1841
Milan, Italy
Opera
If you haven’t caught on yet, I tend to be a little bit
biased towards and favor the Italians. I served my mission in Rome, Italy and
naturally have a profound interest and love for the Italian culture and people.
While I was on my mission, I had the unique opportunity to attend a
professional opera performed in Rome’s Opera House. The experience was
something that I’ll never forget and I have since attended another Italian
opera here in Salt Lake. For this reason and others, when I was reading through
the textbook the story of Giuseppe Verdi really stood out to me in a profound
way. Giuseppe Verdi was born in Italy in 1813 in the province of Parma, Italy.
Growing up he began studying musical composition and studied under Vincenzo
Lavigna, a famous composer from Milan, after being denied admission into the
Milan Conservatory of music. Verdi was given a generous contract for the
performance of his first opera, which included the agreement that he would
produce 4 more to be played at an opera house in Milan. While writing his
second opera, his wife and first two children passed away within a year of each
other. This personal tragedy of his affected his music and his second opera
wasn’t well received in Milan, only making a difficult time worse for Giuseppe.
After being inspired by his friend to continue writing music, he put out two
incredible operas’ which earned him a lot of praise and success and from that
point on. That third opera was non other than Nabucco. Nabucco ended up being a
huge hit and Verdi was famous from that point on. I didn’t chose to bring this
opera along because I like it, but I love the story behind it and everything
that it stands for. Verdi wrote Nabucco to reflect the “strong feelings of
Italian nationalism that were then present in Italy” which is what brought
Verdi and his opera such success. Not only was he able to recover from
incredibly difficult personal trials, but the sensitivity that he acquired to
the strong feelings of others (which I attribute to his trials) helped him
observe these important issues and portray them in a way that moved his
audiences and resonated with them on a deeply personal level. Through his experience,
observation, and meditation, Verdi gained great perspective and was able to
accurately convey that to his audience in a creative and unique way and that’s
why I love him as a composer and would be happy to bring his opera Nabucco
along for the journey. (S,D,H pg. 472)