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Giuseppe Verdi

10K views 55 replies 21 participants last post by  ando 
#1 ·
I didn't find a Verdi's Guestbook... Is it right? :confused:

(there are so much pages about composers guestbook that it is possible that I just didn't find it, Then I'm sorry :eek:)

I invite all the Verdi lovers to gather here.
And I'd like to share all my happiness with a great aria singed by a catalan like me.
Thanks Josep Carreras for your work for spread the Verdi's music, moltes gràcies (thank you in catalan)
Here "La mia letizia infondere" (I could instill my gladness) from I Lombardi



:tiphat:

Thanks Verdi, Thanks maestro. Grazie Peppino!

The next year is the 200 years Anniversary from his birth (and Wagner's also). We must to celebrate!!
 
#2 ·
Thank you Hesoos for this thread & for the video, I love this DVD.

Verdi is my absolute favourite composer. For his politics, for his views on religion and, of course, for his music. I cannot imagine my life without his music & in 2010 I visited Milan and paid my respects at his tomb.





And it is because of Josep Carreras that I found opera & through him my love of Verdi. I knew nothing about opera until I read about this singer who had won his battle against leukaemia. His Foundation inspired me & I bought one of his CDs to 'help with the fundraising' ... and here I am today, a passionate opera fan!

I have visited the Foundation offices in Barcelona and this year I went to Seattle to see Attila & while I was there, I visited the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre where Carreras had his life saving bone marrow transplant.

 
#3 ·
How interesting!!
I've been to Milan once, but I didn't have much time to visit his tomb, what a pity.:cry:, I've visited the museum of La Scala anyway.
In the futur I'll go to Busseto and Le Roncole, I'd like to visit his House Museum (I have heard that there lives a ghost :eek:)
I didn't know that Carreras was in Seattle. Carreras is for me my best fellow countryman, as a person and as an artist.
 
#11 · (Edited)
And there is no reason for it. It's not even entirely 'light.' One just has to listen. Also, how can a composer who produced several operas of the caliber of Bizet's Carmen(one of the greatest of all time, and one to sway those who don't even like opera, yes Verdi wrote several 'like it'), and many more not significantly behind, not have any attention paid to his music on a classical music forum?
 
#12 ·
And there is no reason for it. It's not even entirely 'light.' One just has to listen. Also, how can a composer who produced several operas of the caliber of Bizet's Carmen(one of the greatest of all time, and one to sway those who don't even like opera, yes Verdi wrote several 'like it'), and many more not significantly behind, not have any attention paid to his music on a classical music forum?
I am with you all the way, I do have all his 'works, multi pull times ans I am not ashamed to say it .
 
#27 · (Edited)
Oh my god....that is hilarious! I'm going to have to quote this out of context here:

"I must confess that time has not tempered the murderous violence of my feelings, or cause me to change the strong views I hold on this subject. Not that I now desire to impale anyone on a red-hot stake, or that I would blow up the Theatre-Italien, even if the mine were laid and the match ready to my hand; but I echo Ingres' words with all my heart and soul when I hear him speak of some of Rossini's music as "the work of an underbred man."

Berlioz...too much! Typical of him to have such strong feelings about an artistic subject as to have violent fantasies about it.
 
#35 ·
I, too, love Verdi. In the last couple weeks, I've purchased several works of his that I hadn't previously heard. Ernani, I Lombardi, Jerusalem, Nabucco and Simon Boccanagra. I've only listened to Jerusalem completely through. Of course, my intent was to listen to all of them, but I've been obsessed with Trovatore again, because that is my favorite Verdi, followed by La Traviata. I have to say, I'm not too much a fan of Aida. It's beautiful, but I think I prefer earlier Verdi, which gives me hope for those purchases I haven't yet listened to. It will be interesting to see how close I Lombardi is to Jerusalem. I've listened to the beginning of Simon. It is stunningly beautiful, but does it ever get exciting? What do you all like the best?
 
