The Genius of Verdi with Rolando Villazón (2013) - full transcript

# Questa o quella, per me pari sono

# A quant'altre d'intorno

D'intorno mi vedo...#

I am Rolando Villazon
and as a singer,

I have the pleasure of living
and breathing the music

of a true genius
of the operatic stage.

Giuseppe Verdi.

# Di que il fato ne infiora la
vita... #

To sing his music is to connect
directly with the human soul,

with its joy,
its suffering, its force.

His music tells us what it means
to be human



with such truth that watching and
listening, no matter who you are,

you cannot but recognise yourself.

Verdi composed a huge body of music
for the opera house,

which, today, is performed
all over the world.

But by looking at just
six of my favourites

and meeting some of my colleagues
along the way, I want to show you

why this music has come to be loved
by everyone who hears it,

how his characters are able
to speak to us so meaningfully.

# Degli amanti
le smanie, derido... #

And why he remains, for me,

one of the most important
opera composers of all time.

# Se mi punge

# Una qualche belta. #

Think of opera and you think
Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata,



Rigoletto, Aida, some of the most
famous operas in the world.

Verdi's long and hugely successful
career

spanned most of the 19th century.

Everything Verdi composed
had an impact.

The subjects he chose covered a
whole arch of the human experience.

Politics and religion,
tragedy and comedy, power and love.

# La mia latizia infondere

# Vorrei nel suo bel core... #

For me, Verdi was
the consummate artist,

but he was famously inscrutable.

Through his letters, we learn
about him as a working composer,

but little about the intensely
private man himself.

He left his ideas and beliefs
to be played out through his music.

His fabulous tunes reveal a man
who knows how to reach out

and connect with everyone.

# Al cielo, ed ergermi... #

People in the street cheered Verdi.

People in the street sang
Verdi tunes,

but I don't think
he wants to impress us.

He wanted to move people.

Absolutely. But one of the gifts
of great, great composers

is precisely this.

Because it is so important to talk,

to be very close
to the generation of today

and Verdi sounds as fresh today
as it sounded fresh in his time.

Verdi came from
a humble background.

He was born in 1813 in the small
farming village of Roncole,

about 100 miles from Milan.

His parents were innkeepers.

Here, Verdi would have been exposed
to the ordinary pressures of life

and what people cared about.

The family were regular churchgoers
and it was as a part-time organist

in the local church that Verdi's
musical roots took hold.

He is so much a child of his country
and what it went through,

Italy, of the 19th century,
at the time when he was born,

it was not a unified country at all.

It was a number of kingdoms
and dialects.

The Italian people were subjects
ruled over by the Austrians,

French and Spanish,
all jostling for supremacy.

Censorship was commonplace
and large gatherings were banned.

However, the one place people were
allowed to meet was the theatre.

The opera scene in Europe
wasn't as widespread as it is today.

In Germany, Wagner had still to make
his mark with his mythical epics.

The main focus was in Paris,

where the theatrical extravaganzas
of Meyerbeer dominated.

And closer to home in Milan,

the three giants
of Italian music ruled.

Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.

Presenting love stories or tragedies
that audiences expected,

told through a formalised
set of arias, duets and choruses.

# Ah, non credea mirarti...#

This was the musical establishment

and Verdi knew he had to conquer it

to then take the art form
to new heights.

So, it was to Milan, intellectual
and operatic capital of Italy,

that he first set his sights and
it was here at La Scala opera house,

where high society, the movers,
shakers and taste-makers met.

Publishers, theatre managers,
opera houses,

you don't get any affection
from Verdi for these places.

They were necessary evils.

Without them,
he couldn't write his operas,

but he was at their mercy.

But the forces of destiny weren't
going to give Verdi an easy ride.

Aged 18, he auditioned here
for the Milan Conservatory,

but was rejected.

What's more, a few years later,

both Verdi's children died
in infancy,

shortly followed by his young wife.
Verdi was just 26.

He was completely transformed,
I think,

by the death of his wife
and children,

following which he was by nature
lonely, melancholic and depressive.

The loneliness, I think,
gave him this extraordinary desire,

urge and need to reach out
and speak, which is

where his phenomenally populist and
popular talent, I think, comes from.

