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step into this link and hear to , MILAN, Italy -- Italy is gearing up for festivities to mark the centenary of the death of a national icon, opera composer Giuseppe Verdi.
Verdi has always held a special place in the hearts of Italians, bucking the theory that the true greats were Such was his popularity that when he lay dying in Milan, aged 87, people laid matting on the street outside so the maestro would not be disturbed by traffic rolling past. When his body was taken to the Rest Home for Musicians a month after his death, the procession became a state ceremony. The streets of Milan were draped in black and crowded with an incredible 200,000 mourners. Verdi's body was sent on its way by an 800-strong choir singing a chorus from the composer's opera "Nabucco" led by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. In Milan, where Verdi spent much of his working life, the whole opera season will be devoted to the maestro with performances 11 of his operas. Verdi was quite a clever guy- and stichted already by life-time on his own legend. He pretended to be of poor parents- he was not at all. Italy's most famous composer, one who is admired the world over, was born the son of Carlo, a modest village innkeeper, and Luigia Uttini, during the final years of Napoleonic , domination: in fact, his original birth certificate is in French. His strong musical inclinations were evident from an early age, and his first music teacher was Pietro Baistrocchi, the organist at the church in Roncole. He practised on a little spinet and helped his parents in their shop, a modest village inn. At the age of ten he went to the larger town of Busseto where the cultural setting was more favourable for his education: he was helped by Antonio Barezzi, a merchant and passionate lover of music, and Ferdinando Provesi from Parma, an expert music teacher; the canon Antonio Seletti taught him Latin. From 1832 to 1835 he studied in Milan with a bursary from the Monte di Pietà of Busseto and financial help from Barezzi, who the year following his return, gave him the hand of his daughter Margherita in matrimony. She died suddendly in 1840. Since Verdi had not passed the admission examinations for the Conservatory, he studied privately with Vincenzo Lavigna. When Provesi died in 1833, Verdi hoped to take over his post, but the bickering between the partisans of the clergy and the Filarmonici headed by Barezzi retarded his nomination as Maestro of the town's music school until 1836, a post he gave up in 1838 when he moved with his family to Milan. Here, the following year he presented his first opera at the Scala Theatre, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, an encouraging success. There are strains of an operatic duet in his love life. After living together for 12 years -- rare in the mid-19th Century -- Giuseppe married his lover Giuseppina Strepponi in 1859. The composer and singer lived happily together until Giuseppina died in 1897. Verdi not only blazed a musical trail but his name also
became bound up in the 19th Century struggle for Italian national unity and independence, known as the Risorgimento. During this period, which culminated in the establishment of an Italian kingdom in 1861 under King Vittorio Emmanuele, "Viva Verdi" became a rallying cry scrawled on walls -- his name crafted into the acronym: "Viva V-ittorio E-mmanuele, R-e D-'I-talia" -- "Long Live Vittorio Emmanuele, King of Italy!" Verdi, who looked quite the statesman with wavy hair often tucked under a top hat and an immaculately trimmed beard, commanded respect wherever he went. He even flirted with politics himself, persuaded to serve as a deputy for four years in the 1860s in a break from composing. "Verdi's music lives on in his operas, whose humanity, strength, vibrant melody and dramatic truth are more appreciated than ever in an age in which these qualities are so sadly lacking," wrote Charles Osborne, a leading British Verdi scholar. Other events are also giving themselves over to Verdi, include Verona's famed summer opera festival, where the march of "Aida" looks so much more triumphal for being performed in a pink marble Roman amphitheatreis operas still hold a place in the hearts of people the world over, be they conductors, critics or construction workers.
If you have time and money: TAKE THE BEST RESERVATION FOR VERDI YOU CAN GET, RESERVE AN OVERWHELMING NIGHT AT VERONA: http://www.arena-verona.com/ (ONLINE RESRVATION WITH HOTEL, INCLUSIVE)
°°°Elton John's 'Aida': 'It's very camp'http://rick.stanford.edu/opera/Verdi/main.html ~ The classic play "Aida" is getting a '90s kick, courtesy of Elton John It is "Aida" as you've never seen it before. Verdi's operatic tale of a love triangle between the would-be leader of ancient Egypt, the daughter of a pharaoh and an enslaved Nubian princess has been updated courtesy of Elton John and Tim Rice. http://disney.go.com/disneyonbroadway/aida/index.htm AN "AHA"- FOR VERDI IF HE COULD COME BACK:
MACBETH
Verdi special for real fans:
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Verdi fever strikes Italy -- 100 years on
Verdi, who fought his way to musical fame and fortune from humble beginnings in northern Italy, died
on January 27, 1901, and his compatriots are preparing to celebrate the centenary in style. From Milan's world-renowned
La Scala opera house to the small village of Le Roncole where Verdi was born, the year will be full of homage to
the composer of such favourites as "La Traviata," "Rigoletto" and "Aida."
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