Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism

Professor Kimbell's classic study illuminates the first fifteen years of Verdi's composing career.

David R. B. Kimbell (Author)

9780521316781, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 August 1985

720 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 4 cm, 1.04 kg

'… a magnificent exposition of this momentous operatic revolution.' Times Educational Supplement

Professor Kimbell's classic study illuminates the first fifteen years of Verdi's composing career, the era that culminated in his trio of masterpieces, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata. Verdi had become an acknowledged master of the peculiar brand of Romanticism that flourished in Italy in the 1830s and 40s; this background is examined in its political, social and literary light, and his consequent transformation of Italian operatic conventions is analysed. The four parts of Professor Kimbell's book range over biographical, documentary, literary and close-analytical ground. Attention is given to individual operas in order to show how Verdi assimilated and developed the Romantic tradition in his work.

Preface
Part I. The Setting: 1. Verdi's Italy
2. Theatrical censorship
3. The operatic experience
4. Dramatic principles and musical form in early ottocento opera
Part II. A Documentary History of the Early Operas: 5. Launching a career
6. The genesis of an opera - Ernani
7. Two overcrowded years
8. Verdi the idealist - the Florence Macbeth
9. Opera as a business
10. Collaboration with Cammarano
11. Bouts with the censor
12. Giuseppina's operas - Il Trovatore and La Traviata
Part III. The Development of Verdi's Musical Language: 13. The first operas - Oberto and Un Giorno di Regno
14. Italian grand opera - Nabucco and I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata
15. The early 'galley' operas - Ernani to Attila
16. Macbeth and its satellites
17. Verdi a la parisienne - Jerusalem and La Battaglia di Legnano
18. Luisa Miller and Stiffelio
19. 'The popular trilogy' - Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata
Part IV. The Operas: 20. Nabucco, a risorgimento opera
21. Verdi and French Romanticism - Ernani
22. Byronismo - I Due Foscari and Il Corsaro
23. The impact of Shakespeare - the Florence Macbeth
24. La Battaglia di Legnano - the opera of the revolution
25. Essays with Schiller
26. The originality of Rigoletto
27. Verdi and 'realism' - La Traviata
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9]