Portrait of Joe Green by Giovanni Boldini, 1886
"I wish that every young man when he begins to write music would not concern himself with being a melodist, a harmonist, a realist, an idealist or a futurist or any other such devilish pedantic things. Melody and harmony should be simply tools in the hands of the artist, with which he creates music; and if a day comes when people stop talking about the German school, the Italian school, the past, the future, etc., etc., then art will perhaps come into its own."
— Giuseppe Verdi, Letter to Opprandino Arrivabene
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, or Joe Green, if you like, (10 October 1813 — 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer and perhaps the biggest name in Romantic-era Italian opera. His Requiem Mass, which he composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, is also one of the most popular classical choral works.
He is mentioned as being dead in the song "Decomposing Composers" by Michael Palin sang on Monty Python's Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album.
His operas include:
- Aïda (known for the Triumphal March
and for being remade as the Elton John musical Aida) - Attila
- Un ballo in maschera
- Don Carlo
- Falstaff (based on William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor)
- La forza del destino
- I Lombardi alla prima crociata
- Luisa Miller (based on Intrigue And Love)
- Macbeth
- Nabucco
- Otello (someone was a Shakespeare fanboy)
- Rigoletto (source of "La donna e mobile", a tune synonymous with opera for even non-fans)
- Simon Boccanegra
- Stiffelio
- La Traviata (based on La Dame aux camelias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. It has Il Brindisi aka the Drinking Song and Sempre libera)
- Il trovatore (the Anvil Chorus and "Di quella pira")
- I Vespri Siciliani
Tropes associated to Verdi's works:
- Baritone of Strength: Some of the most famous baritone roles come from here. Rigoletto, Count di Luna, Rodrigo, Nabucco, and Iago are just a few of them.
- Bowdlerization: Un ballo in maschera and Rigoletto had to be rewritten to mask the similarities to a real life royal murder and some plays inspired on it (Ballo) and a play by Victor Hugo (Rigoletto)
- Broken Bird: More than one of his female leads, like Violetta from La Traviata or Aïda.
- Driven to Suicide/Spurned into Suicide/Uriah Gambit: Many causes of death in his operas.
-
Follow the Leader: His early operas were inspired by Rossini's and Gaetano Donizetti's. - Fun with Acronyms: During the Italian independence wars in the mid-19th century, graffiti saying "Viva Verdi" (long live Verdi) were a common sight in North-eastern Italy, then under Austrian rule. What looked like an innocuous fanboy thing was in fact a coded political message, with "VERDI" standing in for Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia ("Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy"; Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy was the King of Sardinia who eventually united Italy under his rule in 1861).
- Historical Fiction:
- Un Ballo in Maschera deals with the assassination of Gustav III of Sweden.
- Simon Boccanegra is about the first Doge of Genoa.
- Outliving One's Offspring: For many of his characters (Rigoletto, Miller, Fiesco…). Verdi’s own two children died early, so he understood what it was like.
- Poor Communication Kills: Literally, many times. One that comes to mind is Luisa Miller, where the title character is forced to pretend that she never loved Rodolfo in the first place, driving Rodolfo to murder-suicide.
- Sibling Rivalry: Pagano and Arvino in his fourth opera, I lombardi alla prima crociata ("The Lombards at the First Crusade").
