Portal:Opera/Composer of the month/Archive
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[edit] April 2008
[edit] Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi /dʒuˈzɛppe ˈverdi/ (either October 9 or 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of Italian opera in the 19th century and went well beyond the work of Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini. 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 and "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from La traviata. Although his work was sometimes criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom, and having a tendency towards melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
Verdi's predecessors who influenced his music were Rossini, Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer and, most notably, Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. With the possible exception of Otello and Aida, he was free of Wagner's influence. Although respectful of Gounod, Verdi was careful not to learn anything from the Frenchman whom many of Verdi's contemporaries regarded as the greatest living composer. Some strains in Aida suggest at least a superficial familiarity with the works of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt, after his tour of the Russian Empire as a pianist, popularized in Western Europe.
[edit] May 2008
[edit] Giovanni Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (May 15, 1567 (baptized) – November 29, 1643), was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer. Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the music of the Renaissance to that of the Baroque. He wrote his first music for publication, some motets and sacred madrigals in 1582 and 1583. By 1587, he had produced his first book of secular madrigals. Until the age of forty, Monteverdi worked primarily on madrigals, composing a total of nine books. As a whole, the first eight books of madrigals show the enormous development from Renaissance polyphonic music to the monodic style typical of Baroque music.
Enjoying fame in his lifetime, he wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo, which is still regularly performed. Monteverdi composed at least eighteen operas, but only L'Orfeo, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and the famous aria, Lamento, from his second opera L'Arianna have survived. From monody (with melodic lines, intelligible text and placid accompanying music), it was a logical step for Monteverdi to begin composing opera, especially for a dramatically inclined composer who loved grand effect.
