It contains some fine music, but suffers from the composer's perhaps unconscious attempt to adopt the grandiose manner of French opera. He wrote Les Vêpres Siciliennes, a work which though temporarily successful has not retained its popularity. In 1855 he received a commission to write an opera for the Paris Opera, to be produced during the Universal Exhibition. The popularity of Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata was enormous, and consolidated Verdi's fame outside the frontiers of Italy. His development had been steady though gradual, and it is only necessary to compare the treatment of voice and orchestra in Rigoletto with that in Ernani to realize how quickly his talent had developed during these seven years. In these works Verdi reached the culminating point of what may be called his second manner. In 1851 Verdi won one of the greatest triumphs of his career with Rigoletto, a triumph which was fully sustained by the production two years later of Il Trovatore and La Traviata. Not the presence of the composer, who travelled to England to conduct the first performance, nor the genius of Jenny Lind, who sang the part of the heroine, could redeem it from failure. It was unfortunate that I Masnadieri, which was written for the English stage and produced under Lumley's management at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1847, should have been one of the worst of the many bad works which Verdi composed at this period of his career. In Luisa Miller (1849) also there is a noticeable increase of refinement in style, which contrasts favorably with the melodramatic vulgarity of his earlier manner.

In Macbeth (1847) there are passages of some power, and passages too which indicate an approaching transition to a less conventional method of expression. For several years after the production of Ernani he wrote nothing which has survived to our time - nothing which deserved to survive. With Ernani Verdi became the most popular composer in Europe, and the incessant demands made upon him reacted upon his style. The success of Nabucodonosor was surpassed by that of its two successors, I Lombardi (1843) and Ernani (1844), the latter of which was the first of Verdi's operas to find its way to England. The poem took his fancy, in a short time the music was written, and in 1842 the production of Nabucodonosor placed Verdi in the front rank of living Italian composers.

He kept his word for a year, but was then persuaded by Merelli, the impresario of La Scala, to look at a libretto by Solera. Un Giorno di Regno was a complete failure, and Verdi, stung by disappointment, made up his mind to write no more for the stage. His next work, a comic opera, known variously as Un Giorno di Regno and Il Finto Stanislao, was written in peculiarly distressing circumstances, the composer having had the misfortune to lose his wife and two children in the course of two months. After three years in Busseto, Verdi returned to Milan, where his first opera, Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, was produced in 1839. A clerical intrigue prevented him from succeeding his old master as cathedral organist, but he was appointed conductor of the municipal orchestra, and organist of the church of San Bartolomeo. He was rejected by the authorities of the Conservatorio, but remained in Milan as a pupil of Vincenzo Lavigna, with whom he worked until the death of Provesi in 1833 recalled him to Busseto. In 1832 Verdi went to Milan to complete his studies. Among them is Verdi's first symphony, which was written at the age of fifteen and performed in 1828. These compositions are now the principal treasures of the library of Busseto.

He studied under Giovanni Provesi, who was maestro di cappella of the cathedral and conductor of the municipal orchestra, for which Verdi wrote many marches and other instrumental pieces. Barezzi was a thorough musician, and under his auspices Verdi was speedily introduced to such musical society as Busseto could boast. Verdi received some instruction from the village organist, but his musical education really began with his entrance into the house of business of Antonio Barezzi, a merchant of Busseto. His parents kept a little inn, combined with a kind of village shop. Italian composer, born on the 10th of October 1813 at Le Roncole, a poor village near the city of Busseto. Remains: Buried, Casa di Reposo per Musicisti, Milan, Italy

Giuseppe verdi compositions