OPERA FOR THE PEOPLE
VERDI: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC, by Carlo Gatti, translated from the Italian by Elisabeth Abbott; Victor Gollancz, English price 21/-. "HE chapter headings of Carlo Gatti’s biography of Verdi are almost all the titles of his operas. And that is as it should be, for opera, its composition and its production, was the life of Giuseppe Verdi. From the first performance of Oberto in 1839, when the composer was twenty-six, to his’ masterpiece Falstaff, given at Milan 54 years later, Verdi lived feverishly from one opera to another. There were brief respites for a string quartet, the Requiem and a few other odds and ends of music, but these were eddies in the main stream that took along with it even Verdi’s private life. Twelve operas in seven years and sometimes several in a year represents an’ astonishing output. Obviously this was no ivory tower, art for art’s sake approach to music. This was Verdi’s profession. To make a success of it, he not only brought to the composition of every work the full battery of his musicianship, but he kept his finger firmly on the pulse of the Italian public. He wrote in a_ special sense for the people, an Italian citizen for his compatriots. ‘ Tumultous acclaim, equally vehement criticism, intrigues, quarrels, a passionate enthusiasm anticipating every new opera-to the New Zealander for whom obdera is no more than an exciting episode- once or twice in a decade, Verdi's world is an almost incredible one. Gatti’s book is a biography. It makes no musical analysis of the operas. But it is so well documented that it must stand as the authoritative life of Verdi. From it emerges one of the really great musical figures of the 19th century.
O.
J.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560420.2.22.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 872, 20 April 1956, Page 13
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296OPERA FOR THE PEOPLE New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 872, 20 April 1956, Page 13
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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