Julian Budden - Verdi

THE MASTER MUSICIANS

VERDI

THE MASTER MUSICIANS

Titles Available in Paperback

Bach Malcolm Boyd

Beethoven Barry Cooper

Berlioz Hugh Macdonald

Handel Donald Burrows

Liszt Derek Watson

Mahler Michael Kennedy

Mendelssohn Philip Radcliffe

Monteverdi Denis Arnold

Puccini Julian Budden

Purcell J. A. Westrup

Schumann Eric Frederick Jensen

Tchaikovsky Edward Garden

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Mozart Julian Rushton

Musorgsky David Brown

Rossini Richard Osborne

Schtz Basil Smallman

THE MASTER MUSICIANS

Third Edition

Julian Budden

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Budden, Julian.
Verdi / Julian Budden. 3rd ed.
p. cm. (The master musicians)
Works list: p.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-532342-9
1. Verdi, Giuseppe, 1813-1901. 2. ComposersItaly
2. Biography I. Title.
ML410.V4B9 2008
782.1092dc22 [B] 2008001234

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

S INCE THE APPEARANCE OF THIS VOLUMES PREDECESSOR, VERDI scholarship has proceeded apace with further critical editions of his operas, publications of his correspondence, regular issues of the periodical Studi verdiani from the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani in Parma and of the Newsletter (now entitled Verdi Forum) of its sister organisation, the American Institute for Verdi Studies, New York. The centenary of the composers death in 2001 gave rise to various congresses in Italy and abroad which, together with the revival of superseded versions of his music, have filled out the picture we already have of the man and the musician. One completed number, hitherto inaccessible, has in the meantime come to light: the substitute aria, Sventurato! alia mia vita written for the Russian tenor Nicola Ivanoff to insert into Attila. Especially welcome has been the recent willingness of the composers heirs to make available the sketches, continuity drafts and skeleton scores (melody and bass only with occasional instrumental indications) housed in the archives of the Villa S. Agata, all of which provide a fascinating glimpse into his workshop. We learn, among much else, that despite his defence as late as 1880 of the cabaletta as a musical form, it was always the cabalettas that gave Verdi the most trouble (indeed, a discarded version of Francescos Tremate, o miseri! has been found among the material for I masnadieri, while no less than six sketches exist of Germonts No, non udrai rimproveri in La traviata). It has even been possible to make a hypothetical reconstruction of Un ballo in maschera as it existed prior to censorial interference. If such experiments add little to the composers stature, they shed ever more light on the sum of his musical thinking. The aim of the present edition is to bring the reader up to date, taking account, however summary, of recent developments in what must inevitably be an on-going process, bearing witness to the unflagging enthusiasm for the heritage of one who, in the words of the late John Rosselli, built to last.

J.B.

Julian Budden passed away on 28 February 2007, while this edition was in production. Oxford University Press extends its sincere gratitude to Roger Parker for his generous assistance in preparing the manuscript for publication.

F EW COMPOSERS HAVE BEEN AS SPECTACULARLY REVALUED OVER the last fifty years as Verdi, especially in Britain. If certain of our inter-war criticsnotably Dent, Blom and Toveywere never in doubt as to his greatness, for the majority he was the composer of Il trovatore who acquired respectability only in Otello, Falstaff and the Requiem. The pioneering studies of Bonavia and Toye undoubtedly helped to turn the tide in his favour. Yet for many years to come English Verdians would feel themselves to be on the defensive; and a note of apology can be sensed in their writings on the subject. But with the end of the war the Verdi-renaissance that had begun in Germany in the 1920s showed no signs of abating. Operas which had been thought dead beyond recall were unearthed, staged and found to be good. The ominous critical opening, It is easy to see why this opera is so seldom revived, was less and less frequently to be encountered. A landmark in the growing appreciation of Verdis works was the foundation in 1960 of the Istituto di Studi Verdiani at Parma under the presidency of the veteran composer Ildebrando Pizzetti. Over the following years it acted as a focal point for international scholarship. Its sister branch, the American Institute for Verdi Studies in New York, founded in 1975, possesses a unique wealth of archive material. A comparison of Bonavias 120-page life-and-works of 1930 with Buschs massive monograph on Aida of 1978 or the Macbeth sourcebook will give a fair idea of the altered perspective on a composer whose name Wagner could hardly bear to hear mentioned. In the meantime Frank Walkers The Man Verdi (1962) set an entirely new standard of biographical accuracy and acumen.

Inevitably, therefore, Dyneley Husseys admirable study of 1940 in the Master Musicians series falls short of todays needs if only because, like his predecessors, he was forced to pass judgment on operas which he had never seen but which today are staged all over the world. Indeed, it could reasonably be asked whether there is any longer a place for a single volume devoted to the life and works in view of the vast mass of material relevant to both. The answer is that a short study written in the light of the latest scholarly findings without setting them forth in detail can still be useful to the non-specialised musical reader. The present book contains no sensational revelations, offers no radically new perspectives on the music. It is rather a birds-eye view, whose purpose is to give information relevant to an assessment of the subject in a compendious and easily accessible form. Inevitably certain lists given in the appendicesnotably the Bibliography and the