Two Operas by Verdi

This will be attempted by cursorily placing Verdi, both young and old, in his historical context, then by describing and comparing the first act of each of the operas. The first act was chosen because second acts need not be as strong, and third acts are concerned with denouement. There is not sufficient space here to even approach a full explanation of these magnificent works of art; it will be assumed that the reader is somewhat familiar with the two operas.

Despite amazing differences in Verdi's style of composition from the beginning of his career (with his first real success Nabucco) to the end, the proces of continuous comprehensive development is quite marked. Verdi's unifying concern was writing opera in the sense that opera is a marriage of symphonic music and dramatic poetry. This is distinguished from plays with incidental music (which is why Elmer Bernstein's film scores are no more, or less, operatic than Beethoven's music for Egmont) on one end. On the other is dramatic set pieces with great music but little theatrical content (the M

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) used again for dramatic purposes later, and Violetta responds with a magnificent coloratura solo. Here the bel-canto tradition is used dramatically, i.e., Violetta's "brillante" affects (staccato alternating with volate) are what make the desperate flippancy of her attempt to escape from Alfredo's love so impressive; the contrast is still present in the parting duet. After Alfredo leaves, and the guests return "in tumulto," Violetta is left alone, sat dawn, on the stage. (The guests leaving is the fourth set piece of the act.) Her isolation from love, her loneliness in the midst of the gaudy crowd of her demi-mondaine friends, her solo: dramatic equivalents. In what follows, a series of continuing emotional alterations mirrored and echoed musically and dramatically, Verdi's genius is clear: here are a few. "Ah, fors e lui" is an Andantino sung dolcissimo. The words "colinga ne' tumulti" (Example 7) are sung thusly: "solinga" martellate, hammering out the loneliness in each syllable, the "tumulti" breaks the effect with a small appoggiatura which hints at the swirl of the crowd. When Violetta echoes Alfredo's "a quell emor," the clarinet accompanies her, giving a small reminder of her coloratura sarcasm in the duet (
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Approximate Word count = 3944
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)

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