Verdi's theatrical career
really took off thanks to

his persistence and an uncanny
ability to know the right people.

With his opera, Nabucco, Verdi
proved he knew what could capture

an audience's appetite.

Rousing tunes and powerful theatre.

And the Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves,

would assume a much bigger
significance later in his life.

But for now, the young man who
failed to get into the Conservatory

was firmly on the musical map
and he was hungry for success.

Verdi felt he had to find something
that set him apart from the rest.

One thing that mattered deeply
to him was his choice of plots.

The subjects that Verdi chose
were a platform

not only for telling a good story,
but most important,

one that allowed him
to explore themes and emotions

that really meant something to him.

I find it fascinating
that next to his bed,

Verdi kept a well thumbed copy
of The Complete Works
Of William Shakespeare.

Here was a goldmine of stories

that most of his audiences
would not have heard before.

Of course, today, everybody in
the world knows who Shakespeare was.

But in 19th century Italy,
illiteracy was common

and Shakespeare's work
was hardly known.

So, for Verdi, this was
extraordinary unfamiliar material

that inspired him
to be innovative and new.

Macbeth was Verdi's
first Shakespearean opera.

Out of the blue, he produced a dark
study of power, ambition and evil.

There are very few set pieces
to break up the action.

Instead, Verdi gives us
a continuous and theatrical rite.

He turned a very complex,
psychological drama

into a Tim Burton movie.

It has its own visual,
colour, atmosphere.

It's all cries, groans,
darkness, mood.

There is a whole horrible
nightmare world around Macbeth...

..which is physical in Verdi,
not only psychological.

For me, Macbeth shows Verdi's
real mastery of theatre.

You understand the stress
he put on the theatrical element.

You have three groups of witches.
Each one singing a sentence.

# Che faceste?

# Dite su!

# Ho sgozzato un verro.

# E tu?

# M'e frullata nel pensier

# M'e frullata nel pensier... #

Verdi, on the writing of
The Witches, he writes,

please, never forget
that they're witches speaking.

It is almost not singing.

You don't need that.

Not to sing a beautiful line,
but you have to throw the words.

THEY SING

I think rhythm is extremely
important in how Verdi creates,

through the orchestra and
the combination of all the voices,

this very particular atmosphere.
Not all the composers can do that.

They are a very nocturnal colour.

What Verdi will say again, you can
describe not only as a colour

but really a shade,
a particular nuance.

By expanding Shakespeare's
Three Witches to more than 30,

Verdi establishes a dramatic role
for the supernatural,

as a character in its own right.

He was something
altogether different,

a distinctive mood in music.

In music, we often talk
about colour,

and colour was something of
particular importance for Verdi.

It is almost as if he created
these subconscious layers

that define each of his operas,

gives them a unified feel,
a personality.

How does he achieve that?

Well, through words, rhythm, melody,

through orchestration.

Nobody illustrates better than him
the inner forces of the characters.

Traditionally, the hero in opera
would be a tenor,

but for this troubled anti-hero,
Verdi broke with the norm

and cast Macbeth as a baritone.

A darker voice better suited
to Macbeth's troubled character.

One of the biggest challenges is
to try and manipulate people

through colour, through sound
and not just through text.

It's very true of Verdi, that
Macbeth, so much, is the colour.

He's an extreme for me.

You don't want any joy,
you don't want any pathos,

you don't want any sentimentality.

He doesn't deserve it
and shouldn't get it.

The hooded nature
of this...filthy character

has got to be in the sound, I think.

Macbeth, general of King Duncan's
army, is consumed by ambition.

He has planned to kill the King
and take the crown for himself.

To take on a new tranche of colours,
Verdi reinvented the baritone voice.

You have great new vocal vistas
open to you.

He's increased the opportunities
for the baritone's top register

by about an octave.

He actually, to a large extent,

invented modern singing
for the baritone.

Macbeth was hugely successful.

Verdi took the baritone to new
heights, but most interesting,

he broke with some established
conventions.

This opera had no love story.

However, Verdi's own life
was not devoid of love.

Seven years after his wife died,

he began an affair
with soprano Giuseppina Strepponi.

