In Search of Desdemona

COPYRIGHT © 2016
CARMELA ALTAMURA
4000 BERGENLINE AVE
UNION CITY, NEW JERSEY 07087
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GIUSEPPE VERDI – A Life of Sorrow and Glory
by Carmela Altamura

CHARACTERS	PERFORMERS
GIUSEPPINA STREPPONI	Carmela Altamura
GIUSEPPE VERDI	Leonard J. Altamura
ARRIGO BOITO	To Be Announced*
SANTA	To Be Announced*
CAMILLO	Mika Nisula
A contralto	Ola Rafalo
A soprano	Anne Tormela
A soprano	Jenny Sandelin
Chorus	Schiller Institute Choir
Conductor	Diane Sare

*Several performers will be announced following auditions.

Reviews:

Dear Carmela,

Your play is a gem. You have created such a beautiful story from Verdi’s life. The dialogue you have written makes the characters come alive for the audience (or in this case, the reader), and we cannot help but care very much about these people. Thank you for sharing your play with me!

I apologize for taking so long to write to you. I’ve been traveling to judge the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, I’ve also been busy with master classes. You know well how much time all of this takes, so please forgive me.

Roger MaloufAssistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera

GIUSEPPE VERDI

A Life of Pain and Glory

Cameo No. 1

IN SEARCH OF DESDEMONA

“The audition”

Scene 1 – Feb 5, 1886, year when Verdi composed Otello

NARRATOR
Good Afternoon, It’s Feb 5, 1886. Giuseppe Verdi, titan Italian composer, and librettist/composer, Arrigo Boito, are working together on their new opera, Otello. Giuseppina Strepponi, Verdi’s wife, a famous opera singer is preparing her students to audition for them. Both musicians want to engage fresh new voices ideally suitable for the characters they are developing. Verdi especially wants to find a sweet pure, soothing voice for the role of Desdemona. He will discover that voice where least expected. Similar to Verdi’s plots, the new discovery reveals secrets believed to be deeply buried in the labyrinths of the mind.

VERDI AND THE VOICE LESSON
(In the background, we hear the triumphant march from Aida. Music fades out, lights dim)

GIUSEPPINA:
(Sitting on a period chair facing audience, spot on her)
Good evening!
My name is Giuseppina Strepponi, I am Giuseppe Verdi’s wife and this is my voice studio. GIUSEPPE uses it too… like everything else in my life.
He invades everything, even my garden at Sant’Agata. Thank God, we have that piece of land. It is therapy for both of us.
At heart, Giuseppe will always be a farmer. Good Lord! He loves gardening and planting exotic trees.! He even gave me a corner of the garden for my roses… or so I thought.

“This corner is for you Giuseppina,” he said. (With sarcastic disbelief) Really! Just as I expected, he inched his way into what I thought was mine. He puts his nose in everything. Un ficcanaso! His way or no way, I gave up. This year, instead of roses, he will have cabbages.

Not easy to live with Giuseppe! Oh! don’t get me wrong, I do love him, but living with him… is another story! It’s both “croce e delizia,” sometimes, more of a cross. With the servants, he is strict, gruff, demanding. Everything has to be perfect! Poor servants! I try to look after them. They have rights too. Once he went away for almost two weeks. As usual, he left very rigorous instructions, “No one is to leave the house. You are to stay inside, until I return.” For two weeks?!!!

How can a man write such divine music, and be so cruel! and Secretive? He reads all his letters in secret. “Keep your nose out of my letters, Giuseppina.” Who cares! Well, there are those letters from his soprano… Teresa Stoltz. Hmmm! I wonder. I find his music so spiritual, yet he is not a believer. He is a skeptic! If I talk about God, he says that I am delusional… mad. However, he is loyal and generous to his friends. Enough of this! He is GIUSEPPE VERDI… a genius… a symbol who inspires Italy to fight for freedom and unity… an important part of the RISORGIMENTO, Italy’s unification movement.

You will also meet my Santa. She is another character. I accepted to have her with us as a favor to her mother, who was our maid, many years ago. A good, faithful woman; my only friend. Santa also likes to sing. She has a lovely voice, a natural gift. On Sundays, she sings in church for the nuns. People go to church, just to hear her. The girl is unpredictable and outspoken; always giving advice to everyone. She does not know when to keep her mouth shut. But I’ve come to like her, she is so pure, so spontaneous. I have to keep my eyes open, my nephew Camillo is always chasing after her,… if you know what I mean. I just have to catch him, and out he goes on his behind.

NARRATOR
We are now in Giuseppina Strepponi’s studio in Milano. Her husband, Giuseppe Verdi, and Arrigo Boito go frequently to her studio. From time to time, they use it to hear new singers or small instrumental ensembles. When singers are up to the task, she invites them to audition for her husband, the dream of every young artist. Giuseppina is now teaching the principle of stillness in motion by balancing a book on their heads as they sing an arpeggio.

Scene 2

(Set: grand piano, screens, sofa, cocktail table, mirror, books, chairs, ballet bar, coat rack, tray with espresso cups, a light)
(SCENE OPENS WITH THE VOICE LESSON Messa di Voce)?
(GIUSEPPINA enters the studio, finds the students already waiting for her and goes to the piano)
(SANTA, the maid, is on stage left with her cleaning tools, observing the session; CAMILLO is near her, on stage left)

GIUSEPPINA
Good morning! Let’s start with the first Marchesi lesson, “Dal ciel sol può la vita chiedere il mortal.”

(COLETTE, a student, sings. Dal Ciel…)

GIUSEPPINA
(Asks Colette, a first year student from France)
Do you know the meaning of the words you are singing?

COLETTE
Not really, Signora.

GIUSEPPINA
It means, “Look only to Heaven for life. Earthly help is useless “. Now try again
Colette sings..
sDal Ciel sol puo’…..

SANTA
True, for some, it is useless.
(Near SANTA, CAMILLO hears what SANTA said and bursts out laughing).

SANTA
…. and you, (looking at CAMILLO), clown,… stop laughing…. prepare your audition aria for the Conservatory… by heart!

(CAMILLO is looking at SANTA).

GIUSEPPINA
(Looking at CAMILLO)
Keep your eyes on your music…

CAMILLO
My dear aunt, how could you think that I….

GIUSEPPINA
I don’t have to think. My eyes, my wits are still good. Go on, continue… SANTA, some coffee, please.

(SANTA places the coffee tray on the table, then goes back to her broom and mop)

GIUSEPPINA
Girls, let’s practice bowing.

SANTA
(Holding her broom and mop runs to bow for GIUSEPPINA)

GIUSEPPINA
Not you! The students.

(The girls bow and GIUSEPPINA corrects their positions)

GIUSEPPINA
Camillo, give me the audition aria.

(CAMILLO brings her the score)

GIUSEPPINA
What happened to you, your face is hanging to the floor. You must put joy into your singing.

CAMILLO
Zia, the Conservatory rejected me.

GIUSEPPINA
Is that all? Take heart, they rejected my husband too.

CAMILLO
It‘s hard to believe that.

GIUSEPPINA
Ask him tomorrow when he comes to hear you.

GIUSEPPINA (to Colette)
My dear girl, you can go. You did not prepare your lesson.

GIUSEPPINA to all students.
Next lesson, on PORTAMENTO?,
Perché? perché? La calma natura le pene non cura, which means: “Why is nature incapable of curing sorrows?”

SANTA (to the audience)
How should they know?

(Everyone is tongue-tied) Giuseppina gives Santa a dirty look!

GIUSEPPINA
How can you sing about what you do not understand? Asini!!! Donkeys.

GIUSEPPINA,
(to Annette) go ahead!

ANNETTE
“Perché, perché, le PENNE non cura …”

GIUSEPPINA
Girls, did I hear right?

