Verdi and

the Opera
Giuseppe Verdi and the Italian
Opera

What is Opera?
Shortened word for opera in musica
An opera is generally referred to as a stage presentation or
work that combines music, costumes, and scenery to relay
a story.
Most operas are sung, with no spoken lines.

Different singing styles for

Opera:
Comic Opera
also known as light opera, this type of opera often tackles
light, not so delicate subject matter where the ending often
has a happy resolution. Other forms of this opera are opera
buffa and operetta, to name a few.
Dialogue is often spoken and not sung in a comic opera.
An example of this opera is La serva padrona (The Maid
as Mistress) by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

Different singing styles for

Opera:
Serious Opera
opera seria in Italian
Also referred to as Neopolitan opera mainly due to the
volume of composers who were from Naples who
contributed to this type of opera.
Stories revolves around heroes and myths, emphasis is also
given to the solo voice and bel canto style. Bel canto is
Italian for beautiful singing
Example is Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel

Different singing styles for

Opera:
Opera Semiseria
This type of opera has a serious story but has a happy
ending. This is why some loosely define it as a
combination of the elements of both comic and serious
opera.
Example is La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) by
Gioachino Rossini

Different singing styles for

Opera:
Opera Cornique
Is a type of French opera wherein instead of singing, the
lines are spoken. In its early form, it was satirical but
would later on have serious storylines such as Carmen by
Georges Bizet.

Different singing styles for

Opera:
Grand Opera
Refers to the type of Opera which emerged in Paris during
the 19th century. Its an opera of a larger scale, from the
flamboyant costumes to the choruses; it also include ballet.
An example of this type is Robert le Diable by Giacomo
Meyerbeer.
First known grand opera was La favola dOrfeo (The Fable
of Orpheus that was premiered on 1607.

Different singing styles for

Opera:
Opera Verisimo
realism in Italian
Emerged during the late 19th Century
Character are based on everyday people you may meet in
real life and the plot is often melodramatic.
Example is Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Other facts for Italian Opera

Most operas are written in French, German and Italian.
Euridice by Jacopo Peri is known as the earliest opera
thats been preserved.
Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti were the leading composer
of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the
nineteenth century.

Famous Composers of the

Italian Opera
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792 1868)
29 February 1792
The Italian Mozart
Wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber
music, songs and some instrumental and piano pieces
He had been the most popular opera composer in
history.
Best-known opera include the Italian comedies II
barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, the French
language epics Moise et Pharaon and Guillaume Tell.

Famous Composers of the

Italian Opera
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco
Bellini(1801 1835)
known for his long flowing melodic lines
Named as the Swan of Catania
II pirata received much early recognition than that to
Donizettis thirty opera.
I Capuleti edi Montecchi, La Connambula and his
last masterpiece, I puritani gained Bellini his
significant career.

Famous Composers of the

Italian Opera
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti(1797 1848)
November 29, 1797
Leading composer of the bel canto opera style
Born in Bergamo in Lombardy
Wrote 70 operas
Notable success: Zoraida di Granata and Anna Bolena
Comedies such as Lelisir damore and Don Pasquale
Died April 1848

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 1901)

October 10th 1813
Italian Romantic composer and the greatest
composer of Italian opera
Italys shining star
Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini
After he died, he was mourned as a national
hero
Verdi dominated the Italian opera scene after
the eras of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini.

Journey
First lessons in composition in Busseto
By the age of seven he was an organist at San
Michele Arcangelo, and by 13, assistant conductor
of the Busseto Orchestra.
Age 20, he went to Milan to continue his education.
Milan beaumonde association convinced him to
pursue a career as a theatre composer.
First producation was Oberto, held in Milans La
Scala in November of 1839.
La Scalas impresario offered a contract for three
more works.

Journey
The contract was the start to his illustrious
career in opera.
His second opera, Un giorno di regno, was
considered as a comedy. Premiered on Sept. 5,
1840.
Nabucco, on March 1842, made Verdi famous.
Remarried to Giuseppina Strepponi

Well-known Verdi Opera

(1847 1870)
Macbeth (1847) a revised version of
Shakespeares Macbeth
Rigoletto (1851) first performed at La
Fenice Theatre in Venice
La Traviata (1853) The Woman who Strayed
Aida The First (1871) Christmas Eve, 1871
at the Khedival Opera House in Cairo, Egypt.
His work Aida, is considered as a grand opera
because it was sung.

Well-known Verdi Opera

(1847 1870)
Requiem (1874) - first performed in the
church of San Marco in Milan on 22 May
1874
Otello (1887) inspiration was Shakespeare
Falstoff (1893) final work; hailed as a work
of genius
Verdi worked on revising a couple of his
earlier scores , which became new versions of
La froza del destino, Don Carlos and Simon
Boccanegra.

Contributions
By 182930, Verdi had established himself as a leader of
the Philharmonic
Verdi began in 1859 to take an active interest in Italian
politics
1894 published a song for earthquake victims in Sicily
1895 planning, building and endowing a rest-home for
retired musicians in Milan, and also built a hospital
his librettos, penetrate the soul and profoundly affect the
human psyche. Operas were not written to be marveled for
their technical prowess or how well they stuck to the rules
(though it certainly helps if the opera possesses such
qualities).

Contributions
SPREZZATURA
The Italians have a word for the sense of
dazzling beauty produced by effortless
mastery: "sprezzatura." Perhaps no cultural
form associated with Italy is as steeped in the
love ofsprezzaturaas opera, a genre the
Italians invented. And no artist working in
opera has embodied the ideal ofsprezzaturaas
magnificently as that gruff, self-described
"farmer" from the Po Valley and composer of
28 operas, Giuseppe Verdi (18131901).

In music, like in love, we must be

sincere Giuseppe Verdi