Chapter 40 Verdi

CHAPTER 40
Multimedia Hits: Verdi and
Italian Romantic Opera
Copyright © 2020 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Earlier Opera vs. Romantic Operation
• Before 1800
• A series of songs (arias
and duets)
• Thin plot lines
• Choruses and
instrumental music are
fillers, introductions, or
interludes
• During arias, action stops
• After 1800
• Performers act as
characters in a tightly
knit plot
• Choruses and
instrumental music
integral to story
• Opera showcases not
only musical brilliance
but grand spectacle of
drama

Romantic Opera: Background Information
• Opera was “grand.”
• Musical and “extra-musical” ideas of Romanticism could be expressed fully.
• The libretto, staging, acting, costumes, sets, and characters added to the
expression of the instrumental music.
• Audiences loved the spectacle.
• Opera performers were “stars.”

Some Important Romantic Composers of
Opera
• Italian
• Donizetti--operas in -
Italian and French
• Bellini--operas in Italian
and French
• Rossini--operas in Italian
and French, The Barber
of Seville, William Tell
• Verdi--an innovator in
Italian opera
• Puccini--settings in
foreign lands
• German
• von Weber--stage effects
and mysticism
• Wagner--music dramas
• French
• Offenbach--French comic
opera style, operettas
• Bizet--cool reviews by
audiences and critics, but
later acclaimed

Subjects of Typical Romantic Operas
• Beethoven--Fidelio--heroism,
love, death
• Von Weber--Der Freishcültz--
magic, supernatural,
mysterious
• Verdi--La Traviata--love,
death, beauty
• Wagner--Die Walküre--hero,
supernatural, love
• Bizet--Carmen--common
man, love, death, exotic
cultures
• Puccini--Madama Butterfly
and Turandot--distant lands,
travel, exotic cultures, love,
death

• Figaro
The Barber of Seville

Italian Romantic Opera: Characteristics
• Italian = dominant language
• Bel canto style continues
• Opposing genres of opera seria and opera buffa still prevalent in Italy
• Verdi’s innovations--typical of period
• Sought to develop national style
• High quality librettos; arias grew out of plot and blended with action
• Plot and staging discouraged interruptions of mood and story for
applause
• Human, believable characters
• Instrumental passages integral to mood, highly expressive; not just
fillers

Carmen, “Habanera”
• Singing Grapefruit

Copyright © 2020, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Nineteenth-Century Opera Saturated Culture
I. Nineteenth-Century Opera Saturated Culture
A. Distinct national styles: Italy, Germany, France
1. opera arrangements marketed
a. home: piano four-hands, voice and guitar
b. public: wind band medleys
c. music became economically and socially popular
d. emotional reinforcement to political messages

After the Romanticism of Bellini
and others, Italian opera entered a
“realistic”(verismo) phase, with
true to life individuals and true
emotions expressed
Strong emotional situations, speed
of action, and contrast with plenty
of opportunity for exciting, lusty,
ferocious melodies and rhythms
Verismo

A typical plot involves:
X(soprano) and Y(tenor) have a
project in common. They may
or may not achieve it in the fact
of Z(mezzo or bass antagonist).
Paternal or maternal type(W)
may help or interfere. X and Y
are forced to make a moral
choice which usually causes
their downfall.
Verismo

Women and Nineteenth-Century Opera, Part 3

Verdi and Italian Opera, Part 1
III. Verdi and Italian Opera
A. Opera seria and opera buffa: continued into nineteenth
century
1. bel canto style (beautiful singing)
a. florid melodic lines, great agility, purity of tone
b. masterpieces by Gioachino Rossini
B. Giuseppi Verdi (1813–1901)
1. Italian opera composer
2. tragic loss of daughter, baby son, and wife (1838–40)

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Born in Busseto, Italy, where he studied music until age 18.
Couldn’t play piano well enough to study at Milan
Conservatory, so studied privately.
Composed more than 25 operas, many for Milan’s famous
opera house, La Scala.
Was also a politician--appointed to Italian parliament and
elected to the senate.
Established a home for retired opera singers.

Guiseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Verdi lived in an unmarried relationship with a woman; this is
reflected in the story of La Traviata (Pretty Woman).
Verdi sought to reform cultural and political conventions through
his art and his activities.
Advocated for the unification of Italy.
Elected to the newly constituted Italian parliament in 1860.
Other important compositions
Operas Il Travatore, Rigoletto, Aïda, Otello, Falstaff
Requiem--a Mass for the Dead

3. later married Giuseppina Strepponi, Italian operatic
soprano
4. composed during Italian liberation from Austrian
Hapsburg rule
a. figurehead for Italian unification movement
b. music associated with patriot cause, national hero
c. served one term in Italian Senate
5. Shakespeare: favorite literary source
6. music marketed, commercially successful
7. founded Casa Verdi (home for aged musicians), left
fortune to the home

8. style: appealing melodies, intense dramatic situations
9. output: 28 operas spanning entire career, vocal music,
Requiem Mass
C. Rigoletto
1. inspired by French Romantic play by Victor Hugo
2. profound emotion: lechery, deceit, treachery
3. setting: Renaissance-era ducal court at Mantua
4. main characters:
a. Duke, tenor: womanizer
b. Rigoletto, baritone: hunchback jester

Victor Hugo’s The King Is
Amused (Le roi s’amuse)
Libretto by Francesco Piave
Seduction and deceit, with a
tragic end
Popular moment from Act III:
tenor aria, “La donna è
mobile”
Duke’s aria, expresses
pleasure-seeking
personality
Knew it would be popular,
waited until opening night
to rehearse it
Verdi: Rigoletto

c. Gilda, soprano: Rigoletto’s daughter, kept in
seclusion
d. Sparafucile, bass: assassin
e. Maddalena, contralto: Sparafucile’s sister
5. plot summary:
a. curse put on Rigoletto for making light of the
Duke’s seductions
b. Gilda becomes the Duke’s next conquest
c. Rigoletto plots to kill the Duke

d. the Duke woos Maddalena
e. Duke’s immorality revealed to Gilda
f. Gilda sacrifices herself for the Duke
g. Gilda dies in her father’s arms: fulfillment of the
curse
6. immediate success; one of most performed operas today

D. Listening Guide 29: Verdi: Rigoletto, Act III, excerpts (1851)
1. Aria: “La donna è mobile” (“Woman is fickle”), sung by
the Duke
a. strophic aria with refrain
b. lilting triple-meter, “oom-pah-pah”
accompaniment, some rubato
c. orchestra: guitarlike strumming
d. soaring tenor line

2. Quartet (first part): “Un dì,” (“One day”), sung by the
Duke, Maddalena, Gilda, Rigoletto
a. Allegro, agitated movement
b. each character reveals his/her emotion
i. Duke: bel canto-style melody
ii. Maddalena: laughing line, short notes
iii. Gilda: heartbroken, laments
iv. Rigoletto: swears vengeance for his
daughter

3. Quartet (second part): “Bella figlia” (“Beautiful
daughter”)
a. A–B–A′–C, plus coda
b. opening melody sung by the Duke
c. simpler, squarer melody
d. characters interact, then sing together

• Un di and Bella figlia
Un dì & Bella figlia
La donna e mobile
Rigoletto

Verdi’s Requiem (Mass for the Dead)
Monumental work, appropriate for stage
Performing forces: large chorus, orchestra, and soloists
Intersection between opera and sacred tradition: controversial
to the Catholic Church
1868, began as tribute to Gioachino Rossini

Completed after death of Alessandro Manzoli (revered poet
and humanist)
1874 premiere, one-year anniversary of Manzoni’s death
Instant popularity
across Europe
Verdi’s Requiem (Mass for the Dead)

“Dies irae”
Dies Irae

Ensemble Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century
Ensemble and choral vocal music grew in
popularity
social singing and concert performance
secular ensemble song
• one-to-three singers to a part
• influenced American “barbershop quartet”
• part songs: secular choral pieces, three or four parts
Large-scale choral genres
mostly sacred: Mass, oratorio
moved to concert hall

Romantic Composers of Choral Music
Schubert
Berlioz
Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn
Clara and Robert Schumann
Liszt
Verdi
Brahms

Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Chapter 40: Multimedia Hits:
Verdi and Italian Romantic Opera”
For more resources, please visit https://digital.wwnorton.com/enjmusic4ess

Chapter 40 Verdi

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