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Giuseppe Verdi |
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Opera’s greatest showman |
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by Gerald Fenech |
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No other operatic composer can claim to have had better success with his works than the enigmatic and brilliant Giuseppe Verdi. His astonishingly varied retinue of works draws on physchological and dramatic plots with a particular penchant for dramatic heroines, although most of them end in blood-curdling tragedy.
His 27 operas are acute examples of Italian lyricism at its best although it is only in the later triumvirate that he manages to astound with his inspiration and magnificent music. In Oberto for example, Verdi manages to create an astoundingly violent plot when at the early age of 22. The music, if not of the top drawer, is always excellent and sets the stage for the future. Un giorno di regno can confidently be described as the composer’s primary failure, he was definitely not a man for bluff comedy.
Still the work retains some good elements and sports an excellent overture too. Nabucco and Ernani reveal the composer in festive mood, inspired jointly by the noble greatness of Nebuchadnezzar and the violent pen of Victor Hugo. The former gave Italy one of its best patriotic songs in the shape of “Va pensiero”. More highly epic works were to follow with Giovanna d’Arco, a fine rendition of the French struggle for freedom and Alzira; a suitably mysterious work based on Spanish conquerors and Incas in the bloodletting world of South America. Attila is another violent opera, based on the exploits of the legendary Hun chief whilst I Masnadieri and Il Corsaro are dramatic and highly romanticized creations with Byron and Schiller providing the inspiration. With Macbeth,
Verdi was prepared to turn the page into the nether regions of Shakespearean drama and he succeeded magnificently. The deep characterization of the ‘Three Witches’ and the hallucinatory droolings of Macbeth and his wife provide for a sinister and violent backdrop. Verdi returned to his favorite military and royal plots in La Battaglia di Legnano and Luisa Miller, both operas of swift action although the ‘masked ball’ image in the latter was to return with even greater consequences in the classic Un Ballo in Maschera.
Verdi’s middle period trio of La Traviata, ‘Rigoletto’ and Il Trovatore shows him in his finest dramatic vein, writing some of the finest ensemble pieces ever conceived for an operatic stage. The orchestral music is also rich and original and the deep feelings that the characters create are something almost unheard for in real terms. Verdi’s logical progression continued in the epic dramas of La Battaglia di Legnano and I Vespri Siciliani, both operas of great dramatic content and wonderful music. Don Carlos is also an epic work although the vast tracts of singing that the principles have to cover may detract from the appeal of this seminal Verdi work. However, it is those final three operas that Verdi reaches the heights of inspiration that can only be possible after years of glittering success and innumerable experiences. Aida is perhaps the most pompous of the three but it is definitely the lesser in inspiration.
Otello is probably the highest point ever reached in Italian opera with its thrilling Shakespearean drama turned into a hot-blooded Latin affair. Finally Falstaff is an autumnal view on life with the aging composer saying farewell to the world in inspired and dramatic form. Forever lauded and praised, Verdi’s operas continue to set a standard for great singing and will continue to thrill whenever they are performed. |
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