The Genius of Verdi with Rolando Villazón


The Genius of Verdi with Rolando Villazón

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# Questa o quella, per me pari sono

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# A quant'altre d'intorno

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D'intorno mi vedo...#

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I am Rolando Villazon and as a singer,

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I have the pleasure of living and breathing the music

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of a true genius of the operatic stage.

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Giuseppe Verdi.

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# Di que il fato ne infiora la vita... #

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To sing his music is to connect directly with the human soul,

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with its joy, its suffering, its force.

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His music tells us what it means to be human

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with such truth that watching and listening, no matter who you are,

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you cannot but recognise yourself.

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Verdi composed a huge body of music for the opera house,

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which, today, is performed all over the world.

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But by looking at just six of my favourites

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and meeting some of my colleagues along the way, I want to show you

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why this music has come to be loved by everyone who hears it,

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how his characters are able to speak to us so meaningfully.

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# Degli amanti le smanie, derido... #

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And why he remains, for me,

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one of the most important opera composers of all time.

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# Se mi punge

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# Una qualche belta. #

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Think of opera and you think Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata,

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Rigoletto, Aida, some of the most famous operas in the world.

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Verdi's long and hugely successful career

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spanned most of the 19th century.

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Everything Verdi composed had an impact.

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The subjects he chose covered a whole arch of the human experience.

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Politics and religion, tragedy and comedy, power and love.

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# La mia latizia infondere

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# Vorrei nel suo bel core... #

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For me, Verdi was the consummate artist,

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but he was famously inscrutable.

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Through his letters, we learn about him as a working composer,

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but little about the intensely private man himself.

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He left his ideas and beliefs to be played out through his music.

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His fabulous tunes reveal a man who knows how to reach out

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and connect with everyone.

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# Al cielo, ed ergermi... #

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People in the street cheered Verdi.

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People in the street sang Verdi tunes,

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but I don't think he wants to impress us.

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He wanted to move people.

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Absolutely. But one of the gifts of great, great composers

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is precisely this.

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Because it is so important to talk,

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to be very close to the generation of today

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and Verdi sounds as fresh today as it sounded fresh in his time.

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Verdi came from a humble background.

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He was born in 1813 in the small farming village of Roncole,

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about 100 miles from Milan.

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His parents were innkeepers.

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Here, Verdi would have been exposed to the ordinary pressures of life

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and what people cared about.

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The family were regular churchgoers and it was as a part-time organist

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in the local church that Verdi's musical roots took hold.

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He is so much a child of his country and what it went through,

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Italy, of the 19th century, at the time when he was born,

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it was not a unified country at all.

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It was a number of kingdoms and dialects.

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The Italian people were subjects ruled over by the Austrians,

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French and Spanish, all jostling for supremacy.

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Censorship was commonplace and large gatherings were banned.

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However, the one place people were allowed to meet was the theatre.

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The opera scene in Europe wasn't as widespread as it is today.

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In Germany, Wagner had still to make his mark with his mythical epics.

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The main focus was in Paris,

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where the theatrical extravaganzas of Meyerbeer dominated.

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And closer to home in Milan,

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the three giants of Italian music ruled.

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Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.

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Presenting love stories or tragedies that audiences expected,

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told through a formalised set of arias, duets and choruses.

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# Ah, non credea mirarti...#

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This was the musical establishment

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and Verdi knew he had to conquer it

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to then take the art form to new heights.

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So, it was to Milan, intellectual and operatic capital of Italy,

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that he first set his sights and it was here at La Scala opera house,

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where high society, the movers, shakers and taste-makers met.

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Publishers, theatre managers, opera houses,

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you don't get any affection from Verdi for these places.

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They were necessary evils.

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Without them, he couldn't write his operas,

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but he was at their mercy.

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But the forces of destiny weren't going to give Verdi an easy ride.

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Aged 18, he auditioned here for the Milan Conservatory,

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but was rejected.

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What's more, a few years later,

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both Verdi's children died in infancy,

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shortly followed by his young wife. Verdi was just 26.

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He was completely transformed, I think,

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by the death of his wife and children,

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following which he was by nature lonely, melancholic and depressive.

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The loneliness, I think, gave him this extraordinary desire,

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urge and need to reach out and speak, which is

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where his phenomenally populist and popular talent, I think, comes from.

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Verdi's theatrical career really took off thanks to

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his persistence and an uncanny ability to know the right people.

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With his opera, Nabucco, Verdi proved he knew what could capture

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an audience's appetite.

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Rousing tunes and powerful theatre.

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And the Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves,

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would assume a much bigger significance later in his life.

