| Show VERDI MET MANY DISCOURAGEMENTS Kansas Kaness City Times Early in the th century when nen the corn com combined blued armies of Europe were beating down time the throne thron of Napoleon a party of ot Cossacks CO of the Russian R army de detailed detailed tailed to in fight tight Prince Eugene in Italy entered the duchy of Parma These Theae rough riders of the czar were as wild and sa ge as the country they came from and galloped over the territory terr ry of Parma fanna in search of blood and booty I not the Cossacks reached the little vii vil village viiI lage of Le Roncole They attacked att this thit hamlet shooting men and women and tossing to children on the points of o their lances They took the valuables from the houses house and sit set fire to the buildings made a massacre and ruin that would have av delighted d their Tartar an ancestors Some 9 me of the th e women and chil children children dren Seen tied fled to tile tie great church but the theeo Cossacks eo respected not the shrine and slew them at the altar Kar One peasant woman wilman man the wife of a poor innkeeper of ofLe ofLe ofLe Le Roncole held an infant Infanto of a few months at her bel breast bre at She darted un to the Ute stairway leading to the roof roo Up the stairs she ran and Into the belfry There she ehe lay hidden while the slaughter went ent on and when night came and the Cossacks toad had gone she crept to the ground wit i the infant calmly sleeping on her breast The woman of the belfry was Glus Gius Giuseppe Gluseppe eppe Verdis mother and the child was as Verdi himself of whose operas the whole world talks and whose hoe death removed time the last Jast of the theold old school of Italian opera proper id i ci When Verdi was ws 11 he h achieved a tri triumph triumph tn which probably gave sa him as much Joy jay as any other r he be ever ver won in his life He was selected as organist of the church of Le Roncole and his