Verdi, Giuseppe
Verdi, Giuseppe (1813–1901),Italian composer. Verdi composed three Shakespearian operas, Macbeth (1847), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893), of which the last two are widely regarded as among the finest Shakespearian operas ever written. Verdi was attracted by the strong emotions and sense of drama in Shakespeare's plays, with which he became acquainted through French and Italian verse and prose translations rather than through the stage. As early as 1843 he toyed with the idea of setting King Lear, but the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, for which he was to compose the opera, lacked the first-rate bass or baritone that Verdi would have required, and the idea was shelved.
Macbeth, Verdi's first Shakespearian work, marks a departure in Verdi's approach to opera. It was unusual at the time to set such a dark, tense subject with no love interest. Verdi was intensely involved in all aspects of the opera's...
[The entire page is 756 words long]