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But for now, the young man who failed to get into the Conservatory

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was firmly on the musical map and he was hungry for success.

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Verdi felt he had to find something that set him apart from the rest.

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One thing that mattered deeply to him was his choice of plots.

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The subjects that Verdi chose were a platform

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not only for telling a good story, but most important,

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one that allowed him to explore themes and emotions

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that really meant something to him.

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I find it fascinating that next to his bed,

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Verdi kept a well thumbed copy of The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare.

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Here was a goldmine of stories

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that most of his audiences would not have heard before.

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Of course, today, everybody in the world knows who Shakespeare was.

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But in 19th century Italy, illiteracy was common

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and Shakespeare's work was hardly known.

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So, for Verdi, this was extraordinary unfamiliar material

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that inspired him to be innovative and new.

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Macbeth was Verdi's first Shakespearean opera.

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Out of the blue, he produced a dark study of power, ambition and evil.

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There are very few set pieces to break up the action.

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Instead, Verdi gives us a continuous and theatrical rite.

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He turned a very complex, psychological drama

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into a Tim Burton movie.

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It has its own visual, colour, atmosphere.

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It's all cries, groans, darkness, mood.

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There is a whole horrible nightmare world around Macbeth...

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..which is physical in Verdi, not only psychological.

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For me, Macbeth shows Verdi's real mastery of theatre.

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You understand the stress he put on the theatrical element.

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You have three groups of witches. Each one singing a sentence.

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# Che faceste?

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# Dite su!

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# Ho sgozzato un verro.

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# E tu?

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# M'e frullata nel pensier

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# M'e frullata nel pensier... #

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Verdi, on the writing of The Witches, he writes,

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please, never forget that they're witches speaking.

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It is almost not singing.

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You don't need that.

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Not to sing a beautiful line, but you have to throw the words.

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THEY SING

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I think rhythm is extremely important in how Verdi creates,

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through the orchestra and the combination of all the voices,

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this very particular atmosphere. Not all the composers can do that.

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They are a very nocturnal colour.

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What Verdi will say again, you can describe not only as a colour

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but really a shade, a particular nuance.

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By expanding Shakespeare's Three Witches to more than 30,

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Verdi establishes a dramatic role for the supernatural,

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as a character in its own right.

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He was something altogether different,

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a distinctive mood in music.

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In music, we often talk about colour,

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and colour was something of particular importance for Verdi.

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It is almost as if he created these subconscious layers

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that define each of his operas,

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gives them a unified feel, a personality.

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How does he achieve that?

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Well, through words, rhythm, melody,

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through orchestration.

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Nobody illustrates better than him the inner forces of the characters.

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Traditionally, the hero in opera would be a tenor,

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but for this troubled anti-hero, Verdi broke with the norm

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and cast Macbeth as a baritone.

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A darker voice better suited to Macbeth's troubled character.

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One of the biggest challenges is to try and manipulate people

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through colour, through sound and not just through text.

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It's very true of Verdi, that Macbeth, so much, is the colour.

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He's an extreme for me.

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You don't want any joy, you don't want any pathos,

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you don't want any sentimentality.

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He doesn't deserve it and shouldn't get it.

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The hooded nature of this...filthy character

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has got to be in the sound, I think.

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Macbeth, general of King Duncan's army, is consumed by ambition.

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He has planned to kill the King and take the crown for himself.

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To take on a new tranche of colours, Verdi reinvented the baritone voice.

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You have great new vocal vistas open to you.

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He's increased the opportunities for the baritone's top register

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by about an octave.

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He actually, to a large extent,

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invented modern singing for the baritone.

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Macbeth was hugely successful.

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Verdi took the baritone to new heights, but most interesting,

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he broke with some established conventions.

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This opera had no love story.

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However, Verdi's own life was not devoid of love.

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Seven years after his wife died,

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he began an affair with soprano Giuseppina Strepponi.

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Strepponi was a gifted actress and singer who had appeared

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in Nabucco at La Scala.

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By the time of the affair, she was teaching young singers,

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promoting the particular approach that Verdi's operas demanded.

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And one of the fundamental building blocks to that approach

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was the significance that Verdi attached to the text.

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It wasn't what the words sounded like,

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it's what they meant that he cared about.

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It's what the words contained.

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Verdi was dependent on the poets to give him the text

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that was as vivid as he needed it to be

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for the kind of music that he wanted to write.

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The libretto for Il Cosaro was written by Francesco Maria Piave,

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a poet who was to go on to write the words for 10 of Verdi's operas.

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He would know full well what Verdi demanded from his text.

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Verdi was so demanding towards his librettist.

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He was never happy and he was...

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"Please, that's too much, that's too long.

