Slov Po - VERDI: Opera Choruses [CD]

Opera Choruses by Giuseppe Verdi (1813 -1901) Giuseppe Verdi's career spans three quarters of the nineteenth century.He was born in 1813 at Roncole, near Busseto, the son of a tavern-keeper, anddistinguished himself locally in music before the encouragement and patronageof his future father-in-law, Antonio Barezzi, a merchant in Busseto, allowedhim further study in Milan, before returning to Busseto as maestro di musica.His first venture into opera was with Oberto, in 1839, reasonably successful,but followed by the failure of Un giorno diregno, written at a period when the composer suffered the death ofhis wife and two children. His early reputation was established by the operaNabucco, staged at La Scala in Milan in 1842. Verdi's subsequent career in Italy was to bring him unrivalled fame,augmented by his reputation as a patriot and fervent supporter of Italiannational unity. His association with the singer Giuseppina Strepponi led totheir marriage in 1859, the year of Un ballo in maschera. He completed his lastopera, Falstaff, in 1893, four years before her death, but felt himself unequalto further Shakespearian operas that were then proposed. He died while stayingin Milan, early in 1901, his death the subject of mourning throughout Italy.The opera Nabucco(Nebuchadnezzar), dealing as it does with the Babylonian captivity, had obviouspolitical implications in Italy in 1842. The chorus Va, pensiero, sull'alidorate (Fly, my thoughts, on golden wings) is sung by the chorus of Hebrewslaves, toiling in exile and slavery by the waters of Babylon. The words O miapatria, si bella e perduta (O my country, so fair and yet lost) struck thenecessary patriotic note for an age of incipient national consciousness.Don Garlos, first staged in its French version in Paris in 1867 and atLa Scala in Italian in 1884, is based on the drama by Schiller. The plot of theopera concerns the Spanish Infante, Don Garlos, and his love for Elisabeth deValois, then betrothed to his father, for dynastic reasons. The conflict oflove and duty is further complicated by the involvement of Don Carlos inFlemish agitation for freedom and by the unrequited love felt for him by thePrincess Eboli. Final disaster is only averted by the intervention of thegrandfather of Don Carlos, Charles V (Carlos Primero of Spain), who rises fromthe tomb to protect him from his father and the Grand Inquisitor, who seek hispunishment by death. The chorus Spuntato ecco il dl d'esultanza (Welcome to theday of triumph) greets the king and his court in Act III of the opera.La Traviata, firstproduced in Venice in 1853, is based on a very different source, the play Ladame aux camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils. Violetta, a courtesan, sacrificesher love for her beloved Alfredo, at his father's request, although the youngman does not know the cause of their estrangement, imagining her merely fickle.Final reconciliation only comes as Violetta lies dying, when all is explained.Masqueraders at the house of Violetta's f