Verdi's Works Research Articles

The role of Amelia in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera” - Vocality and Technical-interpretative Coordinates

Like all of Verdi's mature works, the opera “Un ballo in maschera” demonstrates notable progress in both vocal and orchestral writing. In terms of the vocality of the characters, Verdi creates remarkable solo roles, adapted to the various dramaturgical requirements. The role of Amelia is a key character, being assigned an extensive vocal discourse. Her vocality reflects a noticeable difference from the Verdian patterns used in the construction of female roles, up to “Il Trovatore”. The suppression of the well-known “cabaletta”, the abandonment of the demonstrations of vocal virtuosity and the intensification of the vocal writing in the middle register, offer a plus of uniqueness to this role. Thus, a new vocal pattern is materialized among the female characters representative in Giuseppe Verdi’s work, leaving behind the vocal portraits of the heroines inspired from the belcanto singing “tradition”. In this study we will analyze from a structural and interpretive point of view the main solo moments of the role.

Verdi, Auber and the Aida-type

AbstractThis article presents a literary genealogy of the titular character in Verdi's Aida. While scholars have explored the opera's resonances with late nineteenth-century conceptions of Orientalism, Blackness and the imagined ‘East’, Aida's etymology and character traits reflect a much broader archetype that extends back a century from its 1871 premiere. Her name is not Egyptian or Ethiopian but Greek, and her backstory was modelled on characters named ‘Haidée’ and ‘Haydée’ who appeared in works by Lord Byron and Alexandre Dumas fils, as well as in a celebrated opéra comique by Daniel Auber. Aida was thus an assemblage of ready-made character archetypes and scenarios rather than an author's sui generis depiction of non-Western culture. An intertextual reading of Aida offers a broader perspective on alterity in the nineteenth century, which eschewed geographical specificity for archetypes, quotations and allusions. It also offers another way to confront claims of authenticity made by current-day defenders of brownface in Verdi's work.

Розвиток вокальної майстерності співака (на прикладі творів Джузеппе Верді)

The paper presents the features of the singer's vocal mastery development, carried out on the example of the works of G. Verdi. The transformation of bel canto traditions in the opera of the composer and the formation of the style of opera singing, peculiar to the present days, are noted. The requirements for vocalists related to the change in the vocal range and the need to create dramatic complex images are fundamentally changing. The greatest difficulty in performing Verdi's works is the problem of mastering the voice material, since in many of his works the boundaries of registers change significantly, both in women and men parties. The melody of the composer is genetically related to the Italian folk Melos and devoid of external virtuosity, which would not be due to deep content. There are many examples of solo numbers in G. Verdi's creative heritage that allow not only the lyrical and lyrical-dramatic portrayals of female characters to be revealed, but also to convey a range of spiritual-related feelings with religious content. In particular, it is possible to distinguish a number of solos in opera works, which researchers propose to refer to as « solo prayers » . It will be advisable to give attention not only to opera, but also to Verdi's spiritual works, which contributes to the development of skills for the embodiment of various figurative spheres. For the composer, these requirements were due to the need to bring the appropriate images, emotional states of the characters. Verdi often required the use of a wide range of timbre colors, choosing them depending on the desired figurative content – from muted half-singing to chanting. For Verdi, it was important to choose vocalists who would be suitable for dramatic roles. Moreover, it creates the need for a strong sound that would become a model for further musical practice.

