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# Questa o quella, per me pari sono | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
# A quant'altre d'intorno | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
D'intorno mi vedo...# | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
I am Rolando Villazon and as a singer, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
I have the pleasure of living and breathing the music | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
of a true genius of the operatic stage. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
Giuseppe Verdi. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
# Di que il fato ne infiora la vita... # | 0:00:28 | 0:00:33 | |
To sing his music is to connect directly with the human soul, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
with its joy, its suffering, its force. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
His music tells us what it means to be human | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
with such truth that watching and listening, no matter who you are, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:49 | |
you cannot but recognise yourself. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
Verdi composed a huge body of music for the opera house, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
which, today, is performed all over the world. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
But by looking at just six of my favourites | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
and meeting some of my colleagues along the way, I want to show you | 0:01:04 | 0:01:08 | |
why this music has come to be loved by everyone who hears it, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:13 | |
how his characters are able to speak to us so meaningfully. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
# Degli amanti le smanie, derido... # | 0:01:16 | 0:01:22 | |
And why he remains, for me, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:23 | |
one of the most important opera composers of all time. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:28 | |
# Se mi punge | 0:01:28 | 0:01:37 | |
# Una qualche belta. # | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
Think of opera and you think Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
Rigoletto, Aida, some of the most famous operas in the world. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
Verdi's long and hugely successful career | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
spanned most of the 19th century. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:00 | |
Everything Verdi composed had an impact. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:03 | |
The subjects he chose covered a whole arch of the human experience. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
Politics and religion, tragedy and comedy, power and love. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:12 | |
# La mia latizia infondere | 0:02:15 | 0:02:21 | |
# Vorrei nel suo bel core... # | 0:02:21 | 0:02:27 | |
For me, Verdi was the consummate artist, | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
but he was famously inscrutable. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
Through his letters, we learn about him as a working composer, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
but little about the intensely private man himself. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
He left his ideas and beliefs to be played out through his music. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
His fabulous tunes reveal a man who knows how to reach out | 0:02:49 | 0:02:54 | |
and connect with everyone. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
# Al cielo, ed ergermi... # | 0:02:56 | 0:03:01 | |
People in the street cheered Verdi. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
People in the street sang Verdi tunes, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
but I don't think he wants to impress us. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
He wanted to move people. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
Absolutely. But one of the gifts of great, great composers | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
is precisely this. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
Because it is so important to talk, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:23 | |
to be very close to the generation of today | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
and Verdi sounds as fresh today as it sounded fresh in his time. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:33 | |
Verdi came from a humble background. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
He was born in 1813 in the small farming village of Roncole, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:42 | |
about 100 miles from Milan. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
His parents were innkeepers. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
Here, Verdi would have been exposed to the ordinary pressures of life | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
and what people cared about. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
The family were regular churchgoers and it was as a part-time organist | 0:03:54 | 0:03:59 | |
in the local church that Verdi's musical roots took hold. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
He is so much a child of his country and what it went through, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
Italy, of the 19th century, at the time when he was born, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
it was not a unified country at all. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
It was a number of kingdoms and dialects. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
The Italian people were subjects ruled over by the Austrians, | 0:04:21 | 0:04:25 | |
French and Spanish, all jostling for supremacy. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
Censorship was commonplace and large gatherings were banned. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:34 | |
However, the one place people were allowed to meet was the theatre. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:40 | |
The opera scene in Europe wasn't as widespread as it is today. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:47 | |
In Germany, Wagner had still to make his mark with his mythical epics. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:52 | |
The main focus was in Paris, | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
where the theatrical extravaganzas of Meyerbeer dominated. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:58 | |
And closer to home in Milan, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
the three giants of Italian music ruled. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
Presenting love stories or tragedies that audiences expected, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
told through a formalised set of arias, duets and choruses. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
# Ah, non credea mirarti...# | 0:05:18 | 0:05:24 | |
This was the musical establishment | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
and Verdi knew he had to conquer it | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
to then take the art form to new heights. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
So, it was to Milan, intellectual and operatic capital of Italy, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
that he first set his sights and it was here at La Scala opera house, | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
where high society, the movers, shakers and taste-makers met. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:51 | |
Publishers, theatre managers, opera houses, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
