| Summary: | A collection of writings, biographical material and correspondence of Verdi, mingled with numerous photos - some in color, some black & white, and many drawings. In preparing this volume, the author drew upon many previous biographies and studies of Verdi.
"From birth certificate to burial ode, Italy's greatest operatic composer is seen here both as he saw himself and as others saw him. The man and his time take shape in over three hundred illustrations of people, places, documents and stage productions, and in over five hundred contemporary texts. Verdi was an outspoken man, and his letters do not mince words. They display aspects of his character which are not part of the 'official' image: his capacity for harboring resentments for years; his ability to make friends and--even more quickly and easily--enemies; his love of secrecy. At the same time, his generosity (about which he was also secretive) was equaled by his loyalty to those who helped him. This powerful and complex character is surrounded by a vivid cast of supporting players, all revealed through their own words: his beloved father-in-law and benefactor Antonio Barezzi, his endearing pupil Emanuele Muzio, his warm-hearted and intelligent wife Giuseppina Strepponi, his superbly tactful collaborator Arrigo Boito, and a host of envious, adoring, petulant or delinquent singers, librettists, impresarios, critics and fellow-musicians. Even famous historical figures have walk-on parts, among them Cavour, Mazzini and Queen Victoria. In the chronicle of that crowded and turbulent lifetime, from 1813 to 1901, many legends fade. In their place a more human, but no less likable, Verdi emerges; and as his career unfolds, from Oberto to Falstaff, the extraordinary world of nineteenth-century opera comes to life as the background to his music. There have been many excellent biographies of Verdi; but none, even in Italy, has set the composer's life before the reader with such a combined wealth of written and visual documentation. This has been selected, marshaled and set in context by William Weaver, who is Italian opera correspondent to the London Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune and a leading writer and broadcaster on the history of opera; he is also one of the most distinguished living translators of Italian into English."--Dust jacket.
|
|---|