Piegare la nota: Contrappunto e dramma in Verdi by Marcello Conati

Piegare la nota: Contrappunto e dramma in Verdi. By Marcello Conati. (Historiae Musicae Cultores, vol. 127.) Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 2014. [xxii, 212 p. ISBN 9788822263094. i 26.] Illustrations, bibliographic references, index.Rivers of ink have been spilled about Giuseppe Verdi. General books about his life and music do not always make the most of new research and analysis, but Marcello Conati's Piegare la nota, contrappunto e dramma in Verdi is, without doubt, a relevant addition to the literature on Verdi. Although the book does not present new material, it provides a cohesive collection of essays written by the scholar from 1969 to 2006, previously accessible only individually within various conference proceedings or academic journals. All are now available in one volume, assembled by Olschki. Fifty years of research demonstrate Conati's significant interest in and passion for this operatic composer.The title of the book, Piegare la nota: Contrappunto e dramma in Verdi, alludes to the significance of counterpoint and of traditional rules, as expressed by Verdi himself. In fact, the composer received, as a youth, a framework of strict studies in composition as passed down through the generations. These fundamental compositional studies were based on the great Neapolitan school, which Verdi considered essential for every student, as Conati affirms in the introduction, in which he examines the importance of Verdi's training. It stands to reason that Verdi's music can be understood in light of the education he received.The preamble, despite being dedicated to counterpoint and harmony in Verdi, only touches on these aspects of compositional practice and the central place they were to take in molding his future career. This initial section might have benefited from the development of deeper insights into counterpoint-dedicated analysis, particularly by use of an example of the composition process. This would have been illuminating, given the author's substantial knowledge of Verdi's works. This is the only shortcoming of the volume, which I maintain should form part of any serious collection of literature devoted to a proper understanding of Giuseppe Verdi.These nine ricognizioni (or essays) retrace the important stages of the composer's career, from the beginning with Oberto until his maturity, when he composed the Pezzi sacri (sacred works), discussing various topics related to Verdi's operas. Conati's Piegare la nota covers more than Verdi's operas: each essay sets out to explore one distinct aspect of Verdi's compositional practice, and sometimes the related facets of staging and dramaturgy. They also provide us with fascinating and relevant documents, such as the press reviews of Oberto found in the first ricognizione, which highlight how this work merits attention as a specific case study.The first essay discusses the international reception of the La Scala premiere of Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, and elucidates the judgments and prejudices shown towards this early work. In doing so, Conati explores one of the most overlooked of Verdi's operas, his very first. The subsequent essay is concerned with the genesis of the first performance of Verdi's Macbeth. Many aspects of the production stage of the work are documented through the testimony of critics and the chronicles of those attending, and also through elements drawn from the composer's correspondence. The technical solutions chosen by Verdi and documented by Conati not only shed light on the first Macbeth performance but also provide the reader with detailed insights into nineteenth-century theatrical life (similar solutions are analyzed in the sixth essay in relation to the first version of Simon Boccanegra in 1857, in which different aspects of lighting and visual staging effects are documented thoroughly). What this essay confirms is Verdi's professed drive for consistency in his desired dramaturgical effects; Conati's work testifies to the centrality of these effects in Verdi's creative process. …

Bridging Divides: Verdi's Requiem in Post-Unification Italy

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the early Italian reception of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (1874), premièred in Milan on the first anniversary of the death of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Previous literature has focused on issues of musical genre and the work's political implications (particularly its connections with Manzoni and with late nineteenth-century Italian revivals of ‘old’ sacred music). The article examines, instead, the curiously pluralistic concerns of contemporary critics, as well as certain aspects of Verdi's vocal writing, with the aim of destabilizing traditional dichotomies such as old/new, sacred/operatic, vocal/instrumental and progress/crisis. It argues for more broad-ranging political resonances of Verdi's work, suggesting that the negotiation of a variety of boundaries both in Verdi's music and in its contemporary discussion made the Requiem dovetail with wider cultural attempts to define Italian identity.