you don't get any affection from Verdi for these places. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
They were necessary evils. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
Without them, he couldn't write his operas, | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
but he was at their mercy. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:09 | |
But the forces of destiny weren't going to give Verdi an easy ride. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:18 | |
Aged 18, he auditioned here for the Milan Conservatory, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
but was rejected. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
What's more, a few years later, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
both Verdi's children died in infancy, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
shortly followed by his young wife. Verdi was just 26. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:35 | |
He was completely transformed, I think, | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
by the death of his wife and children, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
following which he was by nature lonely, melancholic and depressive. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:47 | |
The loneliness, I think, gave him this extraordinary desire, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
urge and need to reach out and speak, which is | 0:06:51 | 0:06:56 | |
where his phenomenally populist and popular talent, I think, comes from. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:02 | |
Verdi's theatrical career really took off thanks to | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
his persistence and an uncanny ability to know the right people. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:11 | |
With his opera, Nabucco, Verdi proved he knew what could capture | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
an audience's appetite. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
Rousing tunes and powerful theatre. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
And the Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves, | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
would assume a much bigger significance later in his life. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
But for now, the young man who failed to get into the Conservatory | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
was firmly on the musical map and he was hungry for success. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:12 | |
Verdi felt he had to find something that set him apart from the rest. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
One thing that mattered deeply to him was his choice of plots. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:24 | |
The subjects that Verdi chose were a platform | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
not only for telling a good story, but most important, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
one that allowed him to explore themes and emotions | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
that really meant something to him. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
I find it fascinating that next to his bed, | 0:08:37 | 0:08:39 | |
Verdi kept a well thumbed copy of The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:44 | |
Here was a goldmine of stories | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
that most of his audiences would not have heard before. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
Of course, today, everybody in the world knows who Shakespeare was. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
But in 19th century Italy, illiteracy was common | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
and Shakespeare's work was hardly known. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
So, for Verdi, this was extraordinary unfamiliar material | 0:09:02 | 0:09:07 | |
that inspired him to be innovative and new. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
Macbeth was Verdi's first Shakespearean opera. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
Out of the blue, he produced a dark study of power, ambition and evil. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
There are very few set pieces to break up the action. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
Instead, Verdi gives us a continuous and theatrical rite. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
He turned a very complex, psychological drama | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
into a Tim Burton movie. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
It has its own visual, colour, atmosphere. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
It's all cries, groans, darkness, mood. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
There is a whole horrible nightmare world around Macbeth... | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
..which is physical in Verdi, not only psychological. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
For me, Macbeth shows Verdi's real mastery of theatre. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:18 | |
You understand the stress he put on the theatrical element. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:25 | |
You have three groups of witches. Each one singing a sentence. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:30 | |
# Che faceste? | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
# Dite su! | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
# Ho sgozzato un verro. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
# E tu? | 0:10:37 | 0:10:39 | |
# M'e frullata nel pensier | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
# M'e frullata nel pensier... # | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
Verdi, on the writing of The Witches, he writes, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
please, never forget that they're witches speaking. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
It is almost not singing. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
You don't need that. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:57 | |
Not to sing a beautiful line, but you have to throw the words. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
THEY SING | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
I think rhythm is extremely important in how Verdi creates, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
through the orchestra and the combination of all the voices, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
this very particular atmosphere. Not all the composers can do that. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
They are a very nocturnal colour. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
What Verdi will say again, you can describe not only as a colour | 0:11:28 | 0:11:33 | |
but really a shade, a particular nuance. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
By expanding Shakespeare's Three Witches to more than 30, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:45 | |
Verdi establishes a dramatic role for the supernatural, | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
as a character in its own right. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:50 | |
He was something altogether different, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
a distinctive mood in music. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
In music, we often talk about colour, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
and colour was something of particular importance for Verdi. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
It is almost as if he created these subconscious layers | 0:12:06 | 0:12:11 | |
that define each of his operas, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
gives them a unified feel, a personality. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