(Girls hide their faces with their music)

GIUSEPPINA
Le PENE means sorrows. One “N”! PENNE with two “Ns” means feathers. Use your dictionary.

ANNETTE
Yes, Signora. Sorry, I forgot.

GIUSEPPINA,

No, my dear, this is the second time I correct the same word. You just did not prepare. You came to Milan for a vacation. You must earn the privilege to be in this class. Go to that side and study.
(Annette goes to the back of the room to study).

(Verdi and Boito appear on stage left and stop to listen without showing)

GIUSEPPINA.
Let’s move on… Letteratura, (Literature) Music History (pointing to Colette) Let us read about Dante.

COLETTE
Who?

GIUSEPPINA,
Dante Alighieri.

(Colette looks at her with a blank stare)

GIUSEPPINA
Dante Alighieri! You don’t know who he is?

SANTA
Dante is my mother’s shoemaker. Mamma said that he put in hell all those he disliked.

GIUSEPPINA
…and who asked you? Can you keep that mouth shut? Just for a little time? See…, a little time.

(SANTA curtsies to GIUSEPPINA)

(Unannounced, Verdi and Boito having heard all come in)

VERDI
(To SANTA, who courtsies)
Too bad, he did not live now. I would have helped him… especially with the… censors… critics… and clerics.
(Students laugh heartily)

GIUSEPPINA
Giuseppe, you are not helping the situation… That’s it! No lessons! No auditions! They must earn the privilege of singing for you and Arrigo.

VERDI (to ARRIGO)
This woman…God help them!

GIUSEPPINA
Most of you are not fit for the café Momus…in Paris, huh! Bel canto? In your dreams!
(To Arrigo and Verdi) Gentlemen, I’ll see you at 4 o’clock. I cannot reason right now.

VERDI (to ARRIGO)
… and when has she ever reasoned?

(Verdi and Boito leave)

GIUSEPPINA (to SANTA)
Giuseppe and Arrigo will be back. Before you leave, clean the mirror, and the floor. GIUSEPPE notices everything. He is meticulous.

SANTA
Sure! This man must have nothing else to do.

GIUSEPPINA
Santa! Your mouth will get you in trouble.

SANTA
My mother says that people, who are too meticulous, are not normal

GIUSEPPINA
Well, no genius is normal. Go now.

SANTA
(curtsies) Yes, sì Signora. Oh, Signora…
(SANTA hesitates)

GIUSEPPINA
Yes… what?

SANTA
I’m always singing sacred music. Do you think I can start to sing some opera?

GIUSEPPINA
Opera? You?!

(SANTA nods)

GIUSEPPINA
Now she wants to sing opera! … What for? Girl, you are dreaming!

SANTA
Oh, you can be sure that I’ll come to class prepared!

Giusepppina
The stage is no business for you… Be happy you have a job.

(SANTA, in tears, takes out a large rag to wipe her tears)

GIUSEPPINA (softening)
Enjoy the girls… to the side… (To herself) even though they will never sing either.

SANTA (heard)
They will not sing?

GIUSEPPINA
I doubt it…. A good voice is not enough. They are never prepared. You must have passion, desire, mind, what is called singing intelligence, and above all discipline. Let’s not forget humility.

SANTA
(Sharply) Then, why do you teach them?

GIUSEPPINA
(Realizing she has crossed the boundaries of confidentiality and somewhat surprised at the girl’s insistence).
Enough now! You ask too many questions, girl!
(Then, putting on her hat, GIUSEPPINA moves a few steps towards SANTA) Some will sing… Let’s remember we are in Italy, where everything moves on… recommendations. And those do not last long here. Do you get it? I’ll see you at 4. Lock the door.

(GIUSEPPINA walks out. The door closes behind her.)

(Stage lights dim)

Scene 3

NARRATOR
Giuseppina leaves. Santa forgetting to lock the door, begins to dust the mirrors, stops to consider herself as an accomplished opera singer, assumes the posture of sophistication, then picks up a glass and begins to sing Libiamo from La Traviata. In the meantime, Giuseppina’s nephew, Camillo, who purposefully has been hiding in the back, comes in to court Santa. The two composers, who found the door open sneak in, hide behind a screen and enjoy the natural theatrics of Santa and Camillo. Could it be that this is the voice they were looking for?

(All characters execute the actions described by tthe Narrator: SANTA starts to mop the floor, and proceeds to dust the frame of the mirror, then, stops to consider herself in the mirror. Picks up a wine glass and starts to sing Libiamo, libiamo. Picking up two puppets, continues singing and spins around the room, when a sudden noise, like something dropping to the floor, startles her. SANTA moves towards the area where the noise came from.

(VERDI and ARRIGO enter and, taking advantage that SANTA’s back is turned towards the door on center stage, quickly hide behind the room divider.

SANTA
Strange, I thought I heard something. Maybe the wind closed the shutters. (SANTA continues to sing. She playfully lowers her peasant blouse off the shoulders, and sings both roles, alternating between Maddalena and Gilda. She uses the puppets to create the two characters).
(GIUSEPPE and ARRIGO, behind the room divider, enjoy the whole scene).

(CAMILLO also sneaks in from the kitchen, center stage door, where he was hiding all the time… and from behind, places one hand over SANTA’s eyes).

SANTA
(Frightened, cries out) Oh! God! Help!.. Aiuto! Who are you?

(ARRIGO also startled wants to help SANTA, takes a few steps out from behind the screen, while GIUSEPPE drags him back behind the screen).

(CAMILLO places the other hand on SANTA’s shoulder).

SANTA.
(Suddenly turns and slap CAMILLO’s face hard)
Remove that hand! Stop that! Villano.., maleducato.., invadente.., stupido …

CAMILLO
Wow! I did not deserve that. Why? All I did was to put my hand on your shoulder!

SANTA
Yes, a bit too far down.

CAMILLO
I did not know where it would land.

SANTA
Oh! You did not know! Now you’ll know where this will land…. (SANTA gives him one more slap)

CAMILLO
Girl,… you are a wild animal. O.K… O.K. Forget about it.

SANTA
Yeah, just forget it. (Pushes her blouse back up on the shoulders)
What are you doing here?… We will both get in trouble. Please,… go!

CAMILLO
You always send me away!

SANTA
Yes, I said, go! I am practicing. I have so little time to study….
(SANTA sings a few measures of the First Act aria from La Traviata, Ah quell’amor)
(CAMILLO, as if leaving, changes his mind, returns and joins in the duet from La Traviata)

SANTA to CAMILLO
Ah, se cio è ver fuggite!!! solo amistà io v’offro… You know what that means? It means G O AWAY!

(CAMILLO, persists, joining her in the aria. Both of them pretend to be the audience, which now bursts into applause. They take a bow. CAMILLO kisses her hand and SANTA curtsies than picks a camellia from a bouquet of flowers and gives it to him. CAMILLO brings flower to his lips).

(GIUSEPPE and ARRIGO come out from behind the screen)

SANTA
(Seeing Verdi and Boito screams, in shock) Oh no, Oh my God! You heard the whole thing?

VERDI and ARRIGO
Brava! Bravi!!
SANTA
(Disengaging from CAMILLO, and half crying, begs Maestro Verdi)
Please don’t tell Signora Giuseppina,

ARRIGO
Of course not! (Placing a hand on his heart) A gentleman’s promise,

(CAMILLO runs out of the room)

SANTA
Good bye job!!

VERDI and ARRIGO
No, not at all….. Good job!

VERDI
(As he considers her from all sides) sure,…but not this job.

You see … (as SANTA cries) That’s what I thought,… not this job, so you will tell her.

(SANTA continues to cry in a manipulative way)

ARRIGO
Good Lord, Giuseppe, this is too much for me.

SANTA
I don’t mind losing the job, but I will miss the classes, I will miss Signora Giuseppina, (turning to Verdi), even though she is tough to work for.
VERDI (to Arrigo)
On this point, I’ve got to agree with her!