'Adapting Byron' The Byron Centre, University of Manchester 4–5 December 2008

The phenomenal fame that Byron enjoyed both during his life and after his death meant that his words, and indeed his image, were often adapted and influenced diverse cultural fields such as music, theatre, dance and the fine arts. Laura Tunbridge of The Byron Centre, Manchester University, thus organised 'Adapting Byron', a stimulating conference in recognition of this burgeoning area of Byron scholarship, which was held on 4-5 December 2008. The conference began with an excellent song recital of Byron settings by Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf and Charles Ives by baritone Marcus Farnsworth, accompanied by Audrey Hyland. Speakers and registrants at the conference were then treated to a wealth of interdisciplinary papers, the first of which was presented by Tunbridge, whose paper on various adaptations of Byron's Hebrew Melodies by composers such as Mendelssohn and Schumann explored the ramifications of setting the text to music, and the subtle shifts in meaning and nuance these settings and translations could engender. Continuing the musical theme, Thomas Schmidt-Beste (Bangor) used Mendelssohn's preoccupations with Nationalmusik and British literature to demonstrate how Byron was perceived more as a cosmopolitan, radical figure, rather than British or Scottish. Schmidt-Beste illustrated this by discussing the dark, brooding settings that Mendelssohn wrote as accompaniments for German translations of Byron's poetry, which were very different from the folk and national inflections found in Mendelssohn's other works, such as his 'Scottish' Symphony. My own paper then explored the intertextual resonances of Byron's life and words found in three modern texts: Gertrude Stein's sustained exercise in wordplay, Byron: A Play, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and John Crowley's Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land. Alan Rawes, Director of The Byron Centre at Manchester, ushered in the next session by telling us a bit about the activities and the purpose of the Centre, which has been chiefly established to act as forum for the multidisciplinary study of Byron's life, work and impact on international culture and politics to the present day. The Centre is also host to a new, already extensive and expanding Byron Archive, which is housed at the splendid neo-gothic John Rylands Library, and contains, among other items, first editions of Byron's works and artefacts relating to Byron's reception around the world. Rawes also announced that the Byron Society had recently presented the Archive with a very generous gift of books relating to Byron, worth £1000. In the next session, Martin Deasy (Cambridge) spoke on Italian operatic adaptations of Marino Falieri and The Two Foscari and showed how Donizetti's and Verdi's works often presented Byron's politics in interesting ways, invoking aspects of the dead poet that were still very clear in Italian cultural memory. As well offering this compelling argument, Deasy also informed us that Donizetti's The Siege of Calais includes the only instance of operatic swimming that he has come across, a fact both entertaining but also illustrative of how the Byronic Hero is defined by action and mobility in opposition to the impasse of the sieged city. Susan Rutherford (Manchester) followed with a paper that used the depiction of Gulnare's final moments in Verdi's opera Il corsaro to examine the obstacles facing a librettist and a composer when choosing to depict embodied emotion on the stage, especially in an intimate gaslit venue with low visibility. Her paper helped address the larger problem of adapting poetic works for the stage, and how such adaptations necessitate externalising the actions and reactions of the players through both spectacle and aural cues. …

Verdi, the Virgin, and the Censor: The Politics of the Cult of Mary in I Lombardi alla prima crociata and Giovanna d'Arco

Christian elements and themes developed rapidly in mid-nineteenth-century Italian culture. This essay concentrates on Giuseppe Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843) and Giovanna d'Arco (1845)—the first nineteenth-century Italian operas to include explicit references to the Virgin Mary. Whereas Giselda's prayer to the Virgin in I Lombardi was allowed by the censors with only one minimal emendation, evidence in the autograph score of Giovanna d'Arco reveals that numerous relevant Marian elements in this opera were modified or suppressed. The different attitude of the Milanese censors toward the two operas, both premiered at La Scala, may at first seem contradictory. Examined in the context of contemporary cultural ramifications of the cult of Mary, however, these works and their censorship acquire new meanings, shedding light on the intersections between religion and politics in the phase of the Risorgimento leading to the revolutions of 1848–49. On the one hand, Giselda's character and her prayer embody the feminine mildness, faith, and passivity characteristic of the Catholic-liberal movement, hardly posing a threat to the political and religious status quo. On the other, the Marian elements in Giovanna d'Arco suggest an appropriation of this religious icon for the purposes of an overtly revolutionary agenda, and thus prompted the intervention of the censors. What may at first seem a straightforward instance of religious censorship bears profound political implications, suggests that the censors operated according to contextual or semantic (rather than merely textual or lexical) criteria, and invites a more nuanced perception of the political meanings of Verdi's works prior to 1848.

