SIX VERDI OPERAS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 811, 11 February 1955, Page 20

SIX VERDI OPERAS

S°TYERHAPS the most important thing to remember about Giuseppe Verdi," says Francis Toye, "is that he was born a peasant and, in many respects, remained a peasant at heart until the day of his death." His hard life as a boy on the wind-swept plain of Parma may explain, Mr, Toye has suggested, the roughnéss and stubbornness, the practicality and integrity of Verdi’s character. Thé béy whose childhood friend was a broken-down spinet, which meant so much to him that he kept it all his life, was to become Italy’s greatest opera composer, capable in his eightieth year of writing, in Falstaff, a work that has been described as "the most remarkable score of its kind in the world." Verdi’s early operas have not always been highly regarded by critics and musicians, in English-speaking countries at any rate, Even Stanford, who was probably more favourably disposed to Verdi than other British musicians, was slightly patronising in speaking of them. Neverthel interest in’ these early works has become more lively, and one has been chosen to begin a series of six Verdi operas to be broadcast from YC

stations on Sunday nights during the next few months. Ernani, which is to be heard on Sunday, February 27, was produced in 1844, when Verdi was in his early thirties. This opera is of interest for much more than its music. The year before it appeared Verdi had had the first of many disputes with the Austrian censorship, because the Italian public had identified themselves with the aspirations uttered on the stage in his eatlier work ] Lombardi, Verdi was closely associated with the movement for independence which was strong in Italy at this time;. and when Ernani appeared it caused many patriotic demonstrations in the theatre, and the words of one of the choruses were changed into a tribute to Pius IX, then regarded as the man most likely to save and unify Italy. : Verdi’s best remembered quarrel with the censorship occurred over Un Ballo in Maschera, which will follow Rigoletto and II Trovatore in the series of YC broadcasts. The censorship was frightened by an attempt on the life of Napoleon III, and it would have nothing to do with a libretto that portrayed not only assassination but the loose character of a ruling prince. This was the occasion when the people of Naples

took up the fight in support of Verdi, whom they considered a champion of the cause of Italian independence. They placarded the walls with the slogan "Viva VERDI," a seditious acrostic on "Viva Vittoria Emmanuele, Re D’Italia." In the end the censorship was satisfied when the action of the opera was transferred to-of all places-Boston!

Races from his music, Verdi lived a » busy » life . in other aways The peasaaa béy-who came back to-aldveof the country, he bought -farm. which he managed himself, rising at sunrise every marning to attend his crops, garden and horses. The war with Austria in 1859 brought another change in his life, for when the first Italian parliament was elected Cavour asked him to stand as candidate. Because of his high regard for Cavour he consented, was elected, and remained a deputy for about five years. "Far too independent to belong to any party," says’ Francis Toye; "he -disliked» equally the extreme Right and. the extreme Left».His policy as. he. himself confessed, was blindly to follow Cavour, who, in his eyes, could do no wrong." Verdi’s work for Italy, as a musician and a patriot, made him a national hero, and when he died in 1901, aged 87, 200,000 people lined the streets when his body was carried to burial in the oratory of the Musicians’ Home that he had founded, The YC series of Verdi operas will include, besides. the four mentioned, . his last great works Otello. and. Falstaff. The whole of the series will be introduced with a talk by James Robertson, conductor of the National Orchestra, and will be heard from all YC stations at 8.15 p.m. on Sunday, February 20, and repeated on the same link at 8.30 p.m. the following Friday.