Verdi: Overtures, Vol. 1

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Cat No: 8553018

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099401821

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: VERDI

Description
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)Overtures Volume 1 Aroldo: Sinfonia Il corsaro: Prelude Luisa Miller: Sinfonia La traviata: Prelude La traviata: Prelude to Act III Alzira: Sinfonia Un ballo in maschera: Prelude Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio: Sinfonia Aida: Prelude Attila: Prelude I vespri siciliani: SinfoniaGiuseppe Verdi's career spans three quarters of the nineteenthcentury. He was born in 1813 at Le Roncole, near Busseto, the son of a tavern-keeper, anddistinguished himself locally in music. The encouragement and patronage of his futurefather-in-law Antonio Barezzi, a merchant in Busseto, allowed him further study in Milan,before returning to Busseto as maestro di musica. His first venture into opera, areasonably successful one, was in 1839 with Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio. This wasfollowed, however, by the failure of Un giorno di regno,written at a period when the composer suffered the death of his wife and two children. Hisearly reputation was finally established by the opera Nabucco,staged at La Scala, Milan, in 1842.Verdi's subsequent career in Italy brought him unrivalled fame,augmented by his reputation as a patriot and fervent supporter of Italian national unity.His name itself was treated as an acronym for the proposed monarch of a united Italy,Vittorio Emanuele, r?¿ d'ltalia (Victor Emanuel, King of Italy), and much of his work wassusceptible to patriotic interpretation. His long association with the singer GiuseppinaStrepponi led to their marriage in 1859, the year of Unballo in maschera. He completed his last opera, Falstaff, in 1893, four years before her death, butfelt himself unequal to further Shakespearean operas then proposed. He died while stayingin Milan early in 1901, his death the subject of national mourning throughout Italy.The opera Aroldowas the result of censorship and official objection. In 1850 the opera Stiffelio had been performed in Trieste. With alibretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the French drama Le pasteur au L'evangile et le foyer by EmileSouvestre and Eug?¿ne Bourgeois, Stiffeliowas not calculated to appeal to a Catholic audience, dealing, as it does, with thedilemmas facing a married Protestant clergyman, whose wife has an affair with a youngerman, finally to be forgiven in words from the New Testament, a further source ofobjection. A revised version made use of much the same music, with a text now set in thetime of the Crusaders. The returning knight Aroldo is married to Mina, daughter ofEgberto, who is unfaithful to her husband. The action takes place in the castle ofEgberto, near Kent, and continues on the banks of Lago Loomond (Loch Lomond) in Scotland,where Mina is finally forgiven by her husband. The revised version was first performed inRimini in 1857.Il corsaro (The Corsair),again with a libretto by Piave, is based on the poem by Byron and was first performed inTrieste in 1848. Verdi showed relatively little immediate interest in the project, towhich he was urged by Francesco Lucca, a rival
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