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"You need to be really essential, you need to go to the focus,

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"you need to go to the essential."

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Don't attack.

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But it isn't just the librettist that has to get it right.

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For us singers, the key to fathom Verdi's intentions,

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is to understand the drama in the text.

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Janine Reiss, has coached some of the greatest singers

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in the business.

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Domingo, Pavarotti, Callas.

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It's almost as if one would hear Verdi saying why he chose to compose

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almost exclusively for the human voice,

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because it allowed him

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-to work with words.

-Absolutely.

-To express through music and the word

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the emotions and the feelings of the characters.

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I am a prisoner. What does it mean for a human being to be a prisoner?

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It means to be separated from the whole world.

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If the interpretation of the artist is as it should be,

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you don't see any more of the stage.

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You are with the interpreter in prison with him.

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Verdi was really, not only inspired by the text, but he wrote

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the music of the feelings which were expressed in the text.

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So you have a score and you have to respect the score

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and try to go as far as you can

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to find exactly what the composer wanted.

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One of the things Verdi wanted most was to give us

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convincing characters, truly three-dimensional portrayals.

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For me, one of the most multifaceted is Rigoletto.

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Here we have a Duke presiding over a bigoted court.

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There is rape, murder, corruption, professional assassins.

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It's the damnation of the ruling elite in a complex morality tale.

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Rigoletto, jester at the court of the lecherous Duke of Mantua,

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leads a double life.

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A public one as a cynical foil to jeering courtiers

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and a private one as the overprotective father

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to his daughter Gilda.

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These two worlds brutally collide

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with the Duke's seduction of his willing daughter.

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Rigoletto swears vengeance.

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There is no doubt that for the audiences in mid-19th century Italy,

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the subject matter was shocking.

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But it was also a hot potato politically.

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Rigoletto is based on Victor Hugo's play Le Roi S'Amuse,

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which shows the French King as a libertine.

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In France, this was perceived as an attack of the natural order

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and it was banned just after the first performance.

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Verdi knew that in Italy he would have the same problem with his opera.

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Rigoletto was a commission from La Fenice Opera House in Venice,

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at the time under Austrian control.

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Their censor saw this as a criticism of the establishment,

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and subversive.

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But Verdi was undaunted.

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He described it as "great, immense and has a character that is one

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"of the most important creations of theatre".

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So, to get around the censors, Verdi changed the location

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from the Court of France to the Dukedom of Mantua,

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which had long ceased to exist.

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The elements of the story, however, remained intact.

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It takes like the tops, the cream of all human emotion,

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of disgusting, of beautiful, and he experiments with the mix.

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Like a cocktail,

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which the public has to drink.

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Rigoletto is probably Verdi's most significant,

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most complete and most disturbing opera.

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It's where he matches brilliantly this Shakespearean idea of comedy,

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of wit, of humour, interspersed with a great tragedy.

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Um...

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And he creates a character of awe-inspiring selfishness.

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In the first act, Rigoletto is sycophantic and manipulative.

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And his music is close to the character of the Duke's.

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In Verdi, the revolution is we have every time, but every time,

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and it is really amazing, the perfect connection

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between the character of the music and the drama.

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Then, in Act Two, Verdi shows us a different side to Rigoletto.

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The sympathetic and loving father,

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comforting his daughter after the Duke has had his way with her.

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Intent on revenge,

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the last act sees an altogether different, dark side

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of Rigoletto's character,

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as he arranges to have the Duke assassinated.

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Verdi's great talent, that he writes of profound, dark, ugly emotions.

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He confronts who we are...

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..and he does it with fantastically popular melodies

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that attracts everybody to the material.

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In the last act, Verdi wrote a tune that perfectly encapsulates

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the character of the Duke - shallow and two-dimensional.

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The tenor in the Rigoletto is the lover,

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but in this case he is a really bad character.

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He's the bad way of lover.

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Verdi knew what a hit this would be, banning his cast from singing

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or even whistling it in public before the premiere.

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This famous aria is much more than just a hit tune.

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It shows how Verdi was a master of the theatre.

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Not only does it encapsulate the Duke's amoral

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and devil-may-care character, but by the end of the opera,

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it serves a far more shocking purpose.

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The assassin has brought Rigoletto a sack.

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He believes it holds the dead Duke.

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But the audience knows that it is actually his daughter.

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And then Verdi delivers the lightning strike.

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THE DUKE SINGS ARIA

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The impact is huge.

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A deeply distressing moment of pure theatre

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conveyed through a lightweight song.

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Verdi satisfies the dramatic element, not in any melodramatic way -

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in a real, interesting, theatrical investigation.

