Giuseppe Verdi conducting the Paris Opera premiere of Aida at Paris’ s Palais Garnier on 22 March 1880. Drawing by Adrien Marie.
notes on the program
BY HELEN M. GREENWALD
Giuseppe Verdi Born 10 October 1813 in Le Roncole, Italy Died 27 January 1901 in Milan, Italy
AIDA [ 1871 ]
1867 was a particularly bad year for Giuseppe Verdi. His father-in-law and greatest champion, Antonio Barezzi, died, and his most trusted collaborator and good friend, librettist Francesco Maria Piave( La traviata, Rigoletto, and La forza del destino and many more), suffered a paralyzing stroke and lingered in a vegetative state until his death in 1876. Wearied, Verdi continued to work, completing the revision of La forza del destino( 1862, rev. 1869), as well as the 1865 revision of Macbeth( 1847) for the Théâtre Lyrique, and for the Opéra the original five-act French version Don Carlos( 1867).
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