Biography

[b]Inchoation[/b][br /]
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On October 10, 1813, Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born in Roncole near Busseto, in the plains of Italian Parma. The parish church registers of Le Roncole recorded his birth at 8 pm on October 10, 1813, but he celebrated his birthday on the 9th on his mother’s insistence. For a long time there was confusion about his birth date as his mother always told him that he was born on October 9, 1814. It was only in 1876 that he confirmed his birth date from the church records, but nevertheless celebrated his birthday on the wrong date, for the rest of his life.[br /]
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Roncole was a hamlet with a number of scattered houses and a church at the corner of a well-known street. Verdi’s father Carlo Giuseppe Verdi kept a tavern of sorts and sold wine and groceries. Verdi’s mother Luigia was hard working, courageous, sensible and dignified; it was from her that Verdi inherited his best qualities.[br /]
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Verdi’s boyhood was surrounded by societal upheavals. In 1814, Australian and Russian armies began to evict French out of North Italy. A group of Russians passed through Roncole, looting, raping and killing inhabitants including women who took shelter in the church. Verdi’s mother saved herself and her child by hiding in the belfry.[br /]
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[b]The Enfolding Prodigy[/b][br /]
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As a child, Verdi showed unusual talent, and so he was given music lessons in his fourth year. He was gifted a spinet (musical instrument like a harpsichord) and taught music under the old church organist, Pietro Baistrocchi.[br /]
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When Verdi was 10, his old music teacher died and he was admitted to the ginnasio at Busseto. Verdi attended classes in Italian Grammar under Seletti for two years and did a course in humanity and rhetoric. He also studied music under Ferdinando Provesi from 1825.[br /]
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There existed a battle of wills between Seletti and Provesi at that time. Seletti wanted Verdi to become a priest whereas Provesi was sure of Verdi’s musical forte. Verdi pursued serious study of music for four years under Provesi who also gave him a recommendation letter in 1829 when Verdi tried to seek employment as an organist at Soranga, a village near Roncole.[br /]
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His application as an organist was rejected, and so Verdi helped his master in musical activities. At Busseto, Verdi lodged at his father’s friend’s place who charged him 30 centesimi a day. He was, thus, living without the extravagance of a student life. It was also around the same time that his first teacher, the old church organist, Pietro Baistrocchi died, vacating his position of an organist.[br /]
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Verdi was employed officially as the organist of the Roncole church. He was paid a salary of 36 lire per annum, plus additional fees for special occasion like weddings and funerals and benefits of collection during the yearly harvest time. On his father’s request his salary was raised to 40 lire (equivalent to four pounds) a year and Verdi continued with the same salary till he was 18.[br /]
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[b]The Hardships[/b][br /]
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His life at Busseto was not an easy one. On Sundays and feast days, he used to walk down to Roncole and return the next day to carry out his duties as an organist. Sometimes, Verdi walked this stretch barefoot, so as not to wear the shoes out.[br /]
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One Christmas morning, before dawn, Verdi was going for an early mass when he fell into a deep ditch and was almost drowned. If a passing peasant had not heard his cries for help, Verdi would have drowned in it. But it was not to be as the nature was nurturing him for greater works that he was to finally grow in stature and recognition.[br /]
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Adolescent Verdi was involved in training younger pupils at the school of music under Provesi. He played the organ in the Roncole church; he copied parts of music for the Philharmonic Society, founded by Antonio Barezzi.[br /]
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Antonio Barezzi was a prosperous merchant in Busseto and Verdi’s father was one of his customers. Barezzi was a music lover. He founded the Philharmonic Society and became its president. They met for rehearsals and performances at his home. He himself played the flute and could also play the clarinet, horn or ophicleide. Verdi used to play the piano here and became Barezzi’s favorite.[br /]
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Soon, Verdi started helping Barezzi in his grocery store and used to spend most of his time at his house. He was treated like a son there and from May 1831, he left his lodging and shifted into the Barezzi household.[br /]
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Barezzi’s eldest daughter, Margherita, took singing and piano lessons from Verdi. When Barezzi and his wife discovered it, they approved the relationship.[br /]
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[b]Moving On[/b][br /]
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Busseto was comparatively a smaller place for Verdi’s growth as a musician. Barezzi convinced Verdi’s father to apply for grants available for gifted but poor children from an institution called Monte di Pieta e d’ Abbondanza.[br /]