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He gives you real theatre, not just tableaux.

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Unable to renounce her love for the Duke, Gilda has sacrificed herself.

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That courage to put so unsympathetic a man on the stage,

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ugly not only in body but ugly in soul, is quite fascinating

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because often it's the ugliness of Rigoletto which lifts

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an audience to its feet cheering.

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Rigoletto is a testament to Verdi's skill at fusing all

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the elements to create a powerful dramatic experience.

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At the premiere, audiences loved it and it took

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no time at all for La donna e mobile to be heard in the streets.

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Aged 38, Verdi was the undisputed king of Italian opera.

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He was rich, famous and at the height of his powers.

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But there were still aspects of his life that were troubled.

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His affair with Strepponi had blossomed, but rather like

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one of his characters, she had a questionable reputation,

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having had at least four illegitimate children before meeting Verdi.

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Verdi took her to live with him in Busseto,

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the town of his deceased wife's family.

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Of course, this didn't go down at all well

0:28:520:28:55

with the small-minded and bourgeois locals,

0:28:550:28:58

who whilst proud of their famous son, shunned his mistress.

0:28:580:29:02

Amidst this turmoil, Verdi was still travelling abroad

0:29:040:29:08

and accepting commissions.

0:29:080:29:10

In 1852, Verdi was eager to find new material for a commission

0:29:100:29:16

at La Fenice Opera House in Venice.

0:29:160:29:18

But he complained that he couldn't find the right subject.

0:29:180:29:21

He wrote, "It is easy to find commonplace stories,

0:29:210:29:25

"but it is very, very difficult to find one that has all

0:29:250:29:28

"the qualities needed if it is to have an impact.

0:29:280:29:32

"One that is also original and provocative."

0:29:320:29:36

And it was here in Paris that he found what he needed,

0:29:400:29:44

a poignant story based on the real life of a tragic young woman.

0:29:440:29:48

This is the grave of Marie Duplessis,

0:29:510:29:54

a notorious courtesan and mistress of many wealthy and powerful men.

0:29:540:29:58

Extremely beautiful and witty,

0:29:580:30:00

she was a legendary figure of mid-19th-century Paris.

0:30:000:30:04

But her life ended tragically.

0:30:040:30:06

She died of consumption at the age of just 23.

0:30:060:30:11

One of her lovers was the great writer Alexandre Dumas

0:30:110:30:15

and he was about to immortalise her on the stage.

0:30:150:30:19

Their short love affair would go on to form the basis of his play

0:30:210:30:25

La Dame Aux Camelias,

0:30:250:30:27

The Lady Of The Camelias, which was an instant hit.

0:30:270:30:30

On seeing Dumas' play La Dame Aux Camelias, Verdi finally found

0:30:320:30:36

the raw material he had been searching for.

0:30:360:30:39

The story goes that as soon as the curtain fell, he ran immediately

0:30:390:30:44

into his apartment and started sketching the music for La Traviata.

0:30:440:30:48

La Traviata, or The Fallen Woman, is a story that must have had

0:30:520:30:57

echoes with Verdi's own relationship with Strepponi.

0:30:570:31:01

At its centre is Violetta, a courtesan, a kept woman,

0:31:010:31:05

admired but never really accepted into society.

0:31:050:31:08

But what I think is wonderful is the way Verdi makes the audience

0:31:090:31:14

not only accept her, but actually care about her.

0:31:140:31:18

Audiences love her.

0:31:200:31:22

What I think people love most about this opera,

0:31:220:31:24

besides the way it's composed, the beautiful tunes

0:31:240:31:28

and the power of the music, that's number one.

0:31:280:31:30

Number two is that she ultimately has more integrity

0:31:300:31:33

than every other character in the piece.

0:31:330:31:35

And she is supposed to be the one who has the lowest morals

0:31:350:31:39

and in fact, she rises above everyone else.

0:31:390:31:43

Violetta knows she is dying,

0:32:020:32:04

but she lives a life of endless parties, liaisons and lovers.

0:32:040:32:08

Into her world steps a young man named Alfredo,

0:32:080:32:11

who offers her a chance of true love.

0:32:110:32:14

La Traviata is about the choices she has to make

0:32:160:32:19

between the superficial life she's accustomed to

0:32:190:32:23

and the sacrifices for love.

0:32:230:32:25

Passionate, that's what it is.

0:32:270:32:30

It's passion, raw feeling, raw emotion and ultimately

0:32:300:32:35

if someone comes to an Italian opera, they're expecting to feel something.

0:32:350:32:39

They're expecting to have a visceral, emotional,

0:32:390:32:44

physical reaction to the opera.

