Their first major collaboration was the 1881 revision of Verdi’s earlier Simon Boccanegra (1857). Verdi would achieve the zenith of his career in collaboration with the young Italian poet and composer Arrigo Boito. An invitation of the Khedive of Egypt to compose an opera for Cairo led eventually to the hugely successful Aida of 1871. In 1867 he composed Don Carlos, his most ambitious work, for the Paris Opéra. He spent most of the remainder of his life going in and out of retirement, writing only when a particular commission interested him. The successes of his 1850s operas allowed Verdi to be very selective about his choice of projects in subsequent decades. His three biggest successes of this period came in a row Rigoletto, Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853). Despite the censors, Verdi achieved almost unprecedented international acclaim in the 1850s, including Luisa Miller which premiered in late 1849 and was performed internationally over the subsequent years. For example, Rigoletto (1851) required major revisions in order to be staged. In the coming years, Verdi would run afoul of the censors with operas that questioned the political situation and the church. His chorus “Va pensiero” from Nabucco would become an anthem for the Risorgimento. Verdi’s operas of the 1840s are imbued both overtly and covertly with the interests of the Risorgimento-Italian citizens who sought the reunification of Italy. Following this low point of his career, Nabucco (1842) was a spectacular success that changed the course of his life. Eventually he would find his way to the Teatro alla Scala, where his first opera, Oberto (1839) was a modest success and his second, Un giorno di regno (1840), a comic opera written shortly after the tragic death of his young wife and two children, was a fiasco. Born to a family of modest means, his musical abilities became apparent early on and were guided and nurtured by a kind patron, Antonio Barezzi (who later became his father-in-law).ĭenied admission to the Milan Conservatory, he was forced to study privately. Verdi’s early life and career fit the mold we have come to expect of the Romantic Era artist.
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