How does he achieve that? | 0:12:17 | 0:12:18 | |
Well, through words, rhythm, melody, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:22 | |
through orchestration. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
Nobody illustrates better than him the inner forces of the characters. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
Traditionally, the hero in opera would be a tenor, | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
but for this troubled anti-hero, Verdi broke with the norm | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
and cast Macbeth as a baritone. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
A darker voice better suited to Macbeth's troubled character. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:44 | |
One of the biggest challenges is to try and manipulate people | 0:13:06 | 0:13:11 | |
through colour, through sound and not just through text. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
It's very true of Verdi, that Macbeth, so much, is the colour. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
He's an extreme for me. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
You don't want any joy, you don't want any pathos, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
you don't want any sentimentality. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
He doesn't deserve it and shouldn't get it. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
The hooded nature of this...filthy character | 0:13:29 | 0:13:34 | |
has got to be in the sound, I think. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
Macbeth, general of King Duncan's army, is consumed by ambition. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
He has planned to kill the King and take the crown for himself. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:54 | |
To take on a new tranche of colours, Verdi reinvented the baritone voice. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:04 | |
You have great new vocal vistas open to you. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:09 | |
He's increased the opportunities for the baritone's top register | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
by about an octave. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
He actually, to a large extent, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
invented modern singing for the baritone. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
Macbeth was hugely successful. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
Verdi took the baritone to new heights, but most interesting, | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
he broke with some established conventions. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
This opera had no love story. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
However, Verdi's own life was not devoid of love. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
Seven years after his wife died, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
he began an affair with soprano Giuseppina Strepponi. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
Strepponi was a gifted actress and singer who had appeared | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
in Nabucco at La Scala. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
By the time of the affair, she was teaching young singers, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
promoting the particular approach that Verdi's operas demanded. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
And one of the fundamental building blocks to that approach | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
was the significance that Verdi attached to the text. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
It wasn't what the words sounded like, | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
it's what they meant that he cared about. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:56 | |
It's what the words contained. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
Verdi was dependent on the poets to give him the text | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
that was as vivid as he needed it to be | 0:16:37 | 0:16:42 | |
for the kind of music that he wanted to write. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
The libretto for Il Cosaro was written by Francesco Maria Piave, | 0:16:50 | 0:16:54 | |
a poet who was to go on to write the words for 10 of Verdi's operas. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:59 | |
He would know full well what Verdi demanded from his text. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
Verdi was so demanding towards his librettist. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
He was never happy and he was... | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
"Please, that's too much, that's too long. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
"You need to be really essential, you need to go to the focus, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
"you need to go to the essential." | 0:17:26 | 0:17:27 | |
Don't attack. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:36 | |
But it isn't just the librettist that has to get it right. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
For us singers, the key to fathom Verdi's intentions, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
is to understand the drama in the text. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
Janine Reiss, has coached some of the greatest singers | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
in the business. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
Domingo, Pavarotti, Callas. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
It's almost as if one would hear Verdi saying why he chose to compose | 0:17:58 | 0:18:03 | |
almost exclusively for the human voice, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
because it allowed him | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
-to work with words. -Absolutely. -To express through music and the word | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
the emotions and the feelings of the characters. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
I am a prisoner. What does it mean for a human being to be a prisoner? | 0:18:18 | 0:18:24 | |
It means to be separated from the whole world. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:30 | |
If the interpretation of the artist is as it should be, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:35 | |
you don't see any more of the stage. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
You are with the interpreter in prison with him. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
Verdi was really, not only inspired by the text, but he wrote | 0:19:00 | 0:19:08 | |
the music of the feelings which were expressed in the text. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:16 | |
So you have a score and you have to respect the score | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
and try to go as far as you can | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
to find exactly what the composer wanted. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:29 | |
One of the things Verdi wanted most was to give us | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
convincing characters, truly three-dimensional portrayals. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
For me, one of the most multifaceted is Rigoletto. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
Here we have a Duke presiding over a bigoted court. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
There is rape, murder, corruption, professional assassins. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:02 | |
It's the damnation of the ruling elite in a complex morality tale. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
Rigoletto, jester at the court of the lecherous Duke of Mantua, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
