VERDI

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 September 1928, Page 10

VERDI

HIS PRODUCTIVE CAREER.

No name in modern Italy is more honoured than that of Guiseppe Verdi, the delineator of every national aspiration, hope, and fear in popular drama and song. Beloved of the people, admired and respected by the keenest critics, his work is a monument to labour, patriotism and art. Roncolo, a little village near Busseto, in the province of Parma, gave birth to this untiring genius on October 10, 1813. His father, a man of integrity, keptian inn and a little shop where he sold sugar, coffee, matches, tobacco, spirits and clay pipes. The future greatness of the youngster was only gradually revealed. Guiseppe, an obedient child, neglected amusement. The one thing which excitcl him was the itinerant organ-man. Him he would follow as far as his little legs colud carry him. The first to draw attention to his musical proclivities was one of these journeying musicians a violinist named Bagasset, with whom the boy had struck up an acquaintance. Long after, Verdi, then the greatest musician in the land, comforted the fiddler in his last days. A further sign of musical tendencies is found in an inscription in the boy’s spinet, which he used from the age of eight, and kept in his possession to ’the end of his life. The repairer of the instrument, on finishing .h’is work, wrote on one of the jacks: “This I do gratis in consideration of the good disposition the boy Guiseppe Verdi shows on learning to play on the instrument, which quite satisfies me for any trouble.”

The future operatic writer experienced one or two little dramas jn his youth sustaining the principal role himself that must have prepared him for sympathetic consideration of the really tragic scenes actually lived through, as well as written up, in his greater works. Discovering a complete concord on his spinet, he failed to pick it out on the following day. Vexed and disappointed in his childish rage he proceeded to demolish the instrument with a hammer. His father came upon the scene, and in the interest of the spinet, as a thing of value, delivered his son a severe blow on the head that doubtless threw his nervous system into a state of acute vibration, to be followed by reaction later on.

On another occasion the moody Giuseppe became preoccupied with the music of the Mass at which he was assisting as server. Failing to respond to the priest’s repeated requests for water at the Ablutions, he was kicked off the steps of the altar, fell headlong to the floor, and was carried unconscious into the sacristy. Then returning home one dark night, the lad lost his way, and stumbled into a ditch of water. A peasant woman, hearing his cries, rescued him, and in all probability saved for Italy one whose name was to be inscribed upon her scroll of fame.

The village school master disposed of the whole of his knowledge of music to the infant Verdi, who, from his fifth to his eighth year, was under his care. Helped by discerning friends, he advanced his studies by assisting the cathedral organist, Provesi, at Barezzi, playing several instruments skilfully, and attending the rehearsals of the local societies. At the age of sixteen he felt dissatisfied with his provincial life. Talent was displayed in his extempore playing, and his friends brought his case before a society founded to offer facilities for study in music, science, art, and law. Verdi was thus able to proceed to Milan, the' first musical centre of the day, where, after being ignored by the Conservatoire, he studied with the composer Lavigna, maturing his powers very considerably.

A Triple Misfortune.

At the age of 23, Verdi married Barezzi’s daughter, but in a very few years terrible misfortunes crowded upon him First his infant child fell ill and died. A few days later his other child was taken ill with fatal results. Then his young wife followed, and in little ■over two months three persons so very dear to the composer; disappeared from him for ever. In the midst of such trials the fates decrefed that Verdi should fulfil an engagement to produce a comic opera; Who can wonder that his work failed dismally? In his early years Verdi passed through vicissitudes common to men and struggling artists. He had gained considerable experience as a composer of opera before attaining the reputation based on the works of his middle period. The first great success came with “Rigoletto,” in 1851. After more than 60 years this work has a considerable vogue, and will certainly be heard a good while to come. Two years later came “11 Trovatore” and “La Traviata,” works which attained such phenomenal success that their chief melodies became the rage, and all other Italian music was lost sight of altogether. During the first twenty years of his career, Verdi produced no fewer than twenty-three operas; in the following twenty-seven years, only three. But, to the musician, what enormous advance he made in “Aida,” “Othello” and “Falstaff.” Verdi’s progressive development is one of the outstanding features of his career. The essentially popular style of his early works gave place to a style governed by an intellectual energy that kept his emotional nature within artistic bounds. His plots are developed with an eye to organic cohesion, his arias cease to be unduly florid, that they might not detract from the development of r the situations and scenes. His orchestration loses its primitive obviousness, to become expressive of hidden moods. “Falstaff” was written when Verdi was SO. “This is by last work, and ■ I am writing it to amuse myself,” he wrote. The work produced an unparalleled sensation on its production at La Scala in 1893. Thirty times the “Pride of Italy” was called to the curtain at the close of the performance. In this crowning moment of triumph Verdi remained the same unassuming gentleman he had always been. There was no pride in this great man, except that which he took in good works. He lived quietly, hidden from the glare of the footlights on his farm, his great hobby. He received visitors courteously, but declined to be lionised. He would not be “drawn out” for opinions on music. He loved art, but he loved simplicity, too. He was modest in thought and in mien. Secret benevolence he not only harboured in this mind, but he created definite schemes, now in full working order, for the relief of the poor, the suffering and the aged. His Home of Rest for aged musicians Who are not possessed of means supports one hundred residents.

The eagerness with which Verdi’s airs were received by the Italian people is well illustrated in the story of “La donna e mobile,” in “Rigolettb.” Verdi took precautions to prevent the

melody • becoming known before the first performance. The composer knew he had invented a tune, as he had done so often before, that would travel the length and breadth of the land. At the rehearsals, when it came to this aria, he said to the tenoi, “It is air - right, we shall have the music (which he held in reserve) in plenty of time.” Two days before the opening night he handed out “La donna” and extracted a promise from the singer that he would not sing it anywhere but in his own house, nor hum a bar of it, nor even whistle one single note before the final leheaisal. The famous air, kept a close secret, travelled like wildfire on its release, and was all over Venice in twenty-four hours.