Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/91

* VERDE ANTIQUE. 65 VERDI. VERDE ANTIQUE, vCrd an-tek' (OF. verd onlique, h'r. vert unliqiic, It. ve7-dc uniico, an- cient green, abbreviated frcjiii porfido verdc on- tico. green antique [wrpliyry ). A variety of aiigite-andesite purjiliyry (see Ande.site), which was in ancient times quarried at Marathonisi, on the Gulf of Kolokytliia, in Greece, and much employed as an ornamental stone. It has a dark green base, or ground mass, in which are lighter green porphyritie fcddspar crystals, their color due to alteration jjroeesses. Tlie name is also applied to serpentine marble, a mi.Kture of ser- pentine and calcile, used for indoor ornamental work and sometimes called oiihiolilc or ophical- cite. VERDEN, ver'dcn. A town in the Prussian Province of Hanover, 21 miles southeast of Bremen, on the AUer and on the Hanover- Bremen line of the Prussian State Railway (Map: Prussia, C 2). Its manufactures include especially cigars 'and soap. It has a cathedral and several other churches. Population, in 1900, 9842. At this place 4500 Saxons were executed by Charlemagne. Verden became a Swedish duchy in 1048^ and in 1719 was joined with Hanover. VERDI, ver'de, Giuseppe (1813-1901). The greatest Italian composer of the nineteenth cen- tury. He was born at Koncole, a small town in the" Duchy of Parma, October 9, 181.3. At the age of seven he received regular instruction from Baistrocchi, the organist of the village church. The boy's progress was so rapid that after three years his father decided to give him a liberal education, and sent liim to Busseto, where he attended the academy. Two years later, upon the completion of the course, he was ap- prenticed to Antonio Barezzi, president of the Philharmonic Society of Busseto. Provesi, the conductor of the societ_v, instructed him in com- position and orchestration. When Provesi re- tired as conductor Verdi was unanimously chosen his successor, Mien Verdi had readied his six- teenth j'ear Barezzi and Provesi sent him to lIilan to enter the conservatory. The director, Francesco Basili, rejected him for lack of musi- cal ability, but, nothing daunted, the young man applied to Vincenzo Lavigna, at that time con- ductor at La Scala. Lavigna quickly detected his pupil's talent and confined his instruction chiefly to the practical side of operatic compo- sition. Of the pieces written at this time none has been pul)lished, although Verdi used a few of them in his earliest operas. When Provesi died in 1833 Barezzi asked Verdi to come back to Busseto as conductor of the Philharmonic Society. Verdi returned, and boimd himself for three years at a salary of 300 francs. L'pon the expiration of his contract he went back to Milan. There Verdi met a young poet. Solera, who wrote for him the text of his first opera, Olirrto. Coiite dl Hnn Bonifncio. which was produced with a splendid cast on November 17, 1839. Ricovdi offered the young composer 2000 lire for the score of Obertn. and guaranteed the sum of 4000 lire for each of three operas to be written at intervals of eight months. Verdi at once began work on a book furnished by Merelli, Un Oiorno di Refjiio. a comic opera. But the death of his children and his wife in succes- sion so aflfected him that the opera was a failure. Reluctantly, Merelli released him from his con- tract. After a two years' retirement, Verdi came out again with a new opera, NaijiictodoiioHor ( 1842) . The success of this opera made the young composer a celebrity. In tlie following year / Lombardi appeared, and thereafter Verdi was re- garded as the foremost composer of Italy. In 1844 Ertiuni was produced at Venice, and proved the greatest of successes. Por a number of years Verdi's genius seemed to have suH'ered an eclipse, for of all the oijcraa written between 1844 and ISiJl none rises above mediocrity. Some were complete failures. These works are: / due Foncari (1844), Giovunna d'Arco and Alzira (1845), AltiUi (1840), Mac- heth and / Mutsnudieri ( 1847 ), II Uorsiiru { 1848 ) , La liutiiKiUa di Legnano and Luisa Miller (1849), Ntiffelio (18.50). With the Stiffelio closes the first period of Verdi's career. In 1844 Verdi married the famous prima donna Giuseppina Strepponi, who had appeared ,in several of his operas. The second period of his life is ushered in by liiyoletto (1851), fol- lowed at the end of 1852 by II Trovutorr, and only a few weeks later by La Traviata. The suc- cess of each of these works was phenomenal and carried the composer's name over the civilized world. For the Paris Exposition of. 1855 Verdi was commissioned to write a festival opera. This was Les Vepres Siciliennes, produced with very moderate success at the Grand Opera. Still more cooUj' the next work, iS'i/Hone lioccanegra (1857), was received. Un Ballo in Maschera (1859) once more was an emphatic success, whereas La Forza del Destino (1862) was received with less favor. The next five years Verdi was busy with revising and partly rewriting older operas. Another French opera. Don Carlos, was written for and produced during the Paris Exposition of 1807. The score of this work is written far more carefully than that of an.v of his former w'orks, and there is less evidence of Verdi's chief faults. These operas constitute the composer's second period. All of them show the influence of the style of the Paris Grand Opfira, but instead of being influenced b_y the gi'aee and esprit of this school, ^■erdi seems to have been attracted chiefly by its worst qualities, as shown in its brutal effects of masses, its violent contrasts, commonplace melo- dies, distorted rhythms, and an instrumentation which is either overloaded or too meagre. But in spite of these glaring faults the works of this period are full of passages which show Verdi's great creative genius in its most favorable light. Although he wrote very little between 1860 and 1870, he was not idle, for he devoted his time to a close .study of the great Italian masters, thus perfecting his own technic and educating and re- fining his artistic taste. Close upon the age of threescore Verdi turned his back iipon the style that had made him famous and wealthy, .iida (1871), written for the Khedive of' Egypt, was the first opera produced in accordance with his newly acquired artistic convictions. The suc- cess of this new work was nio.st emphatic. Verdi had a still greater surprise in store for the musical world when he came out with the Man- zoni Requiem (1874). After this work Verdi was silent for thirteen years, but in 1887 OteUo appeared, a work that surpasses all his previous efforts, and which is a real drama. On the same lines is constructed his last and perhaps greatest