0:32:440:32:47

Not cerebral, not, "Oh, that was lovely," but...in the gut.

0:32:470:32:52

Alfredo has declared his love, and Violetta is left confused.

0:32:590:33:04

What follows is ten minutes of some of Verdi's most intimate theatre,

0:33:040:33:08

as she shares her innermost thoughts with us.

0:33:080:33:11

I love the way Verdi does this. By putting such a woman on stage,

0:33:110:33:15

alone, Verdi is pushing us to embrace her predicament

0:33:150:33:20

as something we will recognise and accept.

0:33:200:33:23

That's where the drama plays out and where the real story plays out

0:33:500:33:53

and the questions, all of the sort of -

0:33:530:33:55

is it this or is it that, is this real love? What about my life?

0:33:550:33:59

She's completely out of control at this point.

0:34:170:34:21

And she's fighting the truth, which is that she's already in deep,

0:34:210:34:25

you know. That's the way love is sometimes, it just hits you

0:34:250:34:28

when you least expect it and when you least want it sometimes.

0:34:280:34:32

But by putting a character such as Violetta on stage,

0:34:360:34:39

Verdi was again going to get into hot water.

0:34:390:34:43

The Venetian censors and the opera management objected to Verdi's wish

0:34:430:34:47

to stage La Traviata in contemporary times and in modern dress.

0:34:470:34:51

It was far too close for comfort.

0:34:520:34:55

They insisted that Verdi set it at a safe distance,

0:34:550:34:59

around the 1700s,

0:34:590:35:01

far from any direct comparison with their own audience.

0:35:010:35:03

And in the Second Act,

0:35:030:35:06

Violetta comes up against the same bourgeois attitudes.

0:35:060:35:10

Violetta has given up her life

0:35:130:35:15

and is living a blissful existence with Alfredo.

0:35:150:35:19

Then, Alfredo's father Germont comes to demand that the liaison ends,

0:35:190:35:24

as it jeopardises his own daughter's marriage.

0:35:240:35:27

Germont is the representation

0:35:290:35:32

of the society and the oppressive world

0:35:320:35:35

in which this beautiful flower Traviata

0:35:350:35:38

and this wonderful love story is trapped in.

0:35:380:35:42

It's a world that doesn't allow that to happen.

0:35:420:35:46

And Germont embodies that.

0:35:460:35:49

This cannot happen under the rules of life as he understands it.

0:35:580:36:03

And I think Verdi captures that beautifully.

0:36:030:36:07

And now Verdi really ups the demands on her voice,

0:36:110:36:15

calling for a big dramatic sound to express her intense anger.

0:36:150:36:19

It's the most heartbreaking moment, and the way he does it too,

0:36:350:36:40

because they're singing and arguing and singing and arguing

0:36:400:36:43

and suddenly time stops.

0:36:430:36:45

And just out of nowhere comes this "ah" in the little voice

0:36:450:36:48

that's completely exposed, and in that "ah" is a lifetime of pain.

0:36:480:36:54

That moment is absolutely where the opera turns.

0:37:450:37:49

It's the turning point of the entire piece.

0:37:490:37:52

Every hope and, you know, she...

0:37:520:37:55

It's just one of the most heartbreaking moments

0:37:550:37:58

in all of opera, I think.

0:37:580:38:00

The Final Act finds her back in Paris, alone, penniless and dying.

0:38:060:38:11

I think La Traviata is one of the greatest operas of all time.

0:38:400:38:45

Through the extremes of music and voice,

0:38:450:38:49

Verdi expresses a wide range of emotion.

0:38:490:38:52

He captures our sympathy and we care deeply about Violetta's fate.

0:38:520:38:57

But by putting a classy yet kept woman on stage,

0:39:020:39:05

maybe the characters were too real for the first-night audience.

0:39:050:39:09

It didn't go at all well.

0:39:090:39:11

Verdi himself was deeply frustrated, dismissing the premiere as a fiasco.

0:39:110:39:16

Although Verdi makes no direct link to the character of Violetta,

0:39:160:39:20

you could argue that one of the reasons that he felt

0:39:200:39:22

so attracted to the subject of an ostracised woman was his

0:39:220:39:26

witnessing of Giuseppina Strepponi's own non-acceptance by society.

0:39:260:39:31

Maybe through Violetta, he wanted to thumb his nose to the bourgeoisie.

0:39:310:39:37

It wasn't until a year later,

0:39:390:39:42

with performances at a different theatre and a handpicked cast

0:39:420:39:47

that Verdi's La Traviata triumphed.

0:39:470:39:49

Today it is said that on any night,

0:39:490:39:52

somewhere in the world, La Traviata is being performed.