leads a double life. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
A public one as a cynical foil to jeering courtiers | 0:20:19 | 0:20:25 | |
and a private one as the overprotective father | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
to his daughter Gilda. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
These two worlds brutally collide | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
with the Duke's seduction of his willing daughter. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
Rigoletto swears vengeance. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
There is no doubt that for the audiences in mid-19th century Italy, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
the subject matter was shocking. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
But it was also a hot potato politically. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
Rigoletto is based on Victor Hugo's play Le Roi S'Amuse, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
which shows the French King as a libertine. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
In France, this was perceived as an attack of the natural order | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
and it was banned just after the first performance. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
Verdi knew that in Italy he would have the same problem with his opera. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
Rigoletto was a commission from La Fenice Opera House in Venice, | 0:21:12 | 0:21:17 | |
at the time under Austrian control. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
Their censor saw this as a criticism of the establishment, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
and subversive. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:25 | |
But Verdi was undaunted. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
He described it as "great, immense and has a character that is one | 0:21:28 | 0:21:33 | |
"of the most important creations of theatre". | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
So, to get around the censors, Verdi changed the location | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
from the Court of France to the Dukedom of Mantua, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
which had long ceased to exist. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
The elements of the story, however, remained intact. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:56 | |
It takes like the tops, the cream of all human emotion, | 0:21:56 | 0:22:02 | |
of disgusting, of beautiful, and he experiments with the mix. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:08 | |
Like a cocktail, | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
which the public has to drink. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
Rigoletto is probably Verdi's most significant, | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
most complete and most disturbing opera. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
It's where he matches brilliantly this Shakespearean idea of comedy, | 0:22:24 | 0:22:30 | |
of wit, of humour, interspersed with a great tragedy. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:35 | |
Um... | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
And he creates a character of awe-inspiring selfishness. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:45 | |
In the first act, Rigoletto is sycophantic and manipulative. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:55 | |
And his music is close to the character of the Duke's. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
In Verdi, the revolution is we have every time, but every time, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:19 | |
and it is really amazing, the perfect connection | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
between the character of the music and the drama. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
Then, in Act Two, Verdi shows us a different side to Rigoletto. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
The sympathetic and loving father, | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
comforting his daughter after the Duke has had his way with her. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
Intent on revenge, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
the last act sees an altogether different, dark side | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
of Rigoletto's character, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
as he arranges to have the Duke assassinated. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
Verdi's great talent, that he writes of profound, dark, ugly emotions. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:44 | |
He confronts who we are... | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
..and he does it with fantastically popular melodies | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
that attracts everybody to the material. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:57 | |
In the last act, Verdi wrote a tune that perfectly encapsulates | 0:25:00 | 0:25:04 | |
the character of the Duke - shallow and two-dimensional. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
The tenor in the Rigoletto is the lover, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
but in this case he is a really bad character. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
He's the bad way of lover. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
Verdi knew what a hit this would be, banning his cast from singing | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
or even whistling it in public before the premiere. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
This famous aria is much more than just a hit tune. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
It shows how Verdi was a master of the theatre. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
Not only does it encapsulate the Duke's amoral | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
and devil-may-care character, but by the end of the opera, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
it serves a far more shocking purpose. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
The assassin has brought Rigoletto a sack. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
He believes it holds the dead Duke. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
But the audience knows that it is actually his daughter. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
And then Verdi delivers the lightning strike. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
THE DUKE SINGS ARIA | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
The impact is huge. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
A deeply distressing moment of pure theatre | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
conveyed through a lightweight song. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
Verdi satisfies the dramatic element, not in any melodramatic way - | 0:26:59 | 0:27:04 | |
in a real, interesting, theatrical investigation. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
He gives you real theatre, not just tableaux. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
Unable to renounce her love for the Duke, Gilda has sacrificed herself. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:24 | |
That courage to put so unsympathetic a man on the stage, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:46 | |
ugly not only in body but ugly in soul, is quite fascinating | 0:27:46 | 0:27:54 | |
because often it's the ugliness of Rigoletto which lifts | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
an audience to its feet cheering. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
Rigoletto is a testament to Verdi's skill at fusing all | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
