VERDI, GIUSEPPE. — Musician, born at Le Roncole near Busseto (Parma) on 10 Oct. 1813, died in Milan on 27 Jan. 1901.
He received his first musical instruction from the village organist, Baistrocchi, whom at the age of twelve he was already able to replace competently at the organ. To indulge his passion for music, his parents sent him at the age of ten to Busseto, where a friend of the family, A. Barezzi, took him under his wing and helped him; there the young Giuseppe, though continuing to return on feast days to Le Roncole to play the organ in church and thus assist his family, studied music with zeal under Canon F. Provesi and Latin under Canon Selleti. Having failed the entrance examination for the Milan Conservatory, he continued his studies privately with Maestro V. Lavigna, devoting himself to frequenting the opera, transcribing pieces for the band, and conducting orchestral performances (among which should be noted that of Haydn’s oratorio *The Creation*). In 1836 he obtained the post of municipal and Monte di Pietà music master in Busseto, where he composed his first opera, *Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio*. Within two years he lost both his children and his wife, suffering profound despondency, but his strong spirit recovered and with *Nabucco* (inspired by the pages of the Bible, whose reading from his youth had stirred his soul with strong emotions) he began his true and glorious theatrical career.
In his long and industrious life he divided his time between Milan (1839–42), Florence, London, Paris, Rome, Busseto, Genoa, and the Villa of Sant’Agata (at Villanova d’Arda, near Busseto). Shortly after the death of his second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi (1897), while in Milan to spend the Christmas holidays, he died of a stroke. In addition to his vast and immortal operatic output, embracing some thirty masterpieces from *Oberto* (1839) to *Falstaff* (1893), in which—even when the subject is not religious (as in *Nabucco*, *I Lombardi*, *Giovanna d’Arco*)—there are passages of fervent religious fervor, such as the *Ave Maria* from *La forza del destino* and others, one should recall his sacred compositions, which, though not of a liturgical character, express the yearning of his faith. Foremost among these is the *Messa da Requiem*, written in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, a work noted for its psychological indeterminacy and moving accents of humanity. Alongside the occasional rigidity of form and the overly realistic search for dramatically expressive effects, heightened by the use of wind instruments, there is nonetheless a fluent melodic vein, the sweetness of the invocations, and the tragic depiction of the drama of judgment.
After this monumental work, his lesser sacred compositions may seem weaker, perhaps cold and somewhat mannered: the *Pater Noster*, on Dante’s text, for two sopranos, contralto, tenor, and bass, the *Ave Maria*, also on Dante’s paraphrase, for soprano and strings, both performed at La Scala in 1880; the *Stabat Mater*, for four-part choir and orchestra, performed at the Paris Opera on 7 Apr. 1877. With the *Stabat Mater* were performed the *Ave Maria* in enigmatic harmonic scale, for four voices, the *Laudi alla Vergine Maria* on texts from the last canto of Dante’s *Paradiso*, for four unaccompanied voices, and a *Te Deum* on an Ambrosian theme, for double choir and orchestra, all performed at the Paris Opera in 1898. The collection was printed under the title *Quattro pezzi sacri*.
Among his occasional compositions, it is worth recalling one of his last pages, the prayer *Pietà, Signor*, written for a single issue to benefit the victims of the earthquake that on 16 Nov. 1894 had devastated Calabria and Sicily. A student of the great masters of the past, especially Palestrina, he used to say... “to me it seems that the art of Palestrina and Marcello is also a great art... and it is ours.” “This is the beautiful, Christian art of the age of Palestrina... the true prince of sacred music and the eternal father of Italian music.” “Let us return to the ancients: it will be progress!” (v. R. Casimiri: *G. V. e gli ideali eclettici*, in *Boll. Ceciliano*, 10 [1916], pp. 81–94).