Strepponi was a gifted actress
and singer who had appeared

in Nabucco at La Scala.

By the time of the affair,
she was teaching young singers,

promoting the particular approach
that Verdi's operas demanded.

And one of the fundamental building
blocks to that approach

was the significance
that Verdi attached to the text.

It wasn't what the words
sounded like,

it's what they meant
that he cared about.

It's what the words contained.

Verdi was dependent on the poets
to give him the text

that was as vivid
as he needed it to be

for the kind of music
that he wanted to write.

The libretto for Il Cosaro was
written by Francesco Maria Piave,

a poet who was to go on to write
the words for 10 of Verdi's operas.

He would know full well what Verdi
demanded from his text.

Verdi was so demanding
towards his librettist.

He was never happy and he was...

"Please, that's too much,
that's too long.

"You need to be really essential,
you need to go to the focus,

"you need to go to the essential."

Don't attack.

But it isn't just the librettist
that has to get it right.

For us singers, the key
to fathom Verdi's intentions,

is to understand
the drama in the text.

Janine Reiss, has coached
some of the greatest singers

in the business.

Domingo, Pavarotti, Callas.

It's almost as if one would hear
Verdi saying why he chose to compose

almost exclusively
for the human voice,

because it allowed him

to work with words. Absolutely. To
express through music and the word

the emotions and the feelings
of the characters.

I am a prisoner. What does it mean
for a human being to be a prisoner?

It means to be separated
from the whole world.

If the interpretation of the artist
is as it should be,

you don't see any more of the stage.

You are with the interpreter
in prison with him.

Verdi was really, not only
inspired by the text, but he wrote

the music of the feelings which
were expressed in the text.

So you have a score
and you have to respect the score

and try to go as far as you can

to find exactly what the composer
wanted.

One of the things Verdi wanted most
was to give us

convincing characters,
truly three-dimensional portrayals.

For me, one of the most
multifaceted is Rigoletto.

Here we have a Duke
presiding over a bigoted court.

There is rape, murder, corruption,
professional assassins.

It's the damnation of the ruling
elite in a complex morality tale.

Rigoletto, jester at the court of
the lecherous Duke of Mantua,

leads a double life.

A public one as a cynical foil
to jeering courtiers

and a private one
as the overprotective father

to his daughter Gilda.

These two worlds brutally collide

with the Duke's seduction
of his willing daughter.

Rigoletto swears vengeance.

There is no doubt that for the
audiences in mid-19th century Italy,

the subject matter was shocking.

But it was also a hot potato
politically.

Rigoletto is based on Victor Hugo's
play Le Roi S'Amuse,

which shows the French King
as a libertine.

In France, this was perceived
as an attack of the natural order

and it was banned just after
the first performance.

Verdi knew that in Italy
he would have the same problem
with his opera.

Rigoletto was a commission from
La Fenice Opera House in Venice,

at the time under Austrian control.

Their censor saw this as
a criticism of the establishment,

and subversive.

But Verdi was undaunted.

He described it as "great, immense
and has a character that is one

"of the most important
creations of theatre".

So, to get around the censors,
Verdi changed the location

from the Court of France
to the Dukedom of Mantua,

which had long ceased to exist.

The elements of the story,
however, remained intact.

It takes like the tops,
the cream of all human emotion,

of disgusting, of beautiful,
and he experiments with the mix.

Like a cocktail,

which the public has to drink.

Rigoletto is probably
Verdi's most significant,

most complete
and most disturbing opera.

It's where he matches brilliantly
this Shakespearean idea of comedy,

of wit, of humour,
interspersed with a great tragedy.

Um...

And he creates a character
of awe-inspiring selfishness.

In the first act, Rigoletto is
sycophantic and manipulative.

And his music is close
to the character of the Duke's.

In Verdi, the revolution is
we have every time, but every time,

and it is really amazing,
the perfect connection

between the character of the music
and the drama.

Then, in Act Two, Verdi shows us
a different side to Rigoletto.

The sympathetic and loving father,

comforting his daughter after
the Duke has had his way with her.

Intent on revenge,

the last act sees
an altogether different, dark side

of Rigoletto's character,

as he arranges
to have the Duke assassinated.