0:39:520:39:56

Verdi was now very famous.

0:39:590:40:01

The boy from a country inn had become a national icon.

0:40:010:40:04

By now, Verdi was living with Strepponi at Sant'Agata

0:40:080:40:11

in a farm deep in the Italian countryside

0:40:110:40:14

and one removed from society's demands on him.

0:40:140:40:16

But he was not going to drop out of sight completely.

0:40:160:40:21

The diverse states that made up the Italian peninsula were going

0:40:210:40:25

through a period of upheaval, and Verdi himself was to become

0:40:250:40:29

inextricably linked to this spirit of revolutionary change.

0:40:290:40:33

The country was beginning to unite under a new king, Vittorio Emanuele II.

0:40:350:40:40

In 1861, the occupiers were kicked out

0:40:400:40:44

and a new cry was heard in the streets and scrawled on the walls.

0:40:440:40:48

"Viva Verdi."

0:40:480:40:50

Viva Verdi.

0:40:530:40:55

You know, Orlando, in Verdi's times all of the people were celebrating.

0:40:550:40:59

"Viva Verdi." Viva Verdi had a double meaning,

0:40:590:41:02

because Verdi you can use like...

0:41:020:41:04

In 1861, Verdi himself was persuaded to enter Parliament,

0:41:170:41:23

a cultural symbol, as the international face of the new Italy.

0:41:230:41:28

He was not interested in politics as a means of gaining power.

0:41:320:41:36

He didn't need any, he had it. He was worshipped by his own people.

0:41:360:41:40

For whom Va Pensiero, which is the chorus in Nabucco

0:41:410:41:45

has become identified with the call for national independence

0:41:450:41:50

and national identity.

0:41:500:41:52

MUSIC: "Nabucco" by Vivaldi

0:41:520:41:56

Va Pensiero, up until today, it's the most important musical

0:42:200:42:25

and artistic identification of a country. No?

0:42:250:42:29

Yes, for a while we consider the possibility

0:42:290:42:33

-to have it as a national anthem.

-Of course. I think that's amazing.

0:42:330:42:38

The Italian nation soon however had its critics.

0:42:400:42:43

In 1864, the Pope Pius IX condemned democracy,

0:42:430:42:48

freedom of the press and the new Italy as anti-Catholic.

0:42:480:42:53

Something that would not have been lost on Verdi.

0:42:530:42:56

Verdi's operas frequently touched on the great themes of liberty,

0:42:590:43:03

power and politics. None more so than Don Carlos.

0:43:030:43:08

An epic five-part opera based on a story by the German poet Schiller.

0:43:080:43:12

But one of the most overwhelming moments is what I think to be

0:43:130:43:17

a very personal statement by Verdi about the place

0:43:170:43:20

and power of organised religion.

0:43:200:43:23

There is a scene in Don Carlos where the king has to

0:43:290:43:32

choose between his duty to the nation and his love for his son.

0:43:320:43:36

He goes to seek advice from the head of the Spanish Inquisition.

0:43:360:43:40

The way the inquisitor is portrayed melodically,

0:43:440:43:48

and harmonically and rhythmically

0:43:480:43:50

is everything but evolution,

0:43:500:43:54

openness of spirit and generosity.

0:43:540:43:57

It is orthodoxy, it is this kind of unflinching refusal

0:43:570:44:03

of anything that would be questioning the accepted forms.

0:44:030:44:09

The grand inquisitor is old and blind.

0:44:200:44:23

Verdi never explicitly stated his views on religion,

0:44:230:44:26

but his depiction of the inquisitor is by no means flattering.

0:44:260:44:30

Verdi is pretty risque with his dealings with the Church

0:44:330:44:37

and how he portrays the Church.

0:44:370:44:39

This adamantine, fearsome character in the inquisitor is not

0:44:390:44:44

a depiction of love, it's an edifice to be feared.

0:44:440:44:48

The King is asking the inquisitor whether he should kill

0:44:500:44:53

his rebellious son for the good of the country

0:44:530:44:56

or spare him out of fatherly love.

0:44:560:44:58

Verdi's portrait of the grand inquisitor in Don Carlos

0:45:310:45:34

can probably help us to understand his views on the Catholic Church

0:45:340:45:37

and formalised religion.

0:45:370:45:39

Verdi himself was a suspected agnostic, someone that

0:45:390:45:43

neither believes nor disbelieves.

0:45:430:45:45

It is quite interesting that one of his most powerful works

0:45:450:45:50

written just a few years after Don Carlos was Requiem.

0:45:500:45:53

It was on the death in 1873 of the poet Manzoni,

0:45:560:45:59

nationalist and fervent supporter of the new Italy,

0:45:590:46:03

that Verdi wrote Requiem in his honour.