SANTA
Gentlemen, you see, I love to sing.

(VERDI and ARRIGO look at each other)

VERDI (to ARRIGO) Did you hear?

VERDI and ARRIGO (Together, with amusement, playfully)
…. “She loves to sing”

SANTA
So? Is that a crime?… but, I do not have the means to study, so mamma said, go to clean the studio for la Signora Giuseppina. Maybe something will stick in that head of yours. Maestro, I pray, do not tell La Signora.

VERDI (to ARRIGO)
I tell you, she is a natural, splendid. Fresh air at last! I will not have to put up anymore with those arrogant obnoxious, primadonnas the opera houses impose on me.

ARRIGO
Boy! you move fast, don’t you think? Both of us are victims of those pompous sopranos… They always change my lines in favor of their vocal embellishments, trills and high notes…, which they hold for hours, all over the place.

VERDI
Nothing to do at all with the psychological character development, with the words, the music. They think that opera is a tool for their beautiful voices and their virtuoso technique. They are more suitable as a circus attraction. The opera managers, those foxes, “Write your music; leave business to us. Stop complaining about the singers.”

ARRIGO
True… Giuseppe, you know what?

VERDI
What?

ARRIGO
Those obnoxious singers, we must admit, pay your bills, my bills, all bills. They are our box office.

VERDI
Money, Money! All you – and they – think about is money!

ARRIGO
Don’t we all…. I heard you with my own ears asking to your managers, “… and how is the box office doing, Monsieur?”

VERDI
“Ces l’argent que fait la guerre”. (Pacing up and down to blow off steam) I want to leave Milano.

ARRIGO
Where will you go?

VERDI
Paris, maybe in Paris I will have more respect.

ARRIGO
Giuseppe, when the honeymoon is over, you will find something wrong with the French also. Eh! tutto il mondo è paese, anywhere you go it’s the same story. Squash… Cook it any way you want, is always squash.
I have never known you to be happy anywhere. You should have been a nomad.

VERDI
True!… I remember with what appalling disrespect and inaccuracy my operas were staged. Do you remember Attila? The sun rose before the music announced the sunrise.

ARRIGO (Laughing)
The sea… instead of being stormy and tempestuous was calm, without a ripple.

VERDI
There were hermits without any huts.

ARRIGO
There were priests, but no altar and no cross.

VERDI
Attila gave a banquet without any lights, and when the storm came, the sky remained serene and limpid, as on the most beautiful spring day.

ARRIGO
(With a sobering thought) Still, after the performance, all those going home, passing by your windows, shouted, “‘Viva Verdi! Evviva il Maestro!” over, and over, and over again. It was a sight, which made one simply overjoyed! Eeeh! But you, my dear Verdi, though of course delighted with the audience’s furore, were still enraged and disturbed. Giuseppe, come to your senses! No composer has had such success and reverence from the public, ever! So stop complaining. Be, grateful! (Emphatically) You obscured all of us!

VERDI
(somewhat uncomfortable , placing an arm on his shoulder, in a half embrace).
Arrigo, you are deranged. You know that you are a great composer, and a great librettist as well, a great literary figure. You will have, for sure, a special place in Italian literary history,… and music history.

ARRIGO
Giuseppe, I never heard you exaggerate, but coming from you… I humbly accept.

Scene 4

GIUSEPPINA (Entering the room)
Gentlemen, I did not expect you so early. What can I do for you?

ARRIGO
Signora Giuseppina, Signor Verdi and I are producing a new opera, based on Shakespeare’s Othello.

GIUSEPPINA
Yes, yes, I know. But what are you looking for here, in my studio? Most of my pupils are as green as my maid.

VERDI
Did you say the maid?

GIUSEPPINA
Yes, Santa, that funny girl. She is always butting in, but the students are fond of her… Strangely, she got under my skin too. I wish she had more schooling… You know, this girl is hungry to learn, instead of cleaning, she is always observing; doesn’t miss a trick. I wish the others had the same quality.

VERDI
She may lack schooling, but she sure can sing.
(VERDI picks up a glass to drink water. ARRIGO, looks at a score)
(SANTA comes in with the mop and, seeing the three of them, hides to listen)

GIUSEPPINA
Who, Santa? Don’t be silly. Her mother sent her here for sacred music. She sings in church on Sundays. Maybe you heard one of the other girls. By the way,… when did you hear her?

(VERDI and ARRIGO look at each other)
VERDI
From outside your door. She was the only one in here. (GIUSEPPINA shakes her head) No, I tell you, it was Santa.

SANTA
(Nervously, drops the mop) There goes my job!
(SANTA motions to Arrigo, putting a finger on her lips as if to hush them up)

GIUSEPPINA
What was that?

(SANTA stares with a stupid look on her face)

GIUSEPPINA.
Maybe she was mimicking one of my students as she often does.

VERDI
No, I tell you, she sang in full voice like an angel.

GIUSEPPINA
(Mimicking VERDI) Ehhhh,… like an angel

VERDI
Are you doubting my ears?

GIUSEPPINA
No! Not your ears, your eyesight… She lacks schooling, the polish you are looking for… she has no operatic training.

VERDI
Better! Train her. She has a natural gift. She has it all. The complete package.

SANTA
(Tries to fix herself up)
(To ARRIGO) Grazie,…. Grazie!

ARRIGO
(To SANTA) Walk, my dear; let me see you,… slowly… with pro- pri- ety.

SANTA
… with what?

ARRIGO
(Giving her a fan) With grace, elegance, sussiego e gravità.

(SANTA changes manner of walking and bearing as she did in the mirror when she was alone)

ARRIGO
Aha! Giuseppina, see? She catches on fast…

VERDI
(Butting in) … and the quality of her voice… of an angel!

GIUSEPPINA
Stop with that angel stuff. She will start believing it. O.K., O.K., signori! Va bene….. I’ll make a bargain with you,
Hear a few of my students before you decide. There is one, who is a bit more experienced. She comes from the Netherlands.

VERDI
From the Netherlands?

ARRIGO
Does she know the Italian language? How about her diction? Singers don’t know that diction is half the secret.
Verdi and I really like Santa. Even her diction was acceptable. Why do you doubt us’ You think we are deaf?…. stupid?… blind?

GIUSEPPINA
You want an answer?

VERDI
Woman, never mind, get the audition going. We have no time to waste. La Scala wants the score in a couple of months. They are like bumble bees… I don’t know where to hide.

GIUSEPPINA
I would not complain if I were you. You had your first chance at La Scala. Think of it, to an unknown…

VERDI
Yes, and they cashed in.

ARRIGO
Brava, Giuseppina! Tell him, this forgetful, old, old… uh… (VERDI turns to look at him, ARRIGO changing tone)
old friend… (Then turning to GIUSEPPINA) not to say something else.

VERDI
Yes, of course, I am grateful to Merelli, to La Scala, but since Nabucco, I have had no peace whatsoever. All they want is the next work. “Maestro! The next opera!” They, including Ricordi, think that composing operas is like making sausages… Oh poor me !

ARRIGO and GIUSEPPINA
(Together) Oh, the poor man!!!
(GIUSEPPINA and ARRIGO laugh)

NARRATOR
Giuseppe and Arrigo are in Giuseppina’s studio where they hope to find singers for their new opera, Othello. The two composers are searching for angelic voice, a timbre, resembling the voice they accidentally fell upon while hiding in Giuseppina’s studio. Giuseppina presents a few of her students to Giuseppe and Arrigo. One of the singers, thinking that Verdi would be pleased, sings an aria from Macbeth, an opera not yet heard in Italy. To the contrary, Verdi tells the soprano that her voice, though beautiful, is not suitable for Lady Macbeth. The soprano is bewildered but thanks Verdi for his teachings. Arrigo Boito reminds Verdi to ask for the young lady they heard earlier that afternoon. The Auditions begin.