Verdi's great talent, that he writes
of profound, dark, ugly emotions.

He confronts who we are...

..and he does it
with fantastically popular melodies

that attracts everybody
to the material.

In the last act, Verdi wrote a tune
that perfectly encapsulates

the character of the Duke -
shallow and two-dimensional.

The tenor in the Rigoletto
is the lover,

but in this case he is
a really bad character.

He's the bad way of lover.

Verdi knew what a hit this would be,
banning his cast from singing

or even whistling it in public
before the premiere.

This famous aria is much more
than just a hit tune.

It shows how Verdi was
a master of the theatre.

Not only does it encapsulate
the Duke's amoral

and devil-may-care character,
but by the end of the opera,

it serves a far more
shocking purpose.

The assassin has brought
Rigoletto a sack.

He believes it holds the dead Duke.

But the audience knows
that it is actually his daughter.

And then Verdi delivers
the lightning strike.

THE DUKE SINGS ARIA

The impact is huge.

A deeply distressing moment
of pure theatre

conveyed through a lightweight song.

Verdi satisfies the dramatic element,
not in any melodramatic way -

in a real, interesting,
theatrical investigation.

He gives you real theatre,
not just tableaux.

Unable to renounce her love for the
Duke, Gilda has sacrificed herself.

That courage to put
so unsympathetic a man on the stage,

ugly not only in body but ugly
in soul, is quite fascinating

because often it's the ugliness
of Rigoletto which lifts

an audience to its feet cheering.

Rigoletto is a testament to
Verdi's skill at fusing all

the elements to create a powerful
dramatic experience.

At the premiere,
audiences loved it and it took

no time at all for La donna e mobile
to be heard in the streets.

Aged 38, Verdi was the undisputed
king of Italian opera.

He was rich, famous
and at the height of his powers.

But there were still aspects
of his life that were troubled.

His affair with Strepponi had
blossomed, but rather like

one of his characters, she had
a questionable reputation,

having had at least four
illegitimate children
before meeting Verdi.

Verdi took her to live
with him in Busseto,

the town of his deceased
wife's family.

Of course, this didn't
go down at all well

with the small-minded
and bourgeois locals,

who whilst proud of their famous
son, shunned his mistress.

Amidst this turmoil,
Verdi was still travelling abroad

and accepting commissions.

In 1852, Verdi was eager to find
new material for a commission

at La Fenice Opera House in Venice.

But he complained that he couldn't
find the right subject.

He wrote, "It is easy to find
commonplace stories,

"but it is very, very difficult
to find one that has all

"the qualities needed
if it is to have an impact.

"One that is also original
and provocative."

And it was here in Paris
that he found what he needed,

a poignant story based on the real
life of a tragic young woman.

This is the grave
of Marie Duplessis,

a notorious courtesan and mistress
of many wealthy and powerful men.

Extremely beautiful and witty,

she was a legendary figure
of mid-19th-century Paris.

But her life ended tragically.

She died of consumption
at the age of just 23.

One of her lovers was
the great writer Alexandre Dumas

and he was about to immortalise her
on the stage.

Their short love affair would go on
to form the basis of his play

La Dame Aux Camelias,

The Lady Of The Camelias,
which was an instant hit.

On seeing Dumas' play La Dame Aux
Camelias, Verdi finally found

the raw material
he had been searching for.

The story goes that as soon as
the curtain fell, he ran immediately

into his apartment and started
sketching the music for La Traviata.

La Traviata, or The Fallen Woman,
is a story that must have had

echoes with Verdi's own relationship
with Strepponi.

At its centre is Violetta,
a courtesan, a kept woman,

admired but never really
accepted into society.

But what I think is wonderful is
the way Verdi makes the audience

not only accept her,
but actually care about her.

Audiences love her.

What I think people love
most about this opera,

besides the way it's composed,
the beautiful tunes

and the power of the music,
that's number one.

Number two is that she ultimately
has more integrity

than every other character
in the piece.

And she is supposed to be the one
who has the lowest morals

and in fact,
she rises above everyone else.

Violetta knows she is dying,

but she lives a life of endless
parties, liaisons and lovers.

