Giuseppe Verdi

Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers in the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture – such as “La donna è mobile” from Rigoletto, “Va, pensiero” (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, and “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” (The Drinking Song) from La traviata. Although his work was sometimes criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and having a tendency toward melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.

Verdi was born the son of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro which was a part of the French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. The baptismal register, on October 11, lists him as being “born yesterday”, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. The next day he was baptized in the Roman Catholic church in Latin as Joseph Fortuninus Franciscus. The day after that (Tuesday), Verdi’s father took his newborn the three miles to Busseto where the baby was recorded as Joseph Fortunin Francois; the clerk wrote in French. “So it happened that for the civil and temporal world Verdi was born a Frenchman.”

When he was still a child, Verdi’s parents moved from Piacenza to Busseto, where the future composer’s education was greatly facilitated by visits to the large library belonging to the local Jesuit school. Also in Busseto, Verdi was given his first lessons in composition.