The Story of Giuseppe Verdi: Oberto to Un Ballo in Maschera

"It’s not a full survey, sadly, since Baldini was still working on this project when he died. But it was sufficiently advanced that, with some editorial work, it was published posthumously in Italian in 1970. The English edition was translated by Roger Parker and that involved further bits of editing to bring the factual record up to speed. What I love about this book is that it’s written without any technical language. Again, when I chose these five books—leaving out many others, with regret—I felt that I should try to talk about books that a broad readership could approach. Precisely because Verdi is so popular and there is so much interest in him, I wanted to have books where we can learn about him and where we can be excited about his life, his music, and his theatre, without getting too deep into technical discussions. The wonderful thing about Baldini is that this is a book that is rooted in literary criticism as much as it is in a deep understanding of what opera is. At its heart is not a discussion of Verdi as a musician, but a discussion of Verdi as a musical dramatist: what the music actually does to articulate the stories, characters, and dramatic situations that make Verdi’s operas so compelling. This is very much a personal take by a man of great culture. There are opinions that I disagree with, but it really leads us to think about Verdi’s music, and about what happens when we experience a Verdi opera, especially in the theatre. There is this sense of opera as “event” that comes across very vividly in this read. One wonders what he would have said about Otello had he come to write a full chapter of it. He’s a bit critical of La Traviata as well, describing it as “uneven”. The point he’s getting at, I suppose, is that Rigoletto and Trovatore are more unified as scores and that La Traviata is much more diverse. I find that to be a strength of Traviata , personally—not to say that it’s superior to the other operas, but it’s very distinctive. One thing that I remember is where Baldini talks about Alfredo’s aria at the beginning of Act II of Traviata and he says that this tenor role is not nearly as well-designed or as well-developed as the Duke in Rigoletto or Manrico in Trovatore , which is true. The protagonist of La Traviata is obviously Violetta. He writes that the cabaletta, “O mio rimorso, o infamia,” is often cut and that “one can see why”. In his view, essentially, it’s a wonderful piece of music but it doesn’t really fit in with the opera, the story, or the character, and Verdi didn’t know what to do dramatically at that point, other than, I suppose, complete the number with a closing cabaletta, in line with the formal conventions we discussed previously. What this tells us is that Baldini, along with many others, feels the need for the action to move forward there. The centre-piece of the entire opera is arguably the duet between Violetta and Germont, and while we wait for that to unfold, here we are with Alfredo, who sings a rather dull aria—dull not because of the music, which is fantastic, but because dramatically nothing happens. And then he discovers that Violetta is selling her property, her belongings, to support their livelihoods in the countryside. He’s outraged, but instead of running off immediately, he sings a cabaletta. I can see Baldini’s point, but I also think that that the cabaletta is one of those moments where emotional intensity takes over and it becomes more important than dramatic intensity or progression. The two concepts are related but different. I like Alfredo’s cabaletta and whenever I have the chance to do so, I insist that it be sung in its entirety—which is to say that it must be stated twice. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Again, Baldini is a highly individual author who comes to Verdi with a really unique and perceptive approach. Whenever he says something that is maybe not necessarily provocative but certainly thought-provoking, then we sit down and interrogate it. What I like about Baldini is that you read it and you don’t forget it. It is a memorable piece of writing. Precisely because it’s so personal and such a wealth of strong opinion, it’s a great complement to the biographical approach of Walker. Baldini is in a different league; it’s a critical study and it gives us the opportunity to think about the operas themselves and to develop our own ideas as a result of reading it."