Is Verdi the greatest ever composer of opera

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Q.� What was the revolution that Verdi created

A.� Verdi decided that the format of opera was stilted and detracted from the musical and dramatic flow he wanted to bring to his own compositions. The operas he grew up with consisted of separate musical pieces, arias, duets and so on, interspersed with long spoken narrative pieces called 'recitatives', designed to shift the action along, ready for the next musical section. Verdi felt that a more 'seamless' approach would benefit the style of opera and attract a larger audience. He was absolutely correct, and accordingly hailed as a genius.

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Q.� So Verdi was labelled a genius simply because he shifted opera into a more productive and flowing style

A.� Not quite�- that was only a part of his immense talent and contribution to opera as a whole, and Italian classical opera in particular.

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Q.� What else did he do to earn his immortality

A.� Verdi's career was the result of his ability to turn a modest and unpromising early series of works into a further series of compositions that would see him ranked as one of the greatest classical composers the world has ever produced.

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His first comic opera, Un giorno di regno was an abject failure.�Verdi withdrew it from the stage after the first night, and announced his intention to withdraw from opera composition altogether. On the advice of some friends, he continued with his next work Nabucco, based on the life of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The reaction to this offering was as successful as his previous opera had been disastrous. The opera was performed a record 57 times in one autumn season at La Scala, a record that still stands today.

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Q.� That sounds like a good point to end a career.

A.� It may have been, but history advises that Verdi was actually ending the 'apprentice' phase of his life as a composer, and he was ready to produce the works for which he is justly renowned�- Traviata, Aida, and Requiem.

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Q.� So that was the time to finish

A.� Not yet -�after the publication of his Requiem, Verdi wrote virtually nothing for twelve years, until he was inspired by a proposed libretto by fellow composer Boito�- an operatic working of Shakespeare's Othello. It was Verdi's last major work, and remains one of his most performed and recognisable compositions.

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Q.� Why was Verdi so successful

A.� Apart from his revolutionary approach to the format of opera�- smoothing out the often truncated and tedious plot-enhancing spoken sections which he replaced with a more streamlined musically coherent format, Verdi touched the psyche of the Italian nation at the time with his favourite themes of heroism and courage, underlined with the vital and some have said crude approach to composition. Verdi's belief in a tale well told with rousing music and a vigorous musical core have seen his works performed all over the world

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To this day, Verdi remains the opera composer even non-opera listeners have heard about. When he died, 28,000 people lined the streets to see his coffin

procession.

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