to the departing glory of the old Italian opera, but clearly led the way toward the new era of to-day in which fresh creators are finding their place.
Giuseppe Verdi (d. 1901) was born in 1813 (a few months after Wagner)
near Busseto (Parma) in an innkeeper's family. At 7 his musical tendencies
became marked, at 10 he acted as village-organist, at 12 had lessons from
Provesi, the leader of the musical society
at Busseto, at 16 was enabled by
the merchant Barezzi (later his father-in-law)
to begin serious study at Milan,
though not accepted at the conservatory,
and at 20 succeeded Provesi at
Busseto, where he married. He was
composing in various forms, especially
church music and piano-pieces. In
1838, with his first opera, Oberto, complete,
he moved to Milan, where the
work was given at La Scala with such
success that three more operas were
contracted for by the manager Merelli.
While working on the first of these, the
comic Un giorno di regno (1840), his
wife and two children suddenly died, a
bitter bereavement which, with the failure
of the opera, utterly discouraged him.
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Giuseppe Verdi
Merelli, however, finally induced him to undertake Nabucco (1842) and I Lombardi (1843), which were decided successes. The second had so strong a patriotic flavor that the Austrian police forced a change in the plot of the fine Ernani (1844, Venice), lest it should provoke an insurrection. These works established his Italian reputation, and were followed (till 1850) by 10 other works at various theatres. All were written in the prevalent style, though with many evidences of independent force, especially in Attila (1846, Venice) and Luisa Miller (1849, Naples). During this period he spent a brief time at London and Paris, producing one work in each city and receiving invaluable impressions from other styles.
The results of these stimuli came out in Rigoletto (1851, Venice), Il trovatore (1853, Rome) and La traviata (1853, Venice), which soon brought him international fame. To these succeeded at intervals 7-8 works which for sundry reasons did not win great applause, except Un ballo in maschera (1859, Rome) and Don Carlos (1867, Paris). In general, they continued to exemplify the usual Italian type, but they were executed by one who had at command a limitless fund of spirit, technical ingenuity, and sense of form and color. From about 1860 there were signs of a new desire to emphasize richness of instrumentation and weld details into a powerful unity of effect.
Verdi's third manner is often called an imitation of Wagner, but it was rather the organic growth in an Italian artist induced by the study of a far richer style than his own. Though nearly 60 years old, Verdi now began a
