However, Julian Budden notes that Verdi had probably read the Dumas novel some time before, and, after seeing the play and returning to Italy, "he was already setting up an ideal operatic cast for it in his mind", shown by his dealings with La Fenice.įrancesco Maria Piave, librettist of the operaįrancesco Maria Piave was engaged to write the new libretto and the two men tried to come up with a suitable subject, but the composer complained that his librettist "had not yet offered him an 'original' or 'provocative' idea". As a result of this, Verdi's biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz reports, the composer immediately began to compose music for what would later become La traviata. In February the couple attended a performance of Alexander Dumas fils 's The Lady of the Camellias. Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi visited Paris from late 1851 and into March 1852.
Verdi sees The Lady of the Camellias play In addition, personal affairs in his home town limited his activities that spring, but after Rigoletto 's success in Venice, an additional commission was offered by Brenna, the secretary of La Fenice.
First, he had agreed with the librettist Salvadore Cammarano on a subject for what would become Il trovatore, but work on this opera could not proceed while the composer was writing Rigoletto, which premiered in Venice in March 1851. For Verdi, the years 1851 to 1853 were filled with operatic activity.
0 kommentar(er)