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With several letters of reference and sponsorship for a year from Barezzi, Verdi applied for the scholarship. It was granted to him on the condition of good periodic reports and progress. Verdi’s passport for Milan was issued on May 22, 1831 and Verdi applied for admission at the Conservatoire as a paying pupil. After a brief music school examination, his application was rejected on the grounds that he was four years older than the normal age limit, he was a foreigner, the Conservatoire classrooms and dormitories were already swarming and reports on his piano playing was found unsatisfactory. Little did they know that these very compositions were going to become magnum opus in the history of music.[br /]
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Barezzi’s dreams for Verdi were stuttered by this rejection. Unless Verdi got admission at a school, the scholarship would not be granted. Barezzi had already agreed to sponsor Verdi’s education in music and had endless faith in this virtuoso. He arranged for Verdi’s education in Milan under Vincenzo Lavigna, a master at counterpoints, pedant canons and fugues and a composer of numerous operas at Milan and Turin.[br /]
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Lavigna trained Verdi in more than one way by advising him to hire musical records as well as watching opera. This helped Verdi to introduce dramatic elements in music.[br /]
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Here, Verdi came to know of Provesi’s death. This again presented him with a chance to take over as the Maestro di Cappella, the Organist of Collegiate church as well as the Municipal music master. Barezzi believed Verdi to be Provesi’s predestined successor, but Verdi was not confident enough. So, he stayed back at Milan to attain proficiency required to head his predecessors post. But, Verdi’s application was rejected as it was late. Meanwhile infighting raged between Verdi’s supporters and government agency at Busseto.[br /]
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[b]The Musical Uproar[/b][br /]
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There were feuds, regarding the appointment of Maestro di Cappella. Members of the Philharmonic Society wanted Verdi to take this place, while the priests of Ferrari were trying their best to acquire this post. Verdi was least interested in the political twist that it took place. His supporters from the philharmonic society seized the musical score they had created for the church, refusing its use, which stormed the church. There were street brawls, prosecutions and conflicts. It was a battle between the revolutionary Verdian party and the reactionary priestly ‘Coccardini’ party. Both the factions tried their best to persuade the governmental decision. However, Mayor of Bussesto’s sympathies were with Verdi. He wrote to the Home Secretary of Parma regarding the citizens’ plight.[br /]
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On Barezzi’s requests Verdi visited Busseto but at the end of 1834, Verdi returned to Milan and took up his lessons under Lavigna.[br /]
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Ultimately, in January 1835, the government announced that the Ferrari would retain the post of the church organist and the post of Maestro di Musica would be filled after a competitive examination. In 1836, the great musician Guiseppe Alinori finally appointed Verdi as the Master to the Commune of Busseto. He also complimented Verdi for his musical talent, comparing it to the masters of London and Paris. This was a great tribute to both Verdi and Lavigna.[br /]
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[b]The Coming of Joys[/b][br /]
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With growing career opportunity, love too bloomed. Verdi was officially engaged to Margherita, on April 16, 1836 and were finally married on May 4. Both lived at Palazzo Tedaldi.
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Verdi began to write vocal pieces for Mass and Church music. In 1838, Verdi’s first published compositions were a set of six Romanze, songs with piano accompaniment. The news papers called it, "…an inspiration, an enchantment of delicate sound…’[br /]
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The music he wrote during these years impressed various connoisseurs. In March 1839, he presented an Opera Oberto at La Scala at Milan. It traveled to Genoa and Turin and earned him a deal of three more opera compositions for Italy’s prominent theatres. Compositions and musical performances were coming to a pass and his vocation as a musical mastero was thriving. But, like each spring which is followed by autumn, Verdi’s good times didn’t last long.[br /]
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[b]Adversity round the Corner[/b][br /]
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His first girl child, Virginia, was born in March 1837 and his son, Icilio, was born in July 1838. Virginia died in August 1838 and Icilio in October 1839. His wife Margherita too died in June, 1840. All were killed by a dreadful plague. Verdi’s endless anguish made him ill and his musical compositions suffered tremendously. He went into bitter depression and his character took over a harsh countenance.[br /]
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Due to surmountable bereavement Verdi’s next opera, Un giorno di regno suffered. It was a comedy, but was not received well by the audiences. This failure added to his trauma. Verdi found no solace in his art and decided never to compose again. He wrote to Bartolomo Merelli, the theatre-in-charge, to cancel the contract. But Merelli encouraged Verdi to go on.[br /]
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One winter evening, Merelli persuaded Verdi to join him at the theatre and tried his best to convince him into composing an opera. He did not want to get the music composed by anyone else but Verdi. He put the opera’s manuscript in Verdi’s hand and bid him goodbye. Verdi felt ‘…a kind of indefinable malaise, a very deep sadness, a distress…’ and threw the manuscript violently on the table at his home. The book, in the process, opened and Biblical verses in it touched him deeply. The Nabuco did not leave his mind. He read through it so many times that he knew it by heart. Something told him to ‘set it to music!’ Finally, it was ready in 1841 and was successfully performed at La Scala on March 9, 1842.[br /]