the elements to create a powerful dramatic experience. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
At the premiere, audiences loved it and it took | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
no time at all for La donna e mobile to be heard in the streets. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
Aged 38, Verdi was the undisputed king of Italian opera. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
He was rich, famous and at the height of his powers. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:29 | |
But there were still aspects of his life that were troubled. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:34 | |
His affair with Strepponi had blossomed, but rather like | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
one of his characters, she had a questionable reputation, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:41 | |
having had at least four illegitimate children before meeting Verdi. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
Verdi took her to live with him in Busseto, | 0:28:47 | 0:28:49 | |
the town of his deceased wife's family. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
Of course, this didn't go down at all well | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
with the small-minded and bourgeois locals, | 0:28:55 | 0:28:58 | |
who whilst proud of their famous son, shunned his mistress. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
Amidst this turmoil, Verdi was still travelling abroad | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
and accepting commissions. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:10 | |
In 1852, Verdi was eager to find new material for a commission | 0:29:10 | 0:29:16 | |
at La Fenice Opera House in Venice. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
But he complained that he couldn't find the right subject. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
He wrote, "It is easy to find commonplace stories, | 0:29:21 | 0:29:25 | |
"but it is very, very difficult to find one that has all | 0:29:25 | 0:29:28 | |
"the qualities needed if it is to have an impact. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
"One that is also original and provocative." | 0:29:32 | 0:29:36 | |
And it was here in Paris that he found what he needed, | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
a poignant story based on the real life of a tragic young woman. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
This is the grave of Marie Duplessis, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
a notorious courtesan and mistress of many wealthy and powerful men. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
Extremely beautiful and witty, | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
she was a legendary figure of mid-19th-century Paris. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
But her life ended tragically. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
She died of consumption at the age of just 23. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:11 | |
One of her lovers was the great writer Alexandre Dumas | 0:30:11 | 0:30:15 | |
and he was about to immortalise her on the stage. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:19 | |
Their short love affair would go on to form the basis of his play | 0:30:21 | 0:30:25 | |
La Dame Aux Camelias, | 0:30:25 | 0:30:27 | |
The Lady Of The Camelias, which was an instant hit. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
On seeing Dumas' play La Dame Aux Camelias, Verdi finally found | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
the raw material he had been searching for. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
The story goes that as soon as the curtain fell, he ran immediately | 0:30:39 | 0:30:44 | |
into his apartment and started sketching the music for La Traviata. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:48 | |
La Traviata, or The Fallen Woman, is a story that must have had | 0:30:52 | 0:30:57 | |
echoes with Verdi's own relationship with Strepponi. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
At its centre is Violetta, a courtesan, a kept woman, | 0:31:01 | 0:31:05 | |
admired but never really accepted into society. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:08 | |
But what I think is wonderful is the way Verdi makes the audience | 0:31:09 | 0:31:14 | |
not only accept her, but actually care about her. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:18 | |
Audiences love her. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:22 | |
What I think people love most about this opera, | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
besides the way it's composed, the beautiful tunes | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
and the power of the music, that's number one. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
Number two is that she ultimately has more integrity | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
than every other character in the piece. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:35 | |
And she is supposed to be the one who has the lowest morals | 0:31:35 | 0:31:39 | |
and in fact, she rises above everyone else. | 0:31:39 | 0:31:43 | |
Violetta knows she is dying, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:04 | |
but she lives a life of endless parties, liaisons and lovers. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
Into her world steps a young man named Alfredo, | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
who offers her a chance of true love. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:14 | |
La Traviata is about the choices she has to make | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
between the superficial life she's accustomed to | 0:32:19 | 0:32:23 | |
and the sacrifices for love. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
Passionate, that's what it is. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
It's passion, raw feeling, raw emotion and ultimately | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
if someone comes to an Italian opera, they're expecting to feel something. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
They're expecting to have a visceral, emotional, | 0:32:39 | 0:32:44 | |
physical reaction to the opera. | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
Not cerebral, not, "Oh, that was lovely," but...in the gut. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:52 | |
Alfredo has declared his love, and Violetta is left confused. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:04 | |
What follows is ten minutes of some of Verdi's most intimate theatre, | 0:33:04 | 0:33:08 | |
as she shares her innermost thoughts with us. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
I love the way Verdi does this. By putting such a woman on stage, | 0:33:11 | 0:33:15 | |
alone, Verdi is pushing us to embrace her predicament | 0:33:15 | 0:33:20 | |
as something we will recognise and accept. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
That's where the drama plays out and where the real story plays out | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
and the questions, all of the sort of - | 0:33:53 | 0:33:55 | |
is it this or is it that, is this real love? What about my life? | 0:33:55 | 0:33:59 | |
She's completely out of control at this point. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:21 | |
And she's fighting the truth, which is that she's already in deep, | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
you know. That's the way love is sometimes, it just hits you | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
when you least expect it and when you least want it sometimes. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:32 | |
But by putting a character such as Violetta on stage, | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