Opera out of performance: Verdi's Macbeth at San Francisco Opera

This essay does two things, one of them analytical, the other more sociological. The former consists in a dramaturgical analysis of Verdi's Macbeth. The discussion is not entirely conventional insofar as its impetus was pragmatic: this section lays out some of the dramaturgical thinking that went into preparations for a new production of Verdi's work slated for San Francisco Opera in the Autumn of 2004. Alas, in the Autumn of 2003 the production was abruptly cancelled. This (non-)event led to the essay's sociological aspiration: a consideration of how and why that cancellation came about. In addition to reviewing Pamela Rosenberg's unusually ambitious, experimental and controversial regime at San Francisco Opera, the essay also speculates on the relationship between a nascent critical dramaturgy and the prospects for innovation on the operatic stage in the United States at this historical moment.

Verdi's Middle Period, 1849-1859: Source Studies, Analysis, and Performance Practice

During the middle phase of his career, Guiseppe Verdi adopted new compositional procedures to create some of his best-known works. Focusing on the operas he composed during this period, this volume explores Verdi's work from three interlinked perspectives: studies of the original source material, cross-disciplinary analysis of musical and textual issues, and the relationship of performance practice to Verdi's musical and dramatic conception. In addition to offering new insights into operas such as Il Trovatore, La Traviata and Un Ballo in Maschera, this text also highlights works such as Luisa Miller and Les Vepres Siciliennes.

Verdi's theater: creating drama through music

Gilles de Van focuses on an often neglected aspect of Verdi's operas: their effectiveness as theater. De Van argues that two main aesthetic conceptions underlie all of Verdi's works: that of the and the drama. In the melodrama the composer relies mainly on dramatic intensity and the rhythm linking various stages of the plot, using exemplary characters and situations. But in the musical drama reality begins to blur, the musical forms lose their excessively neat patterns, and doubt and ambiguity undermine characters and situations, reflecting the crisis of character typical of modernity. Indeed, much of the interest and originality of Verdi's operas lie in his adherence to both these contradictory systems, allowing the composer/dramatist to be simultaneously classical and modern, traditionalist and innovator.

The Two Traviatas

An opera so widely known and loved as La traviata may seem. a strange subject for musicological research. It was first performed in March 1853. From the following year onwards it enjoyed an uninterrupted reign as an international favourite. Throughout the nineteenth century it came second in popularity only to Il trovatore; while Verdi himself, when asked at one point which of his own operas he preferred, is said to have replied, ‘Speaking as a professional, Rigoletto, speaking as an amateur, La traviata’. In the period following his death many of Verdi's works now considered masterpieces sank for a while below the horizon—but not La traviata. Today it is not only Verdi's best-loved opera, but the most popular piece in the entire operatic repertory. What more could there be to find out about it?

Some Reflections on Gloriana

Occasionally, in the history of operatic art, great works, with no pronounced revolutionary tendencies, yet models of simplicity, of sincerity, of artistic integrity, have been subjected to the most savage criticism, as unintelligent as it was undiscerning. We remain astounded at the lack of insight, of common-sense on the part of cultured critics. Even la Traviata was held up for censure as “prurient, foul and hideous”; whereas, in the whole of Verdi's work, there is nothing more poignant and sublime than Violetta's appeal: “Dite alia giovane.” Carmen was stigmatized as “grossly vulgar and vile,” whilst Vincent d'Indy—amazed at the aberrations of men—sadly remarked that the “music seemed crazy to nearly everybody.”