Italy celebrates bicentenary of Giuseppe Verdi

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Italy celebrates bicentenary of Giuseppe Verdi

By Marzia De Giuli (Xinhua) 08:30, October 11, 2013

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MILAN, Italy, Oct. 10 -- Italy on Thursday marked the bicentenary of maestro Giuseppe Verdi, one of the most preeminent opera composers of the nineteenth century.

"When I was four, I remember that my mother, an opera singer, while tidying the house was often singing Violetta's Aria from La Traviata," Italian musician Giovanni Allevi said on Thursday.

"I can still see my mother's enthusiastic smile," he went on, recalling his first encounter with the preeminent 19th century composer, who is credited with transforming the Italian opera and the orchestra with humanity and passion.

Allevi, a composer and pianist renowned in the world for being able to make the young public appreciate classical music, said that after 200 years Verdi is still "an example, particularly for young composers who confront themselves with both traditions and avant-garde impulses."

Indeed, besides being highlighted by Allevi and other musicians, Verdi's eternal popularity was celebrated on Thursday by a variety of events throughout Italy.

Schools and associations worked closely with experts and authorities to give an accurate portrait of the maestro.

Milan offered free visits at the iconic opera house Teatro alla Scala, where Verdi's first opera Oberto was performed in 1839, and at the Rest Home for Musicians which was founded by the composer in 1899 to host aging musicians. The rest home conserves the graves of Verdi and his wife.

On the same day, the Rai National Symphony Orchestra opened its concert season in Turin with his choral-symphonic masterpiece Messa da Requiem, performed by an international cast of Verdian voices including Italian tenor Francesco Meli, Ukrainian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk and Chinese soprano Hui He.

Rome was hosting a day-long conference centered on the importance of Verdi's music for the identity of millions of Italian-Americans, while the Verdi Festival in Parma featured the best performers of his opera among singers and conductors of different generations.

A study found that Verdi's 27 operas, which include most beloved La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida, Nabucco and Il Trovatore, make more than 10 percent of the total number of operas performed every year in the world.

"He created immortal melodies following a mysterious inspiration which cannot be reproduced," Allevi told Xinhua.

Celebrations at the small village near Parma where Verdi was born also focused on his intense life experiences, which historians said helped get closer to his "musical genius," as Allevi defined the maestro.

From an early age, Verdi practiced on an old spinet that his father had given him, until a rich local music lover paid for his regular academic studies. When the 18-year-old was unable to pass the entrance exam at the Milan Conservatory - which was later named after him - he did not give in and had achieved growing success since.

Yet that was darkened by the death of his children and then of his first wife. Verdi called the period of extremely hard work his "prison years." But he also found the time to enter politics as a deputy to the first Italian parliament in 1961 and devote himself to the well-being of those in need.

The maestro died in 1901 after days of agony during which the streets of Milan were covered with straw so that the sound of the horseshoes would not disturb him. His funerals were held as he requested, silently and without pomp.

Like his life, "his music developed through complex forms, but at the same time managed to be popular and touch people's hearts," Allevi said. "His art is an enviable goal for those who write music," he concluded.