Into her world steps a young man
named Alfredo,

who offers her
a chance of true love.

La Traviata is about the choices
she has to make

between the superficial life
she's accustomed to

and the sacrifices for love.

Passionate, that's what it is.

It's passion, raw feeling,
raw emotion and ultimately

if someone comes to an Italian opera,
they're expecting to feel something.

They're expecting to have
a visceral, emotional,

physical reaction to the opera.

Not cerebral, not, "Oh, that was
lovely," but...in the gut.

Alfredo has declared his love,
and Violetta is left confused.

What follows is ten minutes of some
of Verdi's most intimate theatre,

as she shares her innermost thoughts
with us.

I love the way Verdi does this.
By putting such a woman on stage,

alone, Verdi is pushing us
to embrace her predicament

as something we will recognise
and accept.

That's where the drama plays out
and where the real story plays out

and the questions,
all of the sort of -

is it this or is it that, is this
real love? What about my life?

She's completely out of control
at this point.

And she's fighting the truth,
which is that she's already in deep,

you know. That's the way love is
sometimes, it just hits you

when you least expect it
and when you least want it sometimes.

But by putting a character
such as Violetta on stage,

Verdi was again going
to get into hot water.

The Venetian censors and the opera
management objected to Verdi's wish

to stage La Traviata in contemporary
times and in modern dress.

It was far too close for comfort.

They insisted that Verdi set it
at a safe distance,

around the 1700s,

far from any direct comparison
with their own audience.

And in the Second Act,

Violetta comes up against
the same bourgeois attitudes.

Violetta has given up her life

and is living a blissful existence
with Alfredo.

Then, Alfredo's father Germont comes
to demand that the liaison ends,

as it jeopardises
his own daughter's marriage.

Germont is the representation

of the society
and the oppressive world

in which this beautiful flower
Traviata

and this wonderful love story
is trapped in.

It's a world that doesn't allow
that to happen.

And Germont embodies that.

This cannot happen under the rules
of life as he understands it.

And I think Verdi captures
that beautifully.

And now Verdi really ups
the demands on her voice,

calling for a big dramatic sound
to express her intense anger.

It's the most heartbreaking moment,
and the way he does it too,

because they're singing and arguing
and singing and arguing

and suddenly time stops.

And just out of nowhere comes
this "ah" in the little voice

that's completely exposed, and in
that "ah" is a lifetime of pain.

That moment is absolutely
where the opera turns.

It's the turning point
of the entire piece.

Every hope and, you know, she...

It's just one of
the most heartbreaking moments

in all of opera, I think.

The Final Act finds her back in
Paris, alone, penniless and dying.

I think La Traviata is one of
the greatest operas of all time.

Through the extremes
of music and voice,

Verdi expresses
a wide range of emotion.

He captures our sympathy and we care
deeply about Violetta's fate.

But by putting a classy
yet kept woman on stage,

maybe the characters were too real
for the first-night audience.

It didn't go at all well.

Verdi himself was deeply frustrated,
dismissing the premiere as a fiasco.

Although Verdi makes no direct link
to the character of Violetta,

you could argue that
one of the reasons that he felt

so attracted to the subject
of an ostracised woman was his

witnessing of Giuseppina Strepponi's
own non-acceptance by society.

Maybe through Violetta, he wanted to
thumb his nose to the bourgeoisie.

It wasn't until a year later,

with performances at a different
theatre and a handpicked cast

that Verdi's La Traviata triumphed.

Today it is said that on any night,

somewhere in the world,
La Traviata is being performed.

Verdi was now very famous.

The boy from a country inn
had become a national icon.

By now, Verdi was living with
Strepponi at Sant'Agata

in a farm
deep in the Italian countryside

and one removed
from society's demands on him.

But he was not going to drop
out of sight completely.

The diverse states that made up
the Italian peninsula were going

through a period of upheaval,
and Verdi himself was to become

inextricably linked to this spirit
of revolutionary change.

The country was beginning
to unite under a new king,
Vittorio Emanuele II.

In 1861,
the occupiers were kicked out

and a new cry was heard in the
streets and scrawled on the walls.

"Viva Verdi."