GIUSEPPINA
(introduces the young artists)

Aria No.1
Ola Rafallo, Contralto

VERDI
Extraordinary. She is a perfect Azucena, This one is more experienced, her voice is too important for a supporting role, not for Emilia. Giuseppina, Remind me when we next perform Don Carlo or Trovatore

Aria No. 2
Anne Tormela, Lyric Coloratura
“Caro Nome….”

VERDI
Delightful, but not for Desdemona’s role. The voice must have more of a haunting oboe timbre.

ARRIGO
She would be ideal for…

GIUSEPPINA
For?

ARRIGO
Verdi wants no mention of it. Not now. His lips are sealed.

GIUSEPPINA
I should know that I live with stone walls. This next one has a surprise for you.

Aria No 3.
“Ritorna Vincitor…”
VERDI (to ARRIGO)
Mmmm… We even have a surprise? A very credible Aida. So what is the surprise?

(A soprano (?) auditions with Lady Macbeth and begins to sing without announcing the piece)

VERDI
(Stops her) My dear Signorina, where did you get the score?

THE SOPRANO (?)
From my teacher, Signora Giuseppina.

VERDI
(Turns around, looking at GIUSEPPINA)
Is that so? I am surprised at you for allowing her to sing the role.

GIUSEPPINA
…And why not?

VERDI
Because here they are used to more conventional operas. The country is not ready for Shakespear’s dark, gruesome bloody plot of Macbeth. Italy is still on milk… and even if some avant garde theater were willing to stage the opera, I would not choose her to sing this part.

GIUSEPPPINA
…And why not?

VERDI
Giuseppina, her qualities are too great. Her voice is sweet. Lady Macbeth should sound hard, comfortless and dark. (Seeing that the girl takes out a handkerchief to wipe her tears) Come closer my dear; do not look so disappointed. …You are not being rejected. This has nothing to do with you! It is the nature of the opera that calls for a different timbre and persona. You are lovely and so is your voice.

VERDI (Gets up to walk)
Arrigo, take over, please!

ARRIGO
Signorina, can you sound strident? metallic?

SOPRANO
(Sings a phrase)

ARRIGO
NO! Everyone will know you are distorting your timbre

SOPRANO
(Sings another phrase)

ARRIGO
NO! Not enough, needs more steel! Dark!

SOPRANO
(Sings a phrase with darker voice)

ARRIGO
Not dark enough, try hallow

SOPRANO
(Tries to sing with hallow timbre)
ARRIGO
No, the voice will not pierce the orchestra. Your eyes have to be those of Doctor Jekyll and your lips pressed together, thin like those of a frog.

GIUSEPPINA
Stop, Arrigo, for the love of God. She got it. You have belabored your point.

VERDI
Should be the voice of a demon. She is pure evil….it’s clear, you do not fit the bill.
(To ARRIGO) What say you?

ARRIGO
Giuseppe,… What say I?… Tonight I’ll have nightmares! Please! Please, I have had enough.

SOPRANO
(Comes over to thank signor VERDI, and embraces him)
Thank you for caring Maestro. I do understand… and I also learned.

VERDI
We will talk.

ARRIGO
After all that spiel, she embraced you? not me!…. How do you like that?… Give me some of that!
(To Verdi, smiling, reminding him, leans over and clearing his throat, says sottovoce) The voice?…

VERDI
Yes! Where did she hide her.?

ARRIGO
Signora Giuseppina, you did good work. Your singers can be useful in other repertoires, We have something in mind, for the thin one, the coloratura, but for the moment this cannot be disclosed.

VERDI
(Placing an arm around Giuseppina’s shoulder, benevolently)
We will make you happy! Now, make us happy. Bring out that singing maid of yours. Where did you hide her?

GIUSEPPINA.
I did not hide her. She is afraid to come out.

VERDI
Afraid?

GIUSEPPINA
Afraid I will fire her. Sometimes, I am tempted to do just that.

ARRIGO
Get that young man also who was singing with her.

GIUSEPPINA
What young man? …. There was a young man? hmmmm,… is that so!! …Sure, I bet it was that love sick nephew of mine, Camillo.

ARRIGO
What ardor! That chemistry in fact works so well on stage! Friends, I must absent myself for a minute. (ARRIGO exits)

VERDI
Giusepppina, your dear, dear friend at la Scala is pressing me. I need to cast the opera.

GIUSEPPINA
First of all, Giuseppe, I do not like the tone you used to say, “your dear, dear friend at La Scala,” I resent that; not from you, and you should know why,… that situation right under my nose…. Hm!

VERDI
Giuseppina, not here,… not now.

(ARRIGO returns)
ARRIGO
Here I am. What now? I think someone is at the door.

(VERDI is relieved to change the subject)

GIUSEPPINA
Santa, go to the door please then bring some coffee.
(SANTA goes to the door)

Scene 5

(Teresa Stoltz comes in, with primadonna affectation)

GIUSEPPINA
What brings you here? Oh yes, let me guess, you are looking for Giuseppe. Who else could you be looking for?

TERESA STOLTZ
(Looking around to find Giuseppe) You guessed right… (Looking over Giuseppina’s head) I also have a letter for you. The doorman gave it to me.
GIUSEPPINA
(Snatches the letter from her hand and gives it to Giuseppe)
It must be someone who wants you to read his script.

(While they talk, SANTA readies the table with cups and pastries)

(GIUSEPPINA escorts Arrigo and Teresa at the table to take coffee and pastries)
(VERDI asks to be excused, and moves to a corner of the room to read the letter.

TERESA
(To GIUSEPPINA) These pastries are divine. Where do they come from?

GIUSEPPINA
From that cozy bar at the Duomo, where you and Giuseppe have coffee together… every day.

TERESA
You are always welcome to join us… but of course, you are always teaching.

GIUSEPPINA
How convenient!

VERDI
(Staring at Giuseppina in a strange way) Giuseppina, please come here.

GIUSEPPINA
Giuseppe, why are you staring at me? You seem disturbed. Did I say….

VERDI (Interrupts GIUSEPPINA, and goes to ARRIGO and TERESA) Arrigo, Teresa, my dear…. I beg your pardon. Giuseppina and I need a few moments to discuss something, which needs our attention. We have to take leave from you for a little while.

ARRIGO
(Understanding that something is brewing, looks with attention at Giuseppe, who is still holding the letter, then to Giuseppe) Yes, yes, of course. As a matter of fact Teresa and I welcome the opportunity to discuss some business… uh… for my next opera. We were just about to excuse ourselves for a short time, right Teresa?

(ARRIGO, takes TERESA’s arm and escorts her to the door)
(SANTA calls CAMILLO to help her clear the table. Then they leave the room, but SANTA comes back and hides behind the screen to listen to what is going on)

GIUSEPPINA
Why did you send them away? I have noticed that your face lights up when you see that woman.

VERDI
(With a stern, commanding tone) Giuseppina, enough! Sit down.

GIUSEPPINA
(Sits on the piano bench) Go ahead, talk, Giuseppe! I do not have secrets.

VERDI
(Puts his head in his hands then begins to read with a long sigh)

“Dear Maestro,
Perhaps you may not remember that, years ago, for several months, I served in your household. I got to know and grew to love la Signora Giuseppina

GIUSEPPINA
Don’t tell me! It’s Annina, Santa’s mother. Why is she writing to you?

VERDI
(Keeps reading)
“I was her confidant….

GIUSEPPINA
True…

VERDI
(Keeps reading)

“Giuseppina, she used to say, I wonder if Giuseppe really loves me. I know that I cannot take the place of his beloved Margherita. In his sleep, I’ve heard him mention her name. You were not yet married and Giuseppina was made to feel most unwelcome in your family.

GIUSEPPINA
That was years ago, what is she getting at?

VERDI
(Keeps reading) “She felt hopeless and brought the infant to the Sisters of Charity.