Verdi was again going to get into hot water. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
The Venetian censors and the opera management objected to Verdi's wish | 0:34:43 | 0:34:47 | |
to stage La Traviata in contemporary times and in modern dress. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:51 | |
It was far too close for comfort. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
They insisted that Verdi set it at a safe distance, | 0:34:55 | 0:34:59 | |
around the 1700s, | 0:34:59 | 0:35:01 | |
far from any direct comparison with their own audience. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:03 | |
And in the Second Act, | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
Violetta comes up against the same bourgeois attitudes. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:10 | |
Violetta has given up her life | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
and is living a blissful existence with Alfredo. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:19 | |
Then, Alfredo's father Germont comes to demand that the liaison ends, | 0:35:19 | 0:35:24 | |
as it jeopardises his own daughter's marriage. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
Germont is the representation | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
of the society and the oppressive world | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
in which this beautiful flower Traviata | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
and this wonderful love story is trapped in. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
It's a world that doesn't allow that to happen. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:46 | |
And Germont embodies that. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
This cannot happen under the rules of life as he understands it. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:03 | |
And I think Verdi captures that beautifully. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
And now Verdi really ups the demands on her voice, | 0:36:11 | 0:36:15 | |
calling for a big dramatic sound to express her intense anger. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:19 | |
It's the most heartbreaking moment, and the way he does it too, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
because they're singing and arguing and singing and arguing | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
and suddenly time stops. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
And just out of nowhere comes this "ah" in the little voice | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
that's completely exposed, and in that "ah" is a lifetime of pain. | 0:36:48 | 0:36:54 | |
That moment is absolutely where the opera turns. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:49 | |
It's the turning point of the entire piece. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
Every hope and, you know, she... | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
It's just one of the most heartbreaking moments | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
in all of opera, I think. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:00 | |
The Final Act finds her back in Paris, alone, penniless and dying. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:11 | |
I think La Traviata is one of the greatest operas of all time. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:45 | |
Through the extremes of music and voice, | 0:38:45 | 0:38:49 | |
Verdi expresses a wide range of emotion. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
He captures our sympathy and we care deeply about Violetta's fate. | 0:38:52 | 0:38:57 | |
But by putting a classy yet kept woman on stage, | 0:39:02 | 0:39:05 | |
maybe the characters were too real for the first-night audience. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
It didn't go at all well. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
Verdi himself was deeply frustrated, dismissing the premiere as a fiasco. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:16 | |
Although Verdi makes no direct link to the character of Violetta, | 0:39:16 | 0:39:20 | |
you could argue that one of the reasons that he felt | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
so attracted to the subject of an ostracised woman was his | 0:39:22 | 0:39:26 | |
witnessing of Giuseppina Strepponi's own non-acceptance by society. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:31 | |
Maybe through Violetta, he wanted to thumb his nose to the bourgeoisie. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:37 | |
It wasn't until a year later, | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
with performances at a different theatre and a handpicked cast | 0:39:42 | 0:39:47 | |
that Verdi's La Traviata triumphed. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
Today it is said that on any night, | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
somewhere in the world, La Traviata is being performed. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
Verdi was now very famous. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:01 | |
The boy from a country inn had become a national icon. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
By now, Verdi was living with Strepponi at Sant'Agata | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
in a farm deep in the Italian countryside | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
and one removed from society's demands on him. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:16 | |
But he was not going to drop out of sight completely. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:21 | |
The diverse states that made up the Italian peninsula were going | 0:40:21 | 0:40:25 | |
through a period of upheaval, and Verdi himself was to become | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
inextricably linked to this spirit of revolutionary change. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
The country was beginning to unite under a new king, Vittorio Emanuele II. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:40 | |
In 1861, the occupiers were kicked out | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
and a new cry was heard in the streets and scrawled on the walls. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
"Viva Verdi." | 0:40:48 | 0:40:50 | |
Viva Verdi. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:55 | |
You know, Orlando, in Verdi's times all of the people were celebrating. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:59 | |
"Viva Verdi." Viva Verdi had a double meaning, | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
because Verdi you can use like... | 0:41:02 | 0:41:04 | |
In 1861, Verdi himself was persuaded to enter Parliament, | 0:41:17 | 0:41:23 | |
a cultural symbol, as the international face of the new Italy. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:28 | |
He was not interested in politics as a means of gaining power. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
He didn't need any, he had it. He was worshipped by his own people. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:40 | |
For whom Va Pensiero, which is the chorus in Nabucco | 0:41:41 | 0:41:45 | |
has become identified with the call for national independence | 0:41:45 | 0:41:50 | |
and national identity. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:52 | |
MUSIC: "Nabucco" by Vivaldi | 0:41:52 | 0:41:56 | |
Va Pensiero, up until today, it's the most important musical | 0:42:20 | 0:42:25 | |
and artistic identification of a country. No? | 0:42:25 | 0:42:29 | |
Yes, for a while we consider the possibility | 0:42:29 | 0:42:33 | |
-to have it as a national anthem. -Of course. I think that's amazing. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:38 | |
The Italian nation soon however had its critics. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