Viva Verdi.

You know, Orlando, in Verdi's times
all of the people were celebrating.

"Viva Verdi." Viva Verdi
had a double meaning,

because Verdi you can use like...

In 1861, Verdi himself was persuaded
to enter Parliament,

a cultural symbol, as the
international face of the new Italy.

He was not interested in politics
as a means of gaining power.

He didn't need any, he had it.
He was worshipped by his own people.

For whom Va Pensiero,
which is the chorus in Nabucco

has become identified with
the call for national independence

and national identity.

MUSIC: "Nabucco"
by Vivaldi

Va Pensiero, up until today,
it's the most important musical

and artistic identification
of a country. No?

Yes, for a while we consider
the possibility

to have it as a national anthem.
Of course. I think that's amazing.

The Italian nation soon however
had its critics.

In 1864, the Pope Pius IX
condemned democracy,

freedom of the press
and the new Italy as anti-Catholic.

Something that would not have
been lost on Verdi.

Verdi's operas frequently touched
on the great themes of liberty,

power and politics.
None more so than Don Carlos.

An epic five-part opera based on
a story by the German poet Schiller.

But one of the most overwhelming
moments is what I think to be

a very personal statement
by Verdi about the place

and power of organised religion.

There is a scene in Don Carlos
where the king has to

choose between his duty to the
nation and his love for his son.

He goes to seek advice from the head
of the Spanish Inquisition.

The way the inquisitor is
portrayed melodically,

and harmonically and rhythmically

is everything but evolution,

openness of spirit and generosity.

It is orthodoxy, it is this kind of
unflinching refusal

of anything that would be
questioning the accepted forms.

The grand inquisitor is
old and blind.

Verdi never explicitly stated
his views on religion,

but his depiction of the inquisitor
is by no means flattering.

Verdi is pretty risque
with his dealings with the Church

and how he portrays the Church.

This adamantine, fearsome character
in the inquisitor is not

a depiction of love,
it's an edifice to be feared.

The King is asking the inquisitor
whether he should kill

his rebellious son
for the good of the country

or spare him out of fatherly love.

Verdi's portrait of
the grand inquisitor in Don Carlos

can probably help us to understand
his views on the Catholic Church

and formalised religion.

Verdi himself was a suspected
agnostic, someone that

neither believes nor disbelieves.

It is quite interesting
that one of his most powerful works

written just a few years
after Don Carlos was Requiem.

It was on the death
in 1873 of the poet Manzoni,

nationalist and fervent supporter
of the new Italy,

that Verdi wrote Requiem
in his honour.

Here was a whole new opportunity for
Verdi to apply not only his heart,

but his well-honed dramatic skills
to a different form.

A traditional mass
would normally be sung

as part of a funeral service,
but Verdi invested the full force

of his dramatic skills
for maximum impact.

More suitable for
the concert platform

in a large chorus of mixed voices.

Nevertheless, the occasion
and subject matter

demanded a more sober setting.

Even here, Verdi would have
to compromise on some things.

On the first anniversary
of Manzoni's death,

Verdi's Requiem was premiered
here in the church of San Marco.

Since papal convention decreed
that no female voices were allowed

to perform in church,
Verdi petitioned the Archbishop

and an agreement was reached.

Not only were the women
made to wear veils,

but they were also
shielded by screens.

MUSIC: "Requiem" by Verdi

It doesn't do in church,

because it's a concert piece.
But you cannot help, even if

you are listening to it
in the Albert Hall or wherever,

to be moved by the words, the music

and what it evokes in your own heart.

Verdi set his Requiem
for vast forces.

Four soloists backed up by
a double choir and orchestra.

Verdi takes the religious text
as a starting point

then he writes music that, for me,
really seeks to capture

the dramatic and emotional force
inherent in it.

I think his talent was to express
any emotional colour

and put it into harmony.

And to make it and to build
a structure in such a way that

it becomes visible.

You can almost touch it. It's 3-D.

Those four chords... They grab you!

It's the last day of the judgement.

Doors of heaven,
doors of hell, everything is open.

The day of wrath. Dies irae.

All his operatic
and his dramatic experience,

obviously he put into this piece.