0:46:030:46:06

Here was a whole new opportunity for Verdi to apply not only his heart,

0:46:080:46:13

but his well-honed dramatic skills to a different form.

0:46:130:46:17

A traditional mass would normally be sung

0:46:200:46:22

as part of a funeral service, but Verdi invested the full force

0:46:220:46:26

of his dramatic skills for maximum impact.

0:46:260:46:29

More suitable for the concert platform

0:46:290:46:32

in a large chorus of mixed voices.

0:46:320:46:35

Nevertheless, the occasion and subject matter

0:46:350:46:38

demanded a more sober setting.

0:46:380:46:40

Even here, Verdi would have to compromise on some things.

0:46:410:46:45

On the first anniversary of Manzoni's death,

0:46:460:46:49

Verdi's Requiem was premiered here in the church of San Marco.

0:46:490:46:54

Since papal convention decreed that no female voices were allowed

0:46:540:46:58

to perform in church, Verdi petitioned the Archbishop

0:46:580:47:02

and an agreement was reached.

0:47:020:47:03

Not only were the women made to wear veils,

0:47:030:47:07

but they were also shielded by screens.

0:47:070:47:09

MUSIC: "Requiem" by Verdi

0:47:110:47:13

It doesn't do in church,

0:47:310:47:33

because it's a concert piece. But you cannot help, even if

0:47:330:47:37

you are listening to it in the Albert Hall or wherever,

0:47:370:47:40

to be moved by the words, the music

0:47:400:47:46

and what it evokes in your own heart.

0:47:460:47:47

Verdi set his Requiem for vast forces.

0:47:510:47:54

Four soloists backed up by a double choir and orchestra.

0:47:540:47:58

Verdi takes the religious text as a starting point

0:48:060:48:09

then he writes music that, for me, really seeks to capture

0:48:090:48:13

the dramatic and emotional force inherent in it.

0:48:130:48:16

I think his talent was to express any emotional colour

0:48:180:48:22

and put it into harmony.

0:48:220:48:24

And to make it and to build a structure in such a way that

0:48:240:48:28

it becomes visible.

0:48:280:48:30

You can almost touch it. It's 3-D.

0:48:300:48:36

-Those four chords...

-They grab you!

0:48:400:48:43

It's the last day of the judgement.

0:48:430:48:45

Doors of heaven, doors of hell, everything is open.

0:48:450:48:48

The day of wrath. Dies irae.

0:48:480:48:51

All his operatic and his dramatic experience,

0:48:580:49:01

obviously he put into this piece.

0:49:010:49:03

He saw this piece in a dramatic way.

0:49:030:49:07

He had a vision of this last judgement where you have

0:49:370:49:41

the great contrast between drama,

0:49:410:49:44

between hope and fear, hope and despair.

0:49:440:49:47

And I think he touches people.

0:49:500:49:52

It was a gigantic achievement on his part

0:50:230:50:25

that was important, first to him

0:50:250:50:27

because he knew what he wanted to express,

0:50:270:50:30

but eventually became so important to the rest of the world.

0:50:300:50:34

But I would say the word, "spiritual" is more adequate than, "religious"

0:50:340:50:39

because there are many religions, but there is only one spirituality.

0:50:390:50:42

Verdi wrote the final movement first.

0:50:530:50:55

In it, the entire journey

0:50:550:50:57

from judgement to eternal rest is summarised.

0:50:570:51:01

But tellingly, Verdi chooses not to say

0:51:010:51:03

where our final resting place may be.

0:51:030:51:05

With no strength, with no power, with no voice,

0:51:090:51:14

he wrote the last, "Libera...me."

0:51:140:51:17

It's like the last breath,

0:51:170:51:19

when the soul comes and leaves your body.

0:51:190:51:22

It always happens after the "Libera Me."

0:51:220:51:25

It meant silence after that,

0:51:250:51:27

and I thought that's what Verdi wanted.

0:51:270:51:30

By the late 1870s, Verdi had all but retired.

0:51:440:51:48

Thanks to the huge popularity of his works

0:51:480:51:50

and vigorous copyright that came with their performance,

0:51:500:51:54

he was a very rich and comfortable man.

0:51:540:51:56

It would not have been surprising if he HAD retired.

0:51:560:52:00

But maybe he still had something to say.

0:52:000:52:03

It was in 1879 that Verdi met with Arrigo Boito,

0:52:060:52:11

a brilliant librettist

0:52:110:52:12

who was keen on the operatic possibilities in Shakespeare.

