This study illuminates the creation and early productions of Verdi's Otello and the revised version of Simon Boccanegra by featuring Verdi's correspondence with his librettist, Arrigo Boito, and their publisher, Giulio Ricordi. An indispensable aid to the student of Verdi's late works, operaproducers, conductors, and vocalists as well as the general reader and opera buff, the work contains reviews of early performances, production books kept by Ricordi and Boito, and biographical notes on all correspondents.
Fullest artistic form of operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer, included La Traviata in 1853, Aïda in 1871, and Otello in 1887; people credit him with raising the genre.
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, mainly a Romantic, most influenced the 19th century. Houses frequently perform his works throughout the world, and some themes transcended the boundaries of the genre and long took root in popular culture: * "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto * "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, and * "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song).
Masterworks of Giuseppe Verdi used a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom, and people sometimes criticized tendency toward melodrama, which dominates the standard repertoire a century and a half.