Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) is the foremost Italian composer of operas. Among his early triumphs are the ever-popular Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853) and La Traviata (1853), and by the time of Aïda (1871) all the elements of his youthful style had reached full maturity—and his achievement seemed unsurpassable. But after a 16-year hiatus a 73-year-old Verdi surpassed even himself with Otello (1887), based on Shakespeare's tragedy (less an "h"), a supreme masterpiece that for many represents the culmination of Italian grand opera. Then, in 1893, Verdi produced Falstaff, a comic masterpiece based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, proving that the octogenarian's genius never waned.
Rigoletto: La donna è mobile
In Rigoletto, on a libretto by friend and frequent collaborator Francesco Maria Piave (1810-1876), and based on Victor Hugo’s play, Le roi s’amuse (1832), the title character is the spiteful court jester to the “Duke a Mantua.” The Duke routinely seduces the wives and daughters of his courtiers, and Rigoletto takes great pleasure in humiliating the wronged noblemen. But when one of them hurls a father’s curse at him, the superstitious jester is horrified. Later, a group of the mocked noblemen discover Rigoletto in the company of “Gilda,” a beautiful young woman whom they incredulously believe to be Rigoletto’s mistress. As revenge, they decide to kidnap Gilda and deliver her up to the Duke, and they convince Rigoletto to join them by pretending they are abducting a countess from the neighboring house. Rigoletto realizes too late that he has been duped into helping them steal that which is most precious to him—Gilda is not his mistress, she is in fact his over-protected daughter! No longer finding his boss’s dissolute behavior the least amusing, Rigoletto hires an assassin to do in the Duke. But the various plots and counterplots become hopelessly tangled when both the naive Gilda and the assassin’s worldly sister fall for the Duke’s superficial charms, and each works, unbeknownst to the other, to redirect the assassin’s blade. The Duke’s Act III canzone, La donna è mobile, is one of Verdi’s most recognizable tunes, and it perfectly demonstrates the Duke’s charming exterior that obscures the underlying contempt he has for others, and most especially for women.
--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, November 18, 2007 (Bella Voce Cabaret)
La traviata: Brindisi
Following Rigoletto, Verdi and Piave scored big again with La traviata (“She Who Strayed”), based on La dame aux Camélias, by Alexandre Dumas, fils (a-lek-SAHN-druh dü-MAH fees, 1824-1895), only “la dame” is apparently holding a different bouquet in Verdi’s adaptation. “Violetta,” a courtesan-with-a-heart-of-gold, sacrifices happiness to save the reputation of her young paramour, “Alfredo,” at the urging of Alfredo’s father (but it’s really more for Alfredo’s sister, who never sings a note). At a party Violetta has thrown to celebrate her (temporary) recovery from a recent illness, Alfredo offers a toast with the Brindisi (“Drinking Song”), having just met Violetta (whom he’s secretly been stalking, uh, admiring from a distance).
--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, November 18, 2007 (Bella Voce Cabaret)
Aida: Ritorna vincitor
In Aida, Verdi tells the tragic tale of the titular Ethiopian princess who has been captured into slavery by the Egyptian army, lead by "Radames," with whom, ironically, she is desparately in love. In her Act I soliloquy, Ritorna vincitor (Return a conqueror), Aida struggles with her breaking heart and impossibly conflicted emotions--her love for Radames on one hand, versus her love for her father and homeland on the other.
CLICK HERE to hear Karita Mattila sing it on YouTube.
--Music @ Main, March 10, 2010: Kimberly Beasley, soprano
Il Trovatore: Tacea la notte placida
In Il Trovatore (The Troubador), Verdi takes a hopelessly tangled plot--fueled by jealousy, hapless coincidence, and a Gypsy's dying curse--and sorts out the melodrama with some of the most magnificent music in all of opera. In the first act cavatina, Tacea la notte placida (Quiet was the peaceful night), "Leonora," a lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Aragon, relates to her maid how she went to a balcony overlooking the moonlit garden to find out who was serenading her, and there discovered and fell passionately in love with Manrico, the same knight in black armor whom she had once crowned victorious in a joust.
CLICK HERE to hear Leontyne Price sing it on YouTube.