0:52:120:52:16

Given Verdi's own passion for the playwright,

0:52:160:52:19

this was an opportunity too tempting to ignore.

0:52:190:52:22

It took eight years, but in 1887,

0:52:240:52:27

La Scala saw the fruit of their collaboration - Otello.

0:52:270:52:31

And this is where Verdi really showed what he could do,

0:52:310:52:34

not just with voice, but with the orchestra.

0:52:340:52:37

Verdi and Boito,

0:52:370:52:40

they thought that if you open with a disaster,

0:52:400:52:45

naturalistic disaster,

0:52:450:52:46

the people will be inside of the story immediately.

0:52:460:52:49

-Immediately!

-And they opened with a storm.

0:52:490:52:53

HE SCREAMS AND MIMICS ORCHESTRA

0:52:530:52:57

"Oh, my God! Where we are?!"

0:52:570:52:59

And then the diminuendo. Of course, the evolution of Verdi

0:52:590:53:02

is bring the people to the drama immediately.

0:53:020:53:05

The atmosphere and terror of a storm at sea.

0:53:080:53:11

Verdi uses the orchestra for thrilling sound effects.

0:53:110:53:14

The people in the audience, they don't know, but he used the organ.

0:53:140:53:18

HE MIMICS ORGAN WHOOSHING

0:53:180:53:20

-In the organ, uh-huh.

-Yeah, but you don't understand it is the organ.

0:53:200:53:24

It is inside. For ten minutes. HE MIMICS ORGAN WHOOSHING

0:53:240:53:28

But it's something that disturbs you.

0:53:280:53:31

-Then he combines that with...

-With the storm!

0:53:370:53:40

Horns, violins, wind...

0:53:400:53:43

The chorus!

0:53:430:53:45

And for ten minutes, you are completely...

0:53:450:53:48

-Drawn into this...

-Drawn in the chair!

0:53:480:53:51

We're not understanding what's going on.

0:53:510:53:54

What's happened to your life?!

0:53:540:53:56

The orchestra is not only telling what is happening in nature,

0:54:210:54:25

but it is another character.

0:54:250:54:26

Like, he understood that at some point,

0:54:260:54:28

he had to change the attitude of the orchestra, or of orchestration.

0:54:280:54:32

Immediately, he becomes something.

0:54:320:54:35

Suddenly, he starts to speak without words.

0:54:350:54:39

The music serves herself.

0:54:390:54:41

It is joined with the text, but you can do the music without the words.

0:54:410:54:46

It works.

0:54:460:54:48

And here is a great example.

0:54:500:54:53

Out of jealousy, Otello is intending to kill his wife, Desdemona.

0:54:530:54:57

TENTATIVE, MELANCHOLY STRINGS

0:54:570:55:00

He walks in, stealthily.

0:55:000:55:02

Apprehensive and nervous, yet still unsure.

0:55:090:55:12

Verdi puts it all in the music.

0:55:150:55:17

And the music tells us his decision.

0:55:290:55:32

STRINGS BECOME URGENT AND STACCATO

0:55:370:55:40

Verdi would go on to write another opera in his 80th year.

0:55:500:55:54

But the last music he composed were Four Sacred Pieces,

0:55:540:55:58

set for choir and orchestra.

0:55:580:56:00

CHOIR SINGS

0:56:090:56:12

Verdi spent the last years of his life

0:56:140:56:16

mainly in the quiet of the country, back at St Agata.

0:56:160:56:20

But at the age of 88, the great maestro died.

0:56:290:56:33

At his funeral in Milan,

0:56:330:56:35

a vast gathering of 200,000 lined the streets.

0:56:350:56:40

Verdi remained inscrutable to the last,

0:56:400:56:44

but I find it telling that, of all the music he wrote,

0:56:440:56:47

it is said that he wished to be buried with one of these.

0:56:470:56:51

The Te Deum. "Thee, O God, We Praise."

0:56:510:56:55

Giuseppe Verdi is the quintessential artist.

0:57:000:57:03

Not only did he push the human voice to new heights,

0:57:030:57:05

but through his mastery of text

0:57:050:57:08

and genius use of orchestral colour,

0:57:080:57:10

he created pure, intense drama in music

0:57:100:57:14

and carried the opera from 19th to 20th century.

0:57:140:57:18

For him, opera was not only for the elite,

0:57:180:57:20

but should really be for everybody.

0:57:200:57:23

Today, we can all relate to his three-dimensional characters,

0:57:230:57:26

but most important, we can also sing along with his wonderful tunes.

0:57:260:57:31

And that is why Verdi and his music will never, ever die.

0:57:310:57:36

Viva Verdi!

0:57:360:57:37

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