Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi (1886) by Giovanni Boldini
In the 1840s, Italian composers Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini commanded full attention on the opera stages of Europe. Giuseppe Verdi was the inheritor of their established traditions. The young composer accepted this gift—and then began to transform it.
In a 5-part series, classical music and opera expert Saul Lilienstein demonstrates how the myriad structural elements of Italian opera evolved under Verdi’s restless musical imagination and his desire to achieve a striking dramatic urgency. Each session is highlighted by audio and video recordings comparing the heritage of the first generation of bel canto masters with the achievements of Giuseppe Verdi, now recognized as the greatest of Italian composers.
October 15 The Aria
Early 19th-century audiences came for the thrill of spectacular solos and for the prima donnas and tenors who delivered them. Verdi would give them plenty of that, but he also carved out a dramatic foundation for these showpieces, creating arias with deeper characterizations. (Excerpts from Norma, La Traviata, La forza del destino, Don Carlos, and other works.)
October 22 Duets of Passion, Duets of Sorrow
Rossini and Donizetti usually avoided overt sexuality in their romantic duets, which are models of formal beauty. In the later years of the century, the opera public craved greater displays of on-stage emotion. In Verdi’s later works, he opens the duet form and turns on the heat. (Excerpts from The Elixir of Love, Rigoletto, A Masked Ball, Otello, and other works.)
October 29 Scenes of Dramatic Confrontation
Bellini was an early master of scenes of heightened drama but Verdi expanded the possibilities with intense confrontations of death-destined rivals, and in trios and quartets where the individuality of each character is maintained even as the music merges them within a shared beauty. (Excerpts from I Puritani, Ernani, Il Trovatore, Aida, and other works.)
November 5 Large Ensembles
No one wrote more beautiful ensembles than Donizetti, and none filled the stage with more joyful crowds than Rossini—but Donizetti’s are dramatically static and Rossini was busy creating intricate games with the music. Verdi always honored the ensemble tradition, but in his maturity the drama continues as the music for grandly massed voices unfolds. (Excerpts from The Barber of Seville, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Otello, and other works.)
November 12 Comedy
Verdi most often deployed comedy judiciously, using it at the beginning of Rigoletto and within A Masked Ball and La Forza del Destino as essential contrasting elements to tragic denouements. Then in his final work, Falstaff, he presented a full, warm-hearted parting gift of joyful humor to his audiences.
5 sessions
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