In 1864, the Pope Pius IX condemned democracy, | 0:42:43 | 0:42:48 | |
freedom of the press and the new Italy as anti-Catholic. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:53 | |
Something that would not have been lost on Verdi. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:56 | |
Verdi's operas frequently touched on the great themes of liberty, | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
power and politics. None more so than Don Carlos. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:08 | |
An epic five-part opera based on a story by the German poet Schiller. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
But one of the most overwhelming moments is what I think to be | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
a very personal statement by Verdi about the place | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
and power of organised religion. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:23 | |
There is a scene in Don Carlos where the king has to | 0:43:29 | 0:43:32 | |
choose between his duty to the nation and his love for his son. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
He goes to seek advice from the head of the Spanish Inquisition. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:40 | |
The way the inquisitor is portrayed melodically, | 0:43:44 | 0:43:48 | |
and harmonically and rhythmically | 0:43:48 | 0:43:50 | |
is everything but evolution, | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
openness of spirit and generosity. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:57 | |
It is orthodoxy, it is this kind of unflinching refusal | 0:43:57 | 0:44:03 | |
of anything that would be questioning the accepted forms. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:09 | |
The grand inquisitor is old and blind. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:23 | |
Verdi never explicitly stated his views on religion, | 0:44:23 | 0:44:26 | |
but his depiction of the inquisitor is by no means flattering. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:30 | |
Verdi is pretty risque with his dealings with the Church | 0:44:33 | 0:44:37 | |
and how he portrays the Church. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:39 | |
This adamantine, fearsome character in the inquisitor is not | 0:44:39 | 0:44:44 | |
a depiction of love, it's an edifice to be feared. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:48 | |
The King is asking the inquisitor whether he should kill | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
his rebellious son for the good of the country | 0:44:53 | 0:44:56 | |
or spare him out of fatherly love. | 0:44:56 | 0:44:58 | |
Verdi's portrait of the grand inquisitor in Don Carlos | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
can probably help us to understand his views on the Catholic Church | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
and formalised religion. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:39 | |
Verdi himself was a suspected agnostic, someone that | 0:45:39 | 0:45:43 | |
neither believes nor disbelieves. | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
It is quite interesting that one of his most powerful works | 0:45:45 | 0:45:50 | |
written just a few years after Don Carlos was Requiem. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
It was on the death in 1873 of the poet Manzoni, | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
nationalist and fervent supporter of the new Italy, | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
that Verdi wrote Requiem in his honour. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
Here was a whole new opportunity for Verdi to apply not only his heart, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:13 | |
but his well-honed dramatic skills to a different form. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:17 | |
A traditional mass would normally be sung | 0:46:20 | 0:46:22 | |
as part of a funeral service, but Verdi invested the full force | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
of his dramatic skills for maximum impact. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
More suitable for the concert platform | 0:46:29 | 0:46:32 | |
in a large chorus of mixed voices. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
Nevertheless, the occasion and subject matter | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
demanded a more sober setting. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
Even here, Verdi would have to compromise on some things. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:45 | |
On the first anniversary of Manzoni's death, | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
Verdi's Requiem was premiered here in the church of San Marco. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:54 | |
Since papal convention decreed that no female voices were allowed | 0:46:54 | 0:46:58 | |
to perform in church, Verdi petitioned the Archbishop | 0:46:58 | 0:47:02 | |
and an agreement was reached. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:03 | |
Not only were the women made to wear veils, | 0:47:03 | 0:47:07 | |
but they were also shielded by screens. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
MUSIC: "Requiem" by Verdi | 0:47:11 | 0:47:13 | |
It doesn't do in church, | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
because it's a concert piece. But you cannot help, even if | 0:47:33 | 0:47:37 | |
you are listening to it in the Albert Hall or wherever, | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
to be moved by the words, the music | 0:47:40 | 0:47:46 | |
and what it evokes in your own heart. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:47 | |
Verdi set his Requiem for vast forces. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
Four soloists backed up by a double choir and orchestra. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:58 | |
Verdi takes the religious text as a starting point | 0:48:06 | 0:48:09 | |
then he writes music that, for me, really seeks to capture | 0:48:09 | 0:48:13 | |
the dramatic and emotional force inherent in it. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
I think his talent was to express any emotional colour | 0:48:18 | 0:48:22 | |
and put it into harmony. | 0:48:22 | 0:48:24 | |
And to make it and to build a structure in such a way that | 0:48:24 | 0:48:28 | |
it becomes visible. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
You can almost touch it. It's 3-D. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:36 | |
-Those four chords... -They grab you! | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
It's the last day of the judgement. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:45 | |
Doors of heaven, doors of hell, everything is open. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:48 | |
The day of wrath. Dies irae. | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
All his operatic and his dramatic experience, | 0:48:58 | 0:49:01 | |
obviously he put into this piece. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:03 | |
He saw this piece in a dramatic way. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:07 | |
He had a vision of this last judgement where you have | 0:49:37 | 0:49:41 | |
the great contrast between drama, | 0:49:41 | 0:49:44 | |
between hope and fear, hope and despair. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
And I think he touches people. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
It was a gigantic achievement on his part | 0:50:23 | 0:50:25 | |
that was important, first to him | 0:50:25 | 0:50:27 | |
because he knew what he wanted to express, | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
but eventually became so important to the rest of the world. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:34 | |
But I would say the word, "spiritual" is more adequate than, "religious" | 0:50:34 | 0:50:39 | |