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At 28, Verdi became the new hero of Italian music. The Nabuco traveled across Italy and the world around. Within a decade it reached St. Petersburg and Buenos Aries, Argentina.[br /]
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[b]Tormenting the Self[/b][br /]
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The period which followed (1843-1849), saw Verdi prod himself like a slave to produce two operas a year, at the cost of his health. He did all this to earn enough money, to settle as a farmer in Sant’Agata near Roncole. To produce an opera, Verdi had to negotiate with an impressario, edit a libretto, find and approve singers, compose the music, rehearse, conduct the first three performances, deal with publishers et al, while traveling from one end of Italy to another in the day preceding rail-roads. But it was during this time that Verdi’s amazing and widely successful operas emerged.[br /]
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I Lombardi alla Prima, opened in 1843 and Ernani in 1844. Ernani also became the only work during the ‘galley slave’ period, which gained a steady place in the realm of Operas. Verdi’s operas were based on librettos of high literary and dramatic worth. In 1844, I due Foscari was premiered in Rome followed by Attila in 1846.[br /]
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In 1847, he created Macbeth based on Shakespeare’s tragic drama. He retained its original hold. The harrowing sleep walk scene of Lady Macbeth was the finest number.[br /]
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I masna dieri brought Verdi lucrative entrustments from London in 1847. Same year in November, Jerusalem was performed in Paris.[br /]
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In 1948, riots began in Milan where the people were trying to drive out the Austrian Army, but in vain. Verdi created Risorgimento as an emphatic response to the Italian unification movement. It gathered momentum and the choruses in the opera were taken as a metaphor of revolutionary voices.[br /]
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In 1849, La Battazlia di Legnano (The Battle of Legnano), a tale of love and jealousy set against the battle cry for freedom from foreign rule, premiered in Rome. It was an immediate and immense success because it stirred the political sentiment existent at that time.[br /]
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In 1851, he composed the best known and best-loved opera Rigoletto, which was a technically exceptional piece, striving towards a synchronous presentation of the drama. Verdi’s next masterpieces with strong and thrilling drama and original characterization were Il trovatore and La traviata in 1853. Verdi adopted contrasting styles of intimate moods and lyrical pathos.[br /]
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[b]Of Musical Plaudits[/b][br /]
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Verdi had become an international celebrity by now. From 1855 to 1870 he devoted himself to the French and other theatres, which demanded spectacular dramas on high brow subjects. However, 70s saw an apathetic reception of Verdi’s compositions.[br /]
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Verdi’s growing insight into human character and mastery of orchestral splendor was evident in Unballo in Maschera (A masked Ball) in 1859. Since it was a romantic version of the assassination of Gustav III of Sweden, it suffered censorship problems in Naples. Verdi thus withdrew the opera and performed it in Rome, where it was a grand success.[br /]
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In 1862, Verdi represented Italian musicians at the London Exhibition and performed Inno delle Nazion; at Her Majesty theatre. It was a cantata written by an upcoming poet, Arrigo Boito. Boito became Verdi’s close companion in his later years.[br /]
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Verdi’s longing for enhanced dramatic and unique material lead him to create Forza in 1862. It was an epic narrative extending over varied eras and locations with the highs and lows of life. It also brought together religious scenes and Verdi’s first and only comic role as Friar Melitone.[br /]
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Verdi’s life-long anticlerical sentiments were harshly potrayed in Don Carlos, which premiered in Paris in 1867. This is also one of his master - pieces. Verdi’s prestige spread across national boundaries. He was invited to celebrate the opening of the new Opera House in Cairo, Egypt in 1869. Verdi declined the offer for an inaugural hymn that celebrated the opening of the Suez Canal.[br /]
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Aida was performed in Cairo in 1871 and its European premiere, at La Scala Milan, took place in 1872. The next year, Verdi composed a requiem mass as a homage to the Italian patriot and poet Alessandro Manzoni. This mass was a poignant proof of Verdi’s phenomenal ability to innovate, apart from his creating marvelous operas.[br /]
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[b]Slowing Down[/b][br /]
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In 1873, Verdi wanted to slow down and retire. But his publisher Giulio Ricordi did not want his most profitable composer to rest on his fame. He asked Arrigo Boito to approach Verdi to work on Shakespeare’s Othello. This theme interested Verdi. Othello took shape very slowly and it finally premiered in 1887. It was a tragic chef d'oeuvre. Othello’s drama was continuous and flexible, far advanced than any of Verdi’s style, which reflected every aspect of the character and his nuance in great detail.[br /]
