La traviata

Giuseppe Verdi, composer

b. Busseto, Italy, October 9, 1813; d. Milan, January 27, 1901

Verdi’s early life and career fit the mold we have come to expect of the Romantic Era artist. Born to a family of modest means, his musical abilities became apparent early on and were guided and nurtured by a kind patron, Antonio Barezzi (who later became his father-in-law). 

Denied admission to the Milan Conservatory, he was forced to study privately. Eventually he would find his way to the Teatro alla Scala, where his first opera, Oberto (1839) was a modest success and his second, Un giorno di regno (1840), a comic opera written shortly after the tragic death of his young wife and two children, was a fiasco. At a low point of his career, he would make another attempt, Nabucco (1842), which was a spectacular success that changed the course of his life.

Verdi’s operas of the 1840s are imbued both overtly and covertly with the interests of the Risorgimento—Italian citizens who sought the reunification of Italy. His chorus, “Va pensiero,” from Nabucco would become an anthem for the Risorgimento.

Verdi achieved international acclaim in the 1850s, especially from three major successes in a row Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata(1853).

These successes allowed him to be very selective about his choice of projects in subsequent decades. He spent most of the remainder of his life going in and out of retirement, writing only when a particular commission interested him. He composed La forza del destino for St. Petersburg in 1862, and a revision 1869. In 1867 he composed Don Carlos, his most ambitious work, for the Paris Opéra. An invitation from the Khedive of Egypt to compose an opera for Cairo led eventually to the hugely successful Aida of 1871.

Verdi would achieve the peak of his career in collaboration with the Italian poet and composer Arrigo Boito. Their first major collaboration was the 1881 revision of Verdi’s earlier Simon Boccanegra (1857). Otello, brilliantly distilled from Shakespeare’s play by Boito and set to music of the highest order by Verdi, soon took its place among the greatest Italian lyric tragedies. This triumph was followed by Falstaff (1893), adapted from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV. In this final opera, Verdi astonished the world with his warmth, uncanny comic timing, and youthful exuberance.

Throughout his life Verdi remained an intensely private man. His long relationship with the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi (she became his second wife in 1859) was especially meaningful to him, but never something he intended as grist for the chattering classes. He was always uneasy in the public role the success of his operas—and their identification with Italian unification—forced upon him. Whatever his discomfort, his importance to Italian cultural life could not be denied, and when he died in 1901, the outpouring of grief and respect was remarkable by any standard. An entire century of Italian music seemed to die with him. 

Adapted from a biography by Douglas L. Ipson

Francesco Maria Piave, librettist

b. Murano, May 18, 1810; d. Milan, March 5, 1876

Francesco Maria Piave is primarily remembered as Verdi’s preferred librettist for the period encompassing 1844’s Ernani through La forza del destinoin 1862. However, the prolific author wrote over 40 librettos for many of the noted composers of the day, including Pacini, Mercadante, and Ricci. 

Born in the Murano district of Venice in 1810, Piave was the eldest son of a successful glassmaker. He initially began study for the priesthood, but when a sad reversal of family fortune forced him to leave seminary, the quick-minded youth soon found work as a proofreader, journalist, and sometime poet. His literary efforts eventually led to a position at the Teatro La Fenice as “resident poet and stage manager” (much like a dramaturg and stage director of today), a post he also came to hold at Milan’s La Scala.

Piave’s relationship with Verdi is well documented through their extensive correspondence. On the surface, Verdi appears to browbeat Piave relentlessly, to which the librettist responds like a dog obeying its master. A closer look reveals a lifelong friendship between two men who regarded one another’s abilities with unfailing respect. 

Piave’s gentle nature and skill in tactful negotiation with censors and theatrical management was a huge asset to the composer, who was inclined toward a more stubborn disposition. Verdi found in him a colleague who, beyond possessing the flexibility required to merge with the composer’s rapidly evolving artistic sensibilities, could be absolutely relied upon in the most difficult of situations. 

Both men were also passionate Italian patriots, sharing a deep interest in contemporary politics; a number of letters written in 1848, following the retreat of Radetsky’s Austrian troops from Milan, find Verdi addressing his colleague as “Citizen Piave.” The librettist was also a great favorite of Verdi’s longtime companion and later wife Giuseppina Strepponi, who affectionately dubbed him “Il grazioso”—the Gracious One.

On December 5, 1867, Piave suffered a debilitating stroke while on his way to a rehearsal at La Scala. Verdi and Strepponi influenced Ricordi to publish an album of piano pieces by various composers to be sold for Piave’s benefit. The Verdis also contributed to support his family for the nine years until his death on March 5, 1876. He was buried in the Cimitero Monumentale, in Milan. 

Adapted from a biography by Mark Thomas Ketterson