, after which Alfredo travels abroad.

As Violetta’s illness worsens, she becomes basically bedbound, and is sustained only by the promise that Alfredo will one day return to her. Germont revealed their arrangement to his son, and has written to Violetta to tell her that Alfredo will visit. In the last moments of her life, she is reunited with the man she loves, and dies, smiling, in his arms.
– Stage Agent

Early Operas

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)
Attila (1846)
Macbeth (1847)
I masnadieri (1847)
Jérusalem (1847)
Il corsaro (1848)
La battaglia di Legnano (1849)
Luisa Miller (1849)
Stiffelio (1850)

Middle Operas

Rigoletto, 1851
Il trovatore, 1853
La traviata, 1853

Mature Operas

Les vêpres siciliennes, 1855
Simon Boccanegra, 1857
Aroldo, 1857
Un ballo in maschera, 1859
La forza del destino, 1862
Don Carlos, 1867
Aida, 1871
Otello, 1887
Falstaff, 1893