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Verdi declared his retirement again after Othello’s success throughout Europe. But once again, Ricordi and Boito, who had now grown close to the mellowing Verdi, succeeded in inspiring him. Boito recreated Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and strengthened it with passages from Henry IV, making a perfect comic libretto – Falstaff. This miraculously original and mercurial music premiered at La Scala in 1893. This was Verdi’s last dramatic work.[br /]
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Throughout Verdi’s musical career, he constantly worked on his earlier compositions, enlivening and recreating parts of his earlier compositions. Even after his last opera, Falstaff in 1893, he continued to compose ballets and sacred music for chorus.[br /]
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Verdi dreamt of building a retirement home for musicians and singers in Milan since 1889. In 1895, he assigned the job of its planning to architect, Camillo Boito, brother of Arrigo Boito. On October 10, 1902 Casa di Riposo per Musicisti was opened to occupants, which flourished then and still exits.[br /]
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[b]The Other Side of Euphony[/b][br /]
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Verdi’s solitary life without his family was colored by shades of love, which then adorned his music till the end. The ladylove in Verdi’s life was Giuseppina Strepponi. Born and brought up in a music loving home, she became one of the leading sopranos of her time in the late 1830s. She had done various single roles and was much in demand at the Italian Opera scenario by 1839. Her clear timbre and excellent musical understanding made her a gifted actress. Being financially in distress after her father’s death, Guisseppina tried to get as many roles as possible. She was introduced to Verdi by Bartolomo Merelli, the impressario at La Scala, for the performance of Oberto.
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It was originally planned that she would sing at its premiere, but due to her strained voice she could not take up the contracts. Due to these upheavals, she was ill and depressed and her career was in doldrums. Finally, when Verdi’s first achievement, Nabucco, was staged in 1842, she got the dramatic role of Abigaille and was engaged for eight performances.[br /]
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Guiseppina also sang for Verdi’s operas, I Lombardi and Ernani. Due to her frail health, she shifted to Paris in 1847 and gave music lessons. It was here that she met Verdi again. They kept in touch through letters and fell deeply in love during the rehearsals of Jerusalem.[br /]
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[b]The Harmonious Camaraderie[/b][br /]
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In 1851, when Giuseppina and Verdi began to stay together, they had to face social criticism. Verdi, however, was not bothered about the world. In reply to a letter from his former father-in-law Antonio Barezzi, he wrote-[br /]

[b]21st January 1852[/b][br /]
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[i]"I have nothing to hide. In my house there lives a free, independent lady, like me a lover of the solitary life, and possessed of a fortune quite sufficient for all her needs. Neither she nor I are accountable to anyone for our actions; but, on the other hand, who knows what our relationship is?…What rights I have over her or she over me? Who knows whether she is or is not my wife?… I will definitely say this much: in my house she is entitled to as much respect, or more, as I am myself, and no-one is permitted to forget this on any pretext; both in her conduct and character, she has every right to that special consideration she never fails to show towards others…"[/i][br /]
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Barezzi accepted this relationship and also came to appreciate Giuseppina. The secured relationship then resulted into marriage on August 29, 1859, in the Parish church of St. Martin, in a village near Geneva. Verdi and Giuseppina’s relationship was one of mutual fondness and reverence, apart from certain contrasts in personality. Nevertheless, they shared many mutual interests like music, literature and friends. They remained childless, but in 1867 they took the guardianship of the 7-year-old daughter of one of Verdi’s cousin, Filomena.[br /]
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Even when Verdi was attracted to another Soprano singer, Teresa Stolz in 1869, Giuseppina maintained self-respect. Her love for him was never lost. Verdi had also disclosed to her his most intimate side, which ranged from long interludes of silence to intense verbal and psychological abuse. Giuseppina took it all.[br /]
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She remained his companion and benefactor in conviction and deed during his highly creative years.[br /]
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[b]The Split Unison[/b][br /]
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In November 1897, Guiseppina died at Sant’Agata, their home, with Verdi’s 1846 letter placed on her heart. Her last words to him were ‘And now addio, my Verdi. As we were united in life, may God rejoin our spirits in Heaven.’[br /]
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After Giuseppina’s death, Verdi began to feel the burden of age. He shifted to Milan in December 1900. On the morning of January 21, 1901, he suffered a stroke and lay unconscious for a week.[br /]
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On January 24, however, Verdi returned to momentary consciousness at the sound of his musical watch, opened his eyes, smiled and lost consciousness again, forever.[br /]
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[b]His Death[/b][br /]
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Verdi died on January 27, 1901. His funeral was a quiet affair, in accordance with his wish : "Without music or singing". A month later, his and Giuseppina’s coffins were removed from the temporary cemetery in Milan and shifted to the catacomb at the Casa di Riposo.[br /]
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