Category Archives: Verdi

Simon Boccanegra – The Council Chamber Scene

Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra was first performed in 1857. It achieved a very modest success. Verdi thought about revising it for many years. With Arrigo Boito as his librettist, he finished a major overhaul of the work in 1881. Boito’s work on the revised libretto was a test drive for his suitability as Verdi’s collaborator on…


Read the full entry

Giuseppe Verdi – 210th Birthday

Giuseppe Verdi was born October 9th (or 10th) 1813. Starting with the appearance of his third opera Nabucco in 1842 he has been the most popular of operatic composers. At first musical scholars were divided as to his artistic worth. Some thought him a popularizer who was not close to the artistic merit of Richard…


Read the full entry

La Battaglia Di Legnano – La Scala 1961

Verdi’s 14th opera is rarely done. Ten years ago, I reviewed Parma’s DVD of the work published as part of its cycle of all the composer’s operas. The Met has never done Battaglia while La Scala has only mounted it twice – in 1916 and in 1961. The latter show had an all-star cast with…


Read the full entry

On the Knocking at the Gate

“On The Knocking at the Gate” (1823) is the title of a celebrated essay (it’s below) by Thomas De Quincy (1785-1859) about an event that happens in Act 2 scene 2 of Macbeth. The Macbeths have just murdered King Duncan. Macbeth is horrified by what he has done, his wife less so. Lady Macbeth takes…


Read the full entry

  È sogno o realtà?

Verdi’s last opera Falstaff, written when he was almost 80, is opera’s greatest sport. It is unlike anything else by the composer or by anyone else, for that matter. Verdi had written all his previous with the expectation of pleasing his audiences while observing the highest artistic standards. But near the end of his life,…


Read the full entry

Falstaff in HD 2023

Robert Carsen’s production of Verdi’s valedictory masterpiece Falstaff was first telecast by the Met in December 2013. It returned today with a new cast. Verdi’s last work for the stage is an operatic sport. There is no work in the canon like it. Its melodic fecundity, mercury-like pace, vocal ingenuity, and its deep insight into…


Read the full entry

Verdi Requiem – 1982 Performance

Verdi’s requiem mass written to commemorate the first year anniversary of the death of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni is one of the peaks of Western Civilization. The video below was made more than forty years ago. It features Sopranos Jessye Norman and Margaret Price, tenor Jose Carreras, and bass Ruggero Raimondi. The London Symphony Orchestra…


Read the full entry

Universal Genius

If you do a search for universal genius a variety of definitions will appear. Often they equate the term with polymath. Polymaths are quite numerous, though a very small proportion of the total population. The definition used here is a person whose accomplishment is either so far above any other person of genius in the…


Read the full entry

La Traviata in HD – 2022

Verdi’s “poor sinner” was on the Met’s HD roster for an unprecedented fourth time today. Michael Mayer’s overstuffed production remains a motley melange of confused early to mid 19th century costumes speckled across a unitary set. But nobody goes to La Traviata because of the sets and costumes. It’s Verdi’s glorious and emotionally apposite music…


Read the full entry

Celestina Boninsegna

Celestina Boninsegna (1877-1947) was an Italian soprano best known for her facility with Verdi’s great soprano parts. Born in Reggio Emilia she was something of a vocal prodigy. Her first appearance on stage was as Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale; she was 15. Following the completion of her vocal studies at the Conservatorio Gioachino Rossini in…


Read the full entry

Categories

twitter facebook rss