Guiseppe Verdi received his first musical education in Busseto.
When he was twenty he continued his studies in Milan. Back in
Busseto he became town music master and he gave his first public
concert at the home of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant.
Verdi
became music teacher to Barezzi's daughter Margherita. They
fell in love and married in 1836. Their two children died in
infancy and Margherita herself died in 1840. At the time his
first opera "Oberto" had been performed at the Scala in Milan
and he was working on his second opera. It failed and he nearly
gave up composition. But Bartolomeo Merelli persuaded him to
continue and his opera Nabucco was first performed at Marrch
9th at the Scala and immediately made him famous.
He
wrote several more opera's during the next years, among them
"I Lombardy" (1843) and "Macbeth" (1847). In 1851 "Rigoletto"
was first produced in Venice. Verdi had started an affair with
the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi and their lived together for
more than ten years before they married in 1859.
More
opera's followed. "Don Carlos" premiered in Paris in 1867 and
in 1871 "Aïda" followed. Othello was first produced in Milan
in 1887. Giuseppina Strepponi had suffered from health problems,
but her death in 1897 came suddenly. Verdi himself had a stroke
on January 21th, 1901 and he died six days later. On February
9th, 1901 his last opera "Falstaff" premiered at the Scala.
Verdi
was first buried at the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. Later
his remains (and Guiseppina's as well) were moved to a chapel
at the Casa di riposo dei Musicisti, a home for pensioned musicians
that was founded with Verdi's money.
Related persons
• knew Roosevelt, Blanche
• knew Visetti, Alberto Antonio
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Sources
• Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
• Culbertson, Judi & Tom Randall, Permanent Italians, Walker and Company, New York, 1996
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