He saw this piece in a dramatic way.

He had a vision of this
last judgement where you have

the great contrast between drama,

between hope and fear,
hope and despair.

And I think he touches people.

It was a gigantic achievement
on his part

that was important, first to him

because he knew what he wanted
to express,

but eventually became so important
to the rest of the world.

But I would say the word, "spiritual"
is more adequate than, "religious"

because there are many religions,
but there is only one spirituality.

Verdi wrote
the final movement first.

In it, the entire journey

from judgement to eternal rest
is summarised.

But tellingly,
Verdi chooses not to say

where our final resting place
may be.

With no strength, with no power,
with no voice,

he wrote the last, "Libera...me."

It's like the last breath,

when the soul comes
and leaves your body.

It always happens after the
"Libera Me."

It meant silence after that,

and I thought
that's what Verdi wanted.

By the late 1870s,
Verdi had all but retired.

Thanks to the huge popularity
of his works

and vigorous copyright
that came with their performance,

he was a very rich
and comfortable man.

It would not have been surprising
if he HAD retired.

But maybe he still
had something to say.

It was in 1879
that Verdi met with Arrigo Boito,

a brilliant librettist

who was keen on the operatic
possibilities in Shakespeare.

Given Verdi's own passion
for the playwright,

this was an opportunity
too tempting to ignore.

It took eight years, but in 1887,

La Scala saw the fruit
of their collaboration - Otello.

And this is where Verdi
really showed what he could do,

not just with voice,
but with the orchestra.

Verdi and Boito,

they thought that if you open
with a disaster,

naturalistic disaster,

the people will be
inside of the story immediately.

Immediately!
And they opened with a storm.

HE SCREAMS AND MIMICS ORCHESTRA

"Oh, my God! Where we are?!"

And then the diminuendo.
Of course, the evolution of Verdi

is bring the people
to the drama immediately.

The atmosphere and terror
of a storm at sea.

Verdi uses the orchestra
for thrilling sound effects.

The people in the audience, they
don't know, but he used the organ.

HE MIMICS ORGAN WHOOSHING

In the organ, uh-huh. Yeah, but
you don't understand it is the organ.

It is inside. For ten minutes.
HE MIMICS ORGAN WHOOSHING

But it's something
that disturbs you.

Then he combines that with...
With the storm!

Horns, violins, wind...

The chorus!

And for ten minutes,
you are completely...

Drawn into this...
Drawn in the chair!

We're not understanding
what's going on.

What's happened to your life?!

The orchestra is not only telling
what is happening in nature,

but it is another character.

Like, he understood
that at some point,

he had to change the attitude of
the orchestra, or of orchestration.

Immediately, he becomes something.

Suddenly, he starts to speak
without words.

The music serves herself.

It is joined with the text, but you
can do the music without the words.

It works.

And here is a great example.

Out of jealousy, Otello is intending
to kill his wife, Desdemona.

TENTATIVE, MELANCHOLY STRINGS

He walks in, stealthily.

Apprehensive and nervous,
yet still unsure.

Verdi puts it all in the music.

And the music tells us his decision.

STRINGS BECOME
URGENT AND STACCATO

Verdi would go on to write
another opera in his 80th year.

But the last music he composed
were Four Sacred Pieces,

set for choir and orchestra.

CHOIR SINGS

Verdi spent
the last years of his life

mainly in the quiet of the country,
back at St Agata.

But at the age of 88,
the great maestro died.

At his funeral in Milan,

a vast gathering of 200,000
lined the streets.

Verdi remained
inscrutable to the last,

but I find it telling that,
of all the music he wrote,

it is said that he wished
to be buried with one of these.

The Te Deum.
"Thee, O God, We Praise."

Giuseppe Verdi
is the quintessential artist.

Not only did he push
the human voice to new heights,

but through his mastery of text

and genius use
of orchestral colour,

he created pure, intense drama
in music

and carried the opera
from 19th to 20th century.

For him, opera was not only
for the elite,

but should really
be for everybody.

Today, we can all relate
to his three-dimensional characters,

but most important, we can also
sing along with his wonderful tunes.

And that is why Verdi and his music
will never, ever die.

Viva Verdi!

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