because there are many religions, but there is only one spirituality. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:42 | |
Verdi wrote the final movement first. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:55 | |
In it, the entire journey | 0:50:55 | 0:50:57 | |
from judgement to eternal rest is summarised. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:01 | |
But tellingly, Verdi chooses not to say | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
where our final resting place may be. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
With no strength, with no power, with no voice, | 0:51:09 | 0:51:14 | |
he wrote the last, "Libera...me." | 0:51:14 | 0:51:17 | |
It's like the last breath, | 0:51:17 | 0:51:19 | |
when the soul comes and leaves your body. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:22 | |
It always happens after the "Libera Me." | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
It meant silence after that, | 0:51:25 | 0:51:27 | |
and I thought that's what Verdi wanted. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
By the late 1870s, Verdi had all but retired. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:48 | |
Thanks to the huge popularity of his works | 0:51:48 | 0:51:50 | |
and vigorous copyright that came with their performance, | 0:51:50 | 0:51:54 | |
he was a very rich and comfortable man. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
It would not have been surprising if he HAD retired. | 0:51:56 | 0:52:00 | |
But maybe he still had something to say. | 0:52:00 | 0:52:03 | |
It was in 1879 that Verdi met with Arrigo Boito, | 0:52:06 | 0:52:11 | |
a brilliant librettist | 0:52:11 | 0:52:12 | |
who was keen on the operatic possibilities in Shakespeare. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:16 | |
Given Verdi's own passion for the playwright, | 0:52:16 | 0:52:19 | |
this was an opportunity too tempting to ignore. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
It took eight years, but in 1887, | 0:52:24 | 0:52:27 | |
La Scala saw the fruit of their collaboration - Otello. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
And this is where Verdi really showed what he could do, | 0:52:31 | 0:52:34 | |
not just with voice, but with the orchestra. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:37 | |
Verdi and Boito, | 0:52:37 | 0:52:40 | |
they thought that if you open with a disaster, | 0:52:40 | 0:52:45 | |
naturalistic disaster, | 0:52:45 | 0:52:46 | |
the people will be inside of the story immediately. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
-Immediately! -And they opened with a storm. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
HE SCREAMS AND MIMICS ORCHESTRA | 0:52:53 | 0:52:57 | |
"Oh, my God! Where we are?!" | 0:52:57 | 0:52:59 | |
And then the diminuendo. Of course, the evolution of Verdi | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
is bring the people to the drama immediately. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
The atmosphere and terror of a storm at sea. | 0:53:08 | 0:53:11 | |
Verdi uses the orchestra for thrilling sound effects. | 0:53:11 | 0:53:14 | |
The people in the audience, they don't know, but he used the organ. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:18 | |
HE MIMICS ORGAN WHOOSHING | 0:53:18 | 0:53:20 | |
-In the organ, uh-huh. -Yeah, but you don't understand it is the organ. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:24 | |
It is inside. For ten minutes. HE MIMICS ORGAN WHOOSHING | 0:53:24 | 0:53:28 | |
But it's something that disturbs you. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
-Then he combines that with... -With the storm! | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
Horns, violins, wind... | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
The chorus! | 0:53:43 | 0:53:45 | |
And for ten minutes, you are completely... | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
-Drawn into this... -Drawn in the chair! | 0:53:48 | 0:53:51 | |
We're not understanding what's going on. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
What's happened to your life?! | 0:53:54 | 0:53:56 | |
The orchestra is not only telling what is happening in nature, | 0:54:21 | 0:54:25 | |
but it is another character. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:26 | |
Like, he understood that at some point, | 0:54:26 | 0:54:28 | |
he had to change the attitude of the orchestra, or of orchestration. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
Immediately, he becomes something. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
Suddenly, he starts to speak without words. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:39 | |
The music serves herself. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:41 | |
It is joined with the text, but you can do the music without the words. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:46 | |
It works. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:48 | |
And here is a great example. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
Out of jealousy, Otello is intending to kill his wife, Desdemona. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:57 | |
TENTATIVE, MELANCHOLY STRINGS | 0:54:57 | 0:55:00 | |
He walks in, stealthily. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:02 | |
Apprehensive and nervous, yet still unsure. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
Verdi puts it all in the music. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
And the music tells us his decision. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
STRINGS BECOME URGENT AND STACCATO | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
Verdi would go on to write another opera in his 80th year. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:54 | |
But the last music he composed were Four Sacred Pieces, | 0:55:54 | 0:55:58 | |
set for choir and orchestra. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:00 | |
CHOIR SINGS | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
Verdi spent the last years of his life | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
mainly in the quiet of the country, back at St Agata. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:20 | |
But at the age of 88, the great maestro died. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:33 | |
At his funeral in Milan, | 0:56:33 | 0:56:35 | |
a vast gathering of 200,000 lined the streets. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:40 | |
Verdi remained inscrutable to the last, | 0:56:40 | 0:56:44 | |
but I find it telling that, of all the music he wrote, | 0:56:44 | 0:56:47 | |
it is said that he wished to be buried with one of these. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:51 | |
The Te Deum. "Thee, O God, We Praise." | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
Giuseppe Verdi is the quintessential artist. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
Not only did he push the human voice to new heights, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:05 | |
but through his mastery of text | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
and genius use of orchestral colour, | 0:57:08 | 0:57:10 | |
he created pure, intense drama in music | 0:57:10 | 0:57:14 | |
and carried the opera from 19th to 20th century. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:18 | |
For him, opera was not only for the elite, | 0:57:18 | 0:57:20 | |
but should really be for everybody. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:23 | |
Today, we can all relate to his three-dimensional characters, | 0:57:23 | 0:57:26 | |
but most important, we can also sing along with his wonderful tunes. | 0:57:26 | 0:57:31 | |
And that is why Verdi and his music will never, ever die. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:36 | |
Viva Verdi! | 0:57:36 | 0:57:37 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:06 | 0:58:10 |