Verdi

(vér’-dé), (Fortunio) Giuseppe (Fran.), Le Roncole, near Bu eto, Duchy of Parma, Oct. 9, 1813— Milan, Jan. 27, 1901; eminent Italian opera composer. Son of an innkeeper and grocer; pupil, and at ro succe or of the village organist, Baistrocchi, for three years pupil of Provesi at Bu eto; 1831 with the aid of his father’s friend, Barezzi, he went to Milan, where he was refused admi ion to the Cons. by Basili, who thought him lacking in mus. talent. He became a pupil of Lavigna, cembalist, at La Scala; 1833, cond. Philh. Soc., and organist at Bu eto; 1836 m. Barezzi’s daughter Marg her it a. 1839, his opera ‘‘Oberto” was prod. with fair succ. at La Scala, Milan. He was commi ioned by Merelli, the manager to write three operas, one every eight months, at 4,000 lire ($800 or £160) apiece, and half the copyright. The first was a comic opera “Un Giorno di Regno,” which failed (1840), doubtle in part because his two children and wife had died within three months. V.’s combined distre drove him to rescind his agreement and renounce composition for over a year, when he was persuaded by Merelli to set the opera ‘‘ Nabucco” (“Nebuchadrezzar’’), prod. La Scala, 1842, with great applause, the chief réle being taken by Giuseppina Strepponi (Ghigion), whom he m. in 1844. “I Lombardi all a prima Croci at a”’ (La Scala, 1843) was still more succ. and is still played in Italy (in Paris as ‘Jérusalem’’). “Frnani” (Venice, 1844) was prod. on 15 different stages in 9 months. 8 unsucc. works followed, incl. ‘7 due Foscari” (Rome, 1844), ‘‘Macbeth”? (Florence, 1847; revised Paris, 1865), and “I Masnadieri’’ (after Schiller’s ‘‘Robbers’”? London, H. M. Th., 1847). ‘Luisa Muller” (Naples, 1849) was well received and is still sung in Italy. ‘“Stiffelio” (Trieste, 1850); later as “Guglielmo We ling rode”’; also with another li- ‘Arnoldo’ (1857),: three times a failure. ‘“‘Rigoletto,”’ c. in 40 days (Venice) (also given as “‘Viscardello’”’), began a three years’ period of universal succ., it was followed by the world-wide succe es “Tl Trovatore’ (Rome, 1853) and “Ta. Traviata” (Venice Th., 1853; also given as ‘“‘Violet i a’’), a fiasco at first because of a poor cast; “‘Les Vépres Siciliennes’’ (Paris Opéra, 1855; in Italian “J Vespri Siciliant”’; also given as ““Giovanwa di Guzman’’) was fairly succ.; “Simon Boccanegra’”’ (Venice, 1857; succ. revised, Milan, 1881), “Un Ballo in Maschera” (Rome, 1859), “La Forza del Destino” (Petersburg, 1862), and ‘‘Don Carlos” (Paris, Opéra, 1867), made no deep impre ion, though they ‘served as a schooling and marked a gradual broadening from mere Italian lyricism to a substantial harmony and orchestration. ‘‘Aida’’ (written for the Khedive of Egypt) was prod. Cairo,, 1871,, at,,.La Scala; Malan. 1872, and has had everywhere a great succ. The Khedive gave him £3,000 for it. His “‘Manzoni Requiem” (1874) made a sensation in Italy; ‘‘Otello”’ (Milan, 1887) was a work worthy of its composer, and in his last opera “Falstaff,” written at the age of eighty, he showed not only an unimpaired but a progre ive and novel style. He also c. 2 symphs., 6 pf.-concertos, ‘Inno delle Nazioni,” for the London Exhibition (1862), songs, etc. In 1893 he was offered the title “Marchese di Bu eto,”’ but was too democratic to accept it. He lived at his villa Sant’ Agata, near Bu eto. His funeral brought 100,000 witne es, though his will ordered that it should be simple and quiet. He left the bulk of his fortune to found a home for aged and outworn musicians in Milan, where there is also a Verdi museum. a period in which V.’s operas were unfavourably compared with Wagner’s, there has been a marked tendency to rank him as an even superior musical dramatist in some respects. Particularly in Germany, after 1920, a new interest in his works arose, partly as the result of translations and adaptations made by Franz Werfel, who also pub. a novel based on V.’s life. Biog. by Gino Monaldi (in German, trans. by L. Holthof, Leipzig, 1898); Checchi, 1887; Blanche Roosevelt (London, 1887); Crowest (1897); Visetti (1905); Bonavia (1930) and Toye (1931). Other memoirs by Pougin, Hanslick, Prince Valori, Parodi, Perinello, Cavaretta, Ba o, Boni, Colonna, Sorge, Vo , Garibaldi, and _ Bettazzi, d’Angeli, Bellaigue, Lottici, Righetti, Mackenzie, Chop, Roncaglia, and Nei er. (See article, page 538.) Verdonck’, Cornel i us, Turnhout, Belglum, 1563—Antwerp, 1625; composer. Vere-Sapio (vdr-sai’-pi-d), Clementine (Duchéne) de, b. Paris; soprano; daughter of a Belgian nobleman, and an English woman; pupil of Mme. Albert in i-Baucarde, Florence; début there at 16, sang at leading theatres, Europe, later in concert, also in the United States; 1896, she returned to opera; 1899, toured U. S. with an opera troupe of which her husband, Romualdo Sapio, was mgr.; 1900tgor at Metropolitan, N. Y., and Covent Garden.