#47 ·
An amusing Verdi story I got in the e-mail today.
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Is the customer always right? Apparently Giuseppe Verdi thought so – to a degree, at least. On today’s date in 1872, Verdi sent a note to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, with an attached letter he had received from a disgruntled customer, a certain Prospero Bertani, who had attended not one, but two performances of Verdi’s then brand new opera, “Aida.”

“I admired the scenery,” wrote Bertani, “I listened with pleasure to the excellent singers, and took pains to let nothing escape me. After it was over, I asked myself whether I was satisfied. The answer was ‘no’.” Since everyone else seemed to think “Aida” was terrific, Bertani attended a second performance to make sure he wasn’t mistaken, and concluded: “The opera contains absolutely nothing thrilling or electrifying. If it were not for the magnificent scenery, the audience would not sit through it. It will fill the theatre a few more times and then gather dust in the archives.”

Bertini itemized his expenses for tickets, train fare, and meals, and asked Verdi for reimbursement. Verdi was so amused that he instructed Ricordi to pay Bertani – but not the full amount, since, as Verdi put it: “…to pay for his dinner too? No! He could very well have eaten at home!” Verdi asked for a signed statement that (quote) “Bertani promises never again to go to hear my new operas, to avoid for himself the danger of other specters and for me the farce of paying him for another trip.”
 
#52 ·
An amusing Verdi story I got in the e-mail today.
----------------------------------
Is the customer always right? Apparently Giuseppe Verdi thought so - to a degree, at least. On today's date in 1872, Verdi sent a note to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, with an attached letter he had received from a disgruntled customer, a certain Prospero Bertani, who had attended not one, but two performances of Verdi's then brand new opera, "Aida."

"I admired the scenery," wrote Bertani, "I listened with pleasure to the excellent singers, and took pains to let nothing escape me. After it was over, I asked myself whether I was satisfied. The answer was 'no'." Since everyone else seemed to think "Aida" was terrific, Bertani attended a second performance to make sure he wasn't mistaken, and concluded: "The opera contains absolutely nothing thrilling or electrifying. If it were not for the magnificent scenery, the audience would not sit through it. It will fill the theatre a few more times and then gather dust in the archives."

Bertini itemized his expenses for tickets, train fare, and meals, and asked Verdi for reimbursement. Verdi was so amused that he instructed Ricordi to pay Bertani - but not the full amount, since, as Verdi put it: "…to pay for his dinner too? No! He could very well have eaten at home!" Verdi asked for a signed statement that (quote) "Bertani promises never again to go to hear my new operas, to avoid for himself the danger of other specters and for me the farce of paying him for another trip."
Amazing how wrong these untalented people can be! :lol:
 
#53 ·
My introduction to opera as a lad was Verdi's Rigoletto conducted by Solti. It cost me a small fortune in those days £4 because I only earned about £1.5 a week serving behind the record counter. I must confess I bought it because it was on only two LPs and was all I could afford and I played it and played it. Had a lovely booklet too and I fell in love with Anna Moffo! Heartbroken when she died at end! Still have the recording and love it in spite of Solti's somewhat brusque treatment of the score. To me Verdi speaks to the heart like no other opera composer apart from Mozart.



Just say with Toscanini: Viva Verdi!
 
#54 ·
For many long years I have avoided the world of Italian opera (not talking about the language here, but geographical region. I love Haydn's and Mozart's operas very much!) almost completely - save for a single Turandot I saw on the stage here in Helsinki some years ago, plus some others I've seen on DVD. I just never felt any connection with that repertoire for some reason. Now, though, I have been studying Italian for almost two years, and I feel like it's time to fill one of the biggest, gaping gaps in my classical music knowledge. Verdi seemed like an obvious place to start my journey. I've listened to Un ballo in maschera and Falstaff so far, and will try to go through all of his operas. I can do this!
 
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