(GIUSEPPINA disturbed, leans on the piano than gets up again. Nervously picks up her coffee cup)

VERDI
(Keeps reading)
“Before you left for Paris, as destiny would have it, I volunteered at the Sisters of Charity Convent where unwanted babies were left for adoption. La Signora Giuseppina does not know…
(VERDI stops reading, and hesitates. GIUSEPPINA faces him)

VERDI
(With a softer tone) Giuseppina, please sit down…

VERDI
(Starts reading again)
“Santa is your child. She belongs to both of you… Giuseppina left the infant at the Sisters of Charity…

(The news hits GIUSEPPINA like a lightning bolt. She drops the cup on the floor),
(VERDI stops reading, quickly goes to her side to see if she is o.k. Picks up the cup. GIUSEPPINA motions with her hand then has one of her usual fit of coughing)

GIUSEPPINA
Continue……..

VERDI
(Starts reading again)
“I was present when the nuns received the baby. She was wrapped in a monogrammed blanket, which I recognized. It belonged to Giuseppina. The note pinned to the blanket said, ‘Please give this child for adoption, to a decent family.’

“I asked the sisters to give the child to me. I sheltered the child as best as I could. Now she is a woman, but believe me, Maestro, Santa was practically raised in the convent. She is still very innocent, childlike… Last night, much to my distress, Santa told me that you want to use her as a cover in your new opera. Maestro for the love of God, please reconsider. I only wanted Santa to meet Giuseppina… It never entered my mind that she could be considered for opera. I strongly disapprove of my Santa entering that environment.

(GIUSEPPINA, losing her balance, looks for something to lean on. VERDI quickly goes to get her a chair).
GIUSEPPINA
(Seeing VERDI fold the letter to put it away) Giuseppe, no, no, please continue.

VERDI
(Losing composure) Oh God, is there forgiveness for a blind wretched fool like me?

GIUSEPPINA
(Smiles tenderly at him. Then, with a feeble voice) GIUSEPPE… finish….

VERDI
(Resumes reading) “SANTA does not suspect that my illness is terminal. (GIUSEPPINA not expecting the terrible news, covers her mouth with her hand)….
“My husband died years ago. He used to work for you. When I leave this world, she will be alone with no one to care for her. Now is the time that the three of you meet. Santa will be of comfort to both of you. I trust you will do what is right for Santa. Addio, Maestro. Addio Signora Giuseppina… you will always be in my prayers. Annina Di Carlo.”

(GIUSEPPINA is sobbing. GIUSEPPE goes to her, and takes GIUSEPPINA’s hand. GIUSEPPINA doubles over and faints)

VERDI
(Alarmed, calling out to SANTA, who comes out of her hiding place)
Santa, smelling salts, quick… some water….

(SANTA no longer containing herself, rushes to her mother’s side, kneels at her feet crying, and buries her head on her lap. GIUSEPPINA, regaining consciousness, sees SANTA’s head on her lap and caresses it).

SANTA
Mamma!
(The two women weep together)
GIUSEPPINA
…never, I’ll never lose you again. (Then, with a faint voice) Santa, go now, bring comfort to that holy woman, that angel.

SANTA
Yes. Of course, mamma.

GIUSEPPINA
She has more need of you now. We have time. Kiss her hands, tell her I love her,… I have no words to thank her. Let me know what I can do… whatever is necessary; I will take care of everything.

VERDI
I will help you Santa. Don’t worry my dear.

SANTA
(Coldly) Your help is not needed, Maestro.

(VERDI’s and GIUSEPPINA’s eyes meet. VERDI lowers his head).

GIUSEPPINA,
Santa, Giuseppe and I want to help.

SANTA
(Kissing GIUSEPPINA) Mamma! (SANTA turns to look at GIUSEPPE, then to GIUSEPPINA) I said what I said. Did you hear me, mamma? (GIUSEPPINA nods silently)

(VERDI escorts SANTA to the door, attempts to help her with her coat, SANTA snatches it from his hands and puts it on by herself)
VERDI
I hope that someday you will forgive me.

(SANTA gives him a long, long, cold stare then leaves hurriedly. VERDI, mortified, defeated, head and shoulders bent, falls into a chair. Age catches up with him in haste. GIUSEPPINA goes to him and kisses him tenderly on his forehead. VERDI looks up at her)

GIUSEPPINA
Indeed, we are punished by the very things we worship. Lust, fame, greed, ambition…are blinding.

VERDI
I have failed you miserably. I failed my first family; I failed my mother, and my father … now my daughter.

VERDI
Giuseppina, I fear the old malady coming on… that heavy grey mist that envelopes me… like the one I sank into when I lost Margherita… Icilio… Virginia… I can find no escape. God Help me! I always do the thing I don’t want to do. Why?

GIUSEPPINA
I see that you need rest. Go, now. Tomorrow will be a better day.

VERDI
No! Giuseppina, tomorrow may never come for me. I wish it wouldn’t!

GIUSEPPINA
What do you mean? ……You want to leave me? You want to leave us?

VERDI
It is hard to explain. Everything I love, I end up hurting… Perhaps you will do better without me. Now you have your daughter, somebody to live for.

GIUSEPPINA
No, Giuseppe. She is your daughter too…. Remember Annina’s words. “I trust that you will do what is best for her.” Santa needs a family. Annina left her to us. You and I know what is best for her. Nothing happens by chance. God is giving us a gift.
(GIUSEPPINA stops, looks at GIUSEPPE then speaks calmly with measured words) Giuseppe, where is all this coming from? There is something else tormenting you. You are trying to avoid facing something that troubles you deeply. Is that right? (Insisting) Is that right? … Giuseppe, let’s not fool each other.
(GIUSEPPE is silent, looking away as to avoid GIUSEPPINA’s eyes)

GIUSEPPINA
Now or never! Yes, yes! You must decide!

(The stage darkens)

Scene 6

NARRATOR

After a day, Santa returns to see Giuseppina. She is there, where Santa left her, at her piano.

(GIUSEPPINA is in her studio. SANTA arrives. GIUSEPPINA looks up, rises to embrace SANTA, then sits again at the piano)

SANTA
Mamma, (SANTA takes a few steps, than turns to face GIUSEPPINA) I will no longer sing opera… not his anyway.

GIUSEPPINA
Oh! Yesterday you were begging me to teach you.

SANTA
That was yesterday. Things have changed…. That bad man…. I do not want to see him. Unforgiveable, selfish, fool! He hurt you too much, and I do not want his help.

GIUSEPPINA,
(Rising from the piano) Listen my dear, I can hear Annina ‘s words, “Christ taught us to forgive.” We must not judge each other. I’ve also made mistakes, many mistakes, and you will make your mistakes too.

SANTA
Mom, you do not know what you are asking of me. I can forgive you. You found yourself in a bottomless vortex, in a men’s world, especially the one you were in. But I? How can I forgive such a man? He is a scheming, cruel man! Everyone knows he chased his own parents out of his house. Insensitive fool!

GIUSEPPINA
He has virtues too. We are what we see and what we think. He saw Desdemona, a pure creature, in you. That’s who he really is. He has not yet fully known himself. Could it be because he is always creating monstrous characters like Macbeth, the Duke, Iago?
When we live in the unreal world, we often mistake it for the real. Great art is not necessarily good for its creator. It takes discernment. Some things should be avoided. The highest calling of an artist is to transform, to uplift one to higher purpose of life.
Ask the ALL MERCIFUL for help, for grace! People do change. What happened was years ago. Take some time. In your silence, you will get direction. Annina needs you now.

NARRATOR
Three weeks later, SANTA returns.

SANTA
(Sobbing, embraces her mother) Mamma, Annina left us.

GIUSEPPINA
Santa, my dear, your sorrow is mine too. Did she die at home?

SANTA
No, the nuns took her to their infirmary. They have a good doctor

GIUSEPPINA
I hope she did not suffer much.

SANTA
I could never thank them enough. They called me, because she was trying to talk. I leaned down to hear her. She said, “Giuseppina needs you”. Those were her last words.

GIUSEPPINA
Santa, we have a friend in heaven. She is in the heart of God. I am sure the nuns planned the funeral. I will take care of whatever there is to do. We will close her house. Pack your belongings, and come to me. I do not want you to be alone.

SANTA
I would rather be alone than live with that man.

GIUSEPPINA
Santa, please! You grieve me. I am human and so is your father. I see how he suffers: rejection cuts the heart.

SANTA
We know something about that, don’t we? It’s for you that I am here. “Take care of your mother,” were Annina’s last words. (They embrace) Mamma, I do not have heart anymore to sing opera…, not now. My heart is heavy. It feels heavier in this place.

GIUSEPPINA
(As SANTA is leaving the room) Santa, you are a Verdi – Strepponi child; art is in your veins. Someday you will regret it.

SANTA
I am your daughter, mamma. That’s as far as it goes. As for me, I have no desire for anything.

GIUSEPPINA
Of course, you are still mourning. I understand. These last months have been too painful for you. Music is what saved me. It will save you too: it is God’s language.

Scene 7

NARRATOR
We are now in VERDI and GIUSEPPINA’s home. Santa and Giuseppina have attended the funeral and are now reminiscing the beautiful service in memory of Annina.

GIUSEPPINA
What a beautiful service. Did you thank the sisters?

SANTA
Of course I did. I asked the organist who composed music. He said, “We chose that Ave Maria for you Santa. It is by Giuseppe Verdi. Dante Alighieri based the words on a Lauda by Jacopone da Todi. Wasn’t it heavenly? I can still hear the voices echoing in my ears.”

(The lights dim. The scene is still, as we hear the music: Ave Maria sung by the Schiller choir voices)

SANTA
The irony of it, mamma! Of all composers, they chose him! It is a mystery. Sublime music like that, composed by such a man? Hard to understand! Maybe I never will.

GIUSEPPINA
Some things are better understood by the heart. But I cannot teach you that.

(SANTA now ponders on these words)

(VERDI comes in)
VERDI
Hello, Giuseppina, I am here for the audition. The accompanist and the singer are also here. (GIUSEPPINA’s student accompanied by her pianist comes in)

VERDI
Oh! Hello Santa. I’m happy to see you.

(SANTA moves toward the door, to exit)

GIUSEPPINA
(To SANTA) Santa, please, stay. Listen to this beautiful Ave Maria from Othello.
(SANTA takes a seat).

VERDI
(To the pianist and student) The Ave Maria, followed by the Willow Song

GIUSEPPINA
“Mia madre avea una povera ancella, innamorata e bella, era il suo nome Barbara, Amava un uom che poi l’abbando…”

(At this point, SANTA runs out of the room)

VERDI
What happened? Why did she run away? Where did she go?

GIUSEPPINA
Let us have the audition a little later. Excuse us. My daughter’s closest friend died. She is still mourning. The music overpowered her

(Student and pianist leave right away. They will return later)

GIUSEPPINA
(To VERDI) The words fell on an open wound Amava un uom che poi l’abbandonò; ”She loved a man who abandoned her”. Those words of abandonment are too much for her right now. Her life has been turned upside down. You can understand. She looks mature but emotionally, she is still fifteen. She was always sheltered.

(VERDI bows his head and leaves the studio, as SANTA returns)

VERDI
I can understand. I’ll come back later.

GIUSEPPINA
Santa, we cannot continue like this. This poisonous bitterness will make you sick. Drop it.

SANTA
I’ll drop it when he drops that awful, disgusting woman.

GIUSEPPINA
What are you talking about?

SANTA
Please don’t play stupid, I see how she looks at him. You lie to yourself. Under your own roof! … Good Lord!
Don’t you have any respect for yourself? She is brazen, ambitious and as repulsive as he is.
I cannot live here anymore, mamma. How can I forget? If I have to see her always here, in this house. You must put Teresa in her place….. You must have more respect for yourself.

GIUSEPPINA
Santa, please don’t remind me of my miseries. How can you leave your mother? I could not bear to lose you again.

SANTA
Mamma, I must confess…

GIUSEPPINA
What?

SANTA
You forgot your diary open on the piano.

GIUSEPPINA
No! Did you close it?

SANTA
No, I read it and I’m not sorry. Now, I know how you feel about Teresa. My suspicions were right.

GIUSEPPINA
You suspected? Why?

SANTA
I heard the servants talking, “Did you change the linens in Teresa room?” “I feel so bad for Signora Giuseppina!”
That wretch! She walks in as if she owns the house. I see the way she looks at Maestro… This will kill you!

GIUSEPPINA,
There is more to you than meets the eye. You understand more than I thought.
(With decision) Yes,…. yes, my dear Santa, I have been blind. This is no environment for you.

SANTA
Not for me, not for you either…. Both of us need peace.

GIUSEPPINA
Oh, God! Help and forgive me. You come first. You should have come first years ago.

(The two women embrace each other)

SANTA
You have more freedom now. You are not alone. Take action.

Scene 8

NARRATOR
Months have passed. Verdi has made the decision to create a family atmosphere for SANTA. The town knows that Verdi has adopted a daughter. Giuseppe has told Teresa that she can no longer live under the same roof, although they can remain friends. The Verdi residence is experiencing a new beginning. Santa goes to the opera house where Verdi is walking her through the final scene of Othello.

(SANTA enters the rehearsal space, greeting her father, Boito, the Set and the Costume designers, the pianist, the lighting technician)

VERDI
Santa! You are punctual! A good beginning. We are pleased to see you. Are you ready? Arrigo and I will work with you. First, we’ll walk you through the scene. Feel free to ask questions. Familiarize yourself with the stage, acoustics, space, as if it were your house.

Let the pianist know the tempo – where you take your breaths…. Keep the rhythm…. Make sure you enunciate…. The audience has to understand the words…. Do not rush, space the words Keep an eye on the conductor, before beginning a phrase. Get in character before you enter the stage. There should be more being than doing.
Santa, one more thing, important. Two days before singing a major role be quiet, observe silence. So important, discipline is everything.

SANTA
(Taking Maestro aside) Before we begin, my heart wants to say a word to you.

VERDI
Tell me. What is it?

SANTA
Oh! I think you already know! You finally understood. Thank you! We are now a family.

VERDI
Yes, my daughter. It’s a new day for all of us. (Kisses SANTA on her cheek)

SANTA
Thank you for the opportunity. I understand the responsibility.

VERDI
No, my dear. It is my opportunity. You make me so proud, so happy, and grateful.

SANTA
Shall we dedicate this performance to Annina? I would like to use Santa Di Carlo as a stage name. Do you think mamma would mind?

VERDI
You should. I think GIUSEPPINA would approve.

NARRATOR
The scene shifts and Verdi with Arrigo Boito are now staging Othello’s death scene.

Arias from Otello:

(One of the girls will have to play Emilia, Desdemona’s Lady in Waiting).

Ave Maria, Salce, Salce

(Othello’s entrance and death scene)

VERDI
(To Othello) If you heard, the same things I told Santa go for you. I hope you know how to die! Fall sideways, so the knife can be seen. Then, with the other hand, reach for Desdemona, reach… reach… reach and drop.

(Lights Fade Out)

Final Scene

VERDI to ARRIGO
Truly a Desdemona! And, ironically, a part of me.

GIUSEPPINA,
Giuseppe, your instincts once again win for you. Let’s get our tenor and Santa.

(The audience applauds)
(VERDI and GIUSEPPINA embrace SANTA)

ARRIGO
(To SANTA) My Santa, you must remember that the passions are not there to consume you as they did your mother. The sacred fire burns but does not devour.

Narrator
Unlike any of GIUSEPPE VERDI’s melodramas, the first of the three CAMEOS on VERDI’s life ends well. Three characters experience joy. GIUSEPPINA finds a daughter; VERDI finds redemption and a daughter; SANTA finds a family and the joy of singing. Verdi and Arrigo Boito give to the world a signature work of art, Othello. “All is well that ends well,” at least for now. The artists are basking in the aura of a well-earned success, receiving the accolades of the world.
VERDI
Giuseppina kindly call our new generation of artists.

ARRIVEDERCI AT THE SECOND CAMEO ON VERDI’S LIFE.
Coming attraction, G. Verdi at age 8, virtuoso, Sasha Grossman from Juilliard playing the spinet.

The End

Bibliography

Letters of Giuseppe Verdi by Charles Osborne, Leading Verdian Authority

The Life and Operas of Verdi, Robert Greenbeeerg, Ph.D.

VERDI A Biography, by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz. Illustrated. 941 pp. New York: Oxford University Press. $45.
CONSIDER this unusual scenario: A composer in his mid-30s, having lost his wife and two infant children to illnesses, begins an affair with a soprano who once sang in his operas. Though she is younger than he, she is at the end of her career. She had given birth to at least four illegitimate children fathered by at least two men before she was 30; she sang one role six hours before giving birth. One baby was stillborn; the others were abandoned as charity cases. Her voice worn and her career over, she finds, in the composer, both security and idealistic love.
The young composer, on the other hand, is just at the beginning of his career, developing an international reputation. He is headstrong, ambitious, but also deeply troubled. He begins to live with the soprano; they spend much of their time not in a city where anonymity will allow them privacy, but where the composer is most known: the small provincial Italian village in which he grew up.
Complicating matters further, after arriving in that village and causing a small scandal, the composer fathers an illegitimate child with one of his servants. The soprano also becomes pregnant yet again, this time with the composer’s child. They abandon this infant girl as well, eventually arranging for a local family to adopt her. The composer’s father, a deeply religious man, is distraught; the composer, in a furious response to patriarchal disapproval, creates a formal legal separation between himself and his parents, to whom he is financially in debt. He kicks them out of their house, which sits on land he owns. A few weeks after the dispossession, his mother dies.
The composer is gradually drawn into new opera projects, becomes a gentleman farmer, is active in national politics and then falls in love with yet another soprano. The two singers face off one fateful day, and the wife — for there was a belated marriage along the way — demands that the composer’s mistress be banned from the household where she has been a frequent guest. Whereupon the composer threatens suicide.
This plot seems too extreme and exaggerated even for the operatic stage, with characters too brutal in the indulgence of their desires. Yet, this is the portrait of Giuseppe Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, which emerges from this important biography of the composer by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz. Much of this account is new; some of it is carefully qualified as speculation; all of it is bound to have an impact on our understanding of the life as well as the music that is at the heart of the contemporary operatic repertory.
Once considered too vulgar for scholarship, in recent decades, Verdi has been the beneficiary of exceptionally literate treatment, including: Julian Budden’s magisterial survey of his operas; George Martin’s biographical study and essays (the latter recently brought back into print as “Aspects of Verdi”); the “Verdi Companion” edited by William Weaver and Martin Chusid; and lucid writing and criticism from Charles Osborne and Andrew Porter. Ms. Phillips-Matz’s exhaustive and sometimes exhausting researches lack the elegant style and interpretive energy of some of these other studies, and her book doesn’t include summaries of opera plots or discussions of Verdi’s musical styles. But her “Verdi” provides us with a more complicated portrait of the man than we have had so far. Verdi’s capacity for lust, love, disgust, anger and compassion may match those of his characters in “Nabucco,” “Ernani,” “Rigoletto,” “La Traviata,” “Otello” and “Falstaff.”
Ms. Phillips-Matz’s account, which is eminently plausible given her evidence, is unfolded with a calm detachment that serves her close devotion to her subject. A founder of the American Institute for Verdi Studies at New York University, she has spent more than 30 years researching this book; her extensive footnotes document an almost epic task. She sought memories of those who knew someone who knew Verdi. She has pored over parish registers, orphanage ledgers, archives and municipal rolls in small Italian towns. Following the distinguished example of Frank Walker, whose 1962 book, “The Man Verdi,” posed many of the questions about the man that are still central, she finds the larger picture in the small details. She has had unusual access to the family archives as well, and has created a narrative that alters accepted understanding of matters both great and small.
She uncovers additional confirmation, for example, that Verdi’s account of his boyhood as poverty-stricken and deprived is a distorted Horatio Alger-style myth. His father actually had very substantial land holdings, could read and write at a time when 90 percent of the population could not, and did everything possible to insure a first-rate musical education for his gifted child.
Ms. Philips-Matz also gives a complete account of the extraordinary political battle that broke out in Busseto over whether the 21-year-old Verdi would get the position of maestro di cappella and organist in the Italian village. It turned into a civil war, a struggle by the Roman Catholic Church for control over secular music, with the ecclesiastics objecting to a young, lay, theatrical composer like Verdi. There were fistfights between partisans; insulting sonnets were distributed; the entire affair helped leave the composer with a persistent anticlericalism. When Verdi returned to Busseto in his later years, one of his pet dogs was mockingly named Pretin — Little Priest. He used to boast that as a youngster he cursed a priest with death by lightning, a curse that was actually fulfilled a few years later during a terrible storm.
There is an unblinking fastidiousness at work in the accumulation of such detail, some of it quite touching. There is, for example, a sealed love letter Verdi wrote to Strepponi early in their romance, which the soprano wanted buried with her. Verdi could not find it after her death in 1897; it later turned up in her papers but, in a remaining gesture of fidelity to Romantic love, remains sealed at the request of the heirs. And of course there is his political devotion to a united Italy; Verdi even named his two children after fictional characters in a republican drama — Virginia and Icilio — and in 1861 served as a representative to the first Italian parliament.
It is in the chronicling of Verdi’s family life, though, that Ms. Phillips-Matz has come up with the most startling hypotheses. She has added one more birth to the chronicle of Strepponi’s early career, sharpening the portrait that already existed of her pathetic, desperate early life. Verdi must have been a salvation for her, her one chance at security; her letters to him are tender, heartbreaking at times (“Listen, my dear Wizard,” she writes, “excepting for You, I have nothing on earth that consoles me”).
Then, during the winter of 1850-51, there was a crisis in Busseto. Ms. Phillips-Matz pieces together a convincing narrative based on documented facts: Strepponi had been living on and off with Verdi there for about 16 months; no one knew if they were married, and they developed, in Ms. Phillips-Matz’s words, a “siege mentality, fending off attacks from all sides.” At the same time, Verdi began proceedings to draw up a document of legal separation from his parents, and broke with another close benefactor as well.
What could account for such behavior? What was the nature of this siege? In her researches, Ms. Phillips-Matz found two unusual events from this period. In May 1850, an infant named GIUSEPPE was deposited at the Cremona hospital. He was adopted in Busseto, and later worked for a family that had close connections with the Verdis. The boy later said he was told that he was Verdi’s illegitimate son; the local scuttlebutt in Busseto, at any rate, still supports that claim.
The evidence is stronger in another case. In April 1851, a baby girl was also abandoned in Cremona. She was identified as SANTA Streppini, and her history closely parallels that of Strepponi’s second child. The name itself could be a variant of Strepponi’s, resembling other aliases she had used in her life. The baby was assigned for care under yet another name (Stropellini) to a couple living close to the Verdi property; she was finally adopted by the daughter of that couple, who had herself just married a young man whose mother had grown up with Verdi in Busseto. “Every document relating to SANTA Streppini,” Ms. Phillips-Matz writes, “leads one to believe that she was yet another of Strepponi’s ‘settled’ but abandoned children.”
The conclusion is cautiously put, but it helps explain Verdi’s radical break with his parents, along with the postponement of his marriage until 1859: he and Strepponi wanted to wait until they would not have to bear responsibility for any of their offspring.
Ms. Phillips-Matz is similarly cautious about proving the later affair Verdi had with the soprano Teresa Stolz. Some biographers have judged this to be a matter of rumor and innuendo. But the marshaling of the facts here is remarkably conclusive, and there is a plausible suggestion that a traumatic confrontation among the members of the love triangle brought the affair to a sudden close.
Given these achievements in biographical research, it is somewhat frustrating that Ms. Phillips-Matz is so cautious in interpreting her own conclusions; one misses a more robust interpretation of the life, its relationship with the work and its historical context. There is not even a clear enough explanation of the social and political movement most central to Verdi’s career, the Risorgimento, which aimed at the establishment of a unified Kingdom of Italy.
More could have also been done to illuminate Verdi’s character; Ms. Phillips-Matz is almost painfully close to him and sometimes lacks perspective. She uses the words “shy” and “cantankerous” to describe him, but there is no compelling interpretation of his personality or the recurring patterns of his life, in which he seems to test the boundaries of the affection, love or support being offered him, while also straining against the limits of social propriety. As a student, he profligately spent a benefactor’s scholarship money. At the age of 21, he may have even courted the daughter of his teacher, GIUSEPPE Seletti, while he was engaged to be married to the daughter of his patron. “I pray to God that I may forget him forever,” Seletti wrote.
In almost every way, in fact, Verdi was torn by his ambivalent attitude toward the bourgeois life, deliberately settling in Busseto, for example, while hating every aspect of its provincialism. In his letters, he acted the reasonable innocent, the put-upon man of generous spirit, while in fact he treated some of his most ardent admirers brutally and cruelly. In his hostile testing of his parents and his wife, it was as if he were insisting on his complete autonomy while also demanding their uncompromised devotion.
His aggressive disdain was even accompanied by extraordinary displays of generosity and empathy. Verdi’s charitable actions extended to those working for him as well as to major institutions. Some bequests may reveal a kind of guilty recompense: for example, the Children’s Hospital in Cremona, the city where the “Streppini” girl was abandoned, received donations of the scores of “Otello” and “Falstaff” in 1894.
The book may provide almost no information about the content or styles of the operas, but they actually have abundant connections to the melodramas of Verdi’s life. The stern father reappears again and again, as do challenges to authority that echo the darker ambitions of Verdi’s life: regicide in “Macbeth” and “Un Ballo in Maschera,” patricide in “I Lombardi,” adultery in “Stiffelio,” jealousy in “Otello.” Verdi was obsessed with creating an opera based on the story of King Lear, the father betrayed into madness. Some of these themes belong to the genre, of course, but Verdi took them further, pushing at the constrictions established by political and religious censors. He also combined his fascination with villainy and betrayal with an almost uncanny sense of empathy that made even the evildoer seem human.
In fact, a major stylistic change may have accompanied Verdi’s personal crisis of the early 1850’s. The operas of those years — “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore” and “La Traviata” — are probably Verdi’s most famous, and they invoke not national or institutional issues but the world of the family, undermined by passion. Verdi pushed one librettist for “more novel and free” forms: “The more daring it is, the better I will like it.” The first two of these operas involve perverse violations of innocence (including, in “Trovatore,” the tossing of babies into a fire). “Traviata” may even be the inversion of the previous works’ portraits of evil; for all its tragic coloration, it is immensely sympathetic to passion and violation as the courtesan briefly leads the young bourgeois man into a world of abundant love.
What is needed is a study that makes the musical connections with the life more concrete. Verdi’s role in operatic history, in fact, is curious: he transformed the art form without ever being a revolutionary, pushing at the margins from within, marking a dramatic transition from the Italian tradition of Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini. He did not defer to singers and scorned the “suitcase arias” they brought out to display their vocal wares. Unlike earlier Italian opera composers, he had a modern taste for the primacy of the composer’s text and wished to limit the performer’s freedom; by the end of his life, he could command nearly total authority over a performance. With the music publishing company Ricordi, with which he had a lifelong relationship, Verdi helped codify an international operatic culture in which performances required a publisher’s permission and royalty payments. Stylistically, even the formal aspects of Italian opera — the cabaletta, for example — were transformed by Verdi’s emphasis on character and drama, their boundaries made porous, their function altered.
There is in Verdi’s life and work an almost overpowering vital force, restless and sometimes ruthless, at once humane and uncompromisingly brutal. It leaves one breathless. Much of that force is missing from Ms. Phillips-Matz’s account, but her biography is so bountiful in its scope and detail that it lays the foundation for further study. Moreover, through its close-grained attention to facts and documents and its modesty in dealing with the music, it actually succeeds in making Verdi more elaborately mysterious than he ever seemed before, while making his work seem all the more miraculous.
THRUST INTO THE THEATER
With the production of “Oberto,” Verdi was plucked from the middle-class world . . . and thrust into the theater, a crude place sometimes considered barely better than a circus arena or carnival field. Few singers were invited into the houses of the titled and the rich; socially they almost never were included in what was thought of as respectable circles, although they were asked to perform for private musicales and were given gifts such as jewelry as payment. Liaisons among theatrical people were frequent; it was sometimes difficult for a young woman to make her way without becoming the mistress of an agent, conductor or impresario. The theater, like a monastery or convent, had an idiom all its own. It was driven by money from many sources, among them the box office and the payoffs and kickbacks from those who worked in or around it. Rich patrons were a steady source of income. In this tough world, a young composer had to consider the critics, claqueurs, stagehands, wardrobe mistresses, stage-door guards, and a small army of lesser lights who could make or break his opera. At times the composer ranked far down in the hierarchy, which was ruled by the all-powerful impresario, and controlled to a surprising extent by theatrical agents. . . . Into this rather corrupt empire of the stage came Verdi, wanting — as he said — to be something among men. To survive he would have to become resilient and strong. Later he learned to impose his will on the theater and turned out to “be something” beyond even the wildest dreams of his partisans. . . .
At least one fairly objective reviewer believed that Verdi might look forward to a significant career. This was the Milan correspondent for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, whose report on “Oberto” appeared in February 1840. . . .
“It remains to be seen whether [ Verdi ] will be able to push himself even higher; we hope very much that he will, because he could surpass all his colleagues.” From “Verdi.”
Drawing
Edward Rothstein is the chief music critic of The New York Times. His book “Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics” will be published in the spring.

Who we are and What we do

In 1988, two philanthropists, soprano Carmela Altamura and attorney Leonard Altamura,
founded the Altamura/Caruso International Voice Competition. Created for singers on the
threshold of an international career, the competition functions under the umbrella of its
parent non-profit, Inter-Cities Performing Arts, Inc. The competition immediately
established itself by instituting the then-unheard-of policy of abolishing age requirements.
Aware that existing limits did not allow for the late-maturing, dramatic voice, and by
careful scrutiny of more mature applicants’ achievements, the founders decided to trust
their instincts by opening the door of opportunity to more mature as well as to younger
singers. This policy paid off in unexpected dividends.

Competitions & More

INTERNATIONAL VOICE COMPETITION – 21-23, November 2023August 26, 2023 - 12:00 PM
Music Social at The Altamura CenterOctober 9, 2021 - 11:37 AM
Street Naming Celebration – ALTAMURA WAYJune 12, 2019 - 11:04 AM
50 Years of Service to the ArtsFebruary 24, 2019 - 9:17 PM
Centrum Macierz Polonii – CAŁY KONCERT PRZYJAŹNISeptember 29, 2017 - 12:40 PM
Poland On Its 150 Anniversary Celebrated By AltamuraSeptember 21, 2017 - 12:37 PM
Congratulations On Your PlaySeptember 11, 2017 - 2:05 PM