Beskrivelse
2 volumes: (1) From Oberto to Rigoletto; (2) From Il Trovatore to La Forza del Destino. Volume I traces the organic growth and development of the composer’s style from 1839 to 1851 – from the first opera, Oberto, to the seventeenth, Rigoletto. Budden examines each opera in detail with a full account of its dramatic and historical origins and a brief critical evaluation. More than 350 musical examples point to the significance of the early operas in Verdi’s developing style. Volume Two covers those works written during the decadence of the post-Rossini period. During this time, Verdi, having exhausted the vein of simple lyricism to be found in Il Trovatore and La Traviata, achieved self-renewal in direct confrontation with the masters of the Paris Opera with his Les Vêpres Siciliennes. A new scale and variety of musical thought can be sensed in the Italian operas that follow, culminating in La Forza del Destino.
