Music for many people is the most powerful art form. It can quickly evoke a range of emotional responses, change models and mindsets, and enhance a call to battle or a cry for help.
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The nature of the music that dominates the Romantic Era is innately emotional. Composers working during this vibrant period of musical history often sought to plunge into the depths and soar to the heights of human feelings and experience.
One composer, amongst many others throughout history, whose music attracted unwanted attention was Richard Wagner. Like Verdi, Wagner’s music has an uncanny ability to make you feel so many deep emotions that can be used for destructive purposes and darker goals. Adolf Hitler had a burning passion for the music of Wagner.
For him, it was an affirmation of the greatness of the German people and he understood how the music could be used to rally support and motivate a nation. As the Second World War raged onwards the music of Wagner and its popularity with Hitler faded, replaced with other composers like Verdi and Puccini .
Giuseppe Verdi Operatic Works
What I’m attempting to briefly illustrate is that music intentionally or otherwise, can be used for political gains and not only for pleasure. Verdi’s operatic works were no exception. To more fully understand what impact Verdi’s music had on Italy and the wider world we need to step back to the time in which Verdi was living and working.
Keep in mind that the overarching focus of Romantic music was the exploration of feelings, an outpouring of emotions, giving free rein to fantasy. There was also a marked turn towards Nationalism, and Verdi was a staunch nationalist. He was completely aware of the force of his music and openly spoke of his desire for it to be for the people, not the elite.
A Voice for Italian Unification Through Opera
Italy in the wake of the destruction of the Napoleonic wars was a divided nation. The country was split into small principalities that seemingly operated independently of one another. Verdi was at the forefront of reunification and felt, perhaps slightly begrudgingly, that the King of Piedmont, Vittorio Emanuele (1820-1857) would be the country’s best option for reunification.
He had already taken part in the First Italian War of Independence(1848-49) against the Austrian Empire. Two more wars followed across Italy until the unification was completed in 1871 with the new capital situated in Rome.
It is hardly surprising to discover that in the years preceding the First War of Independence, that opera increasingly became a vehicle for political opinions with opera houses the centre of unrest.
Opinions about Verdi’s operas in the decade before the war tend towards the belief that they are allegorical. The struggle for dominance between Italy and the oppressors, the Austrian Empire, was very real. It makes sense then, that Verdi would use his opportunity to voice this.
A Musical Chronicle of Italian Nationalism and Unification
Composed in 1849, we discover what might be thought of as Verdi’s most overtly political opera. It’s title was La battaglia di Legnano (The Battle of Legnano). Based around the victory in 1176 over Federick Barbarossa, the opera in four acts, has all the anticipated love interests, fighting and most importantly, national interest.
Essentially what Verdi had done, be it from the safety of Paris, is compose an opera specifically for the Risorgimento. This was as far as Verdi went in terms of writing for a specific and personally important cause.
Interestingly, his later productions were not greeted with the same degree of success as it was initially prompting him to consider reworking the opera. Verdi never did.
In 1842 Verdi completed one of his most enduringly popular operas, Nabucco. For this monumental piece, Verdi drew on several Biblical texts including 2 Kings and Daniel. Additionally, Verdi based the opera on a play by Francis Cornu and Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois.
Verdi considered this opera to be the true beginning of his operatic career where he felt established. The plot revolves around the Jewish people exiled from their homeland by the wicked Nebuchadnezzar the Second.
It is the Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves that often comes to mind when recalling Nabucco. This is such a rousing chorus and one that resonated with his fellow Italians and their struggle.
Verdi entered a period of intense compositing following Nabucco’s success. His nationalistic spirit remained undiminished but his operas continued to mine the rich seam of nationalism. The composer’s next three operas continued to reflect his devotion to his country but in more subtle ways.
Rigoletto (1851), followed by Il Trovatore and La Traviata both completed in 1853, addressed issues close to Verdi’s heart, especially his hatred of the bourgeois. Il Trovatore makes distinct parallels between Italian unification and Spain in the 15th Century whilst, in La Traviata, Verdi raises all manner of moral and ethical questions that place the ruling classes in a poor light.
These operas contain some of Verdi’s most original, inspiring and adored music. The arias are sensuous and the choruses are unmistakably robust and spirited. As we know 1870/71 saw the unification of Italy, and here also marked a change in Verdi’s operatic output. Don Carlos (1867) and Aida (1871) represent the tail end of Verdi’s middle-period operas.
There is hope in these formidable works originating in the new political landscape that dispenses with outdated and unwanted Feudalism. There remain similar threads in the operas surrounding Verdi’s burning bitterness towards the Catholic Church which the composer considered to be a continuing obstacle against the full unification of Italy.
Shakespearean Influences in Otello and Falstaff
In the closing years of Verdi’s life, he returned to his love of Shakespeare. The elegance and finesse in these final operas were almost unsurpassed. Otello, composed in 1886, is a brilliantly refined work. The orchestration is immaculate and the characterisation illuminating.
Verdi’s consummate ability blends Shakespeare’s comedy and drama into one of his very best operatic ventures. Likewise, Falstaff completed in 1893 is another successful attempt at placing the Bard into a comic opera.
Satire centres the work alongside a sharp sense of humour that illustrates Verdi’s compositional faculties were undiminished even at the age of nearly eighty.