Giuseppe Verdi

The works of no great composer between the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries have undergone a more spectacular reassessment than those of Giuseppe Verdi. His death brought a crowd of several hundred thousand people to mourn not only the passing of a great artist but also a beloved national hero. It is not surprising that a figure such as Verdi should have inspired an enormous amount of books, articles, essays, and critical evaluation. Today, Verdi scholars build their work on a vast foundation of earlier research. For those who have not spent years with Verdi literature or who may just be starting to explore some aspect of the giant's life and works, this foundation may seem daunting indeed. It is primarily for these researchers that this volume is intended, although it is hoped that specialists will also find it to be useful. Its purpose is to index and describe some of the most significant studies about the composer and his music, presenting enough material - in a sort of stream of consciousness, using annotations that readers may survey the myriad directions Verdi research has gone, ascertain the relevance of individual items to their individual interests, and easily pursue significant patterns and threads in which they are interested. This Verdi biography is dealt with as a simple story to be read in one go - in which thoughts concerning personal and professional events in his life flow in simplicity, while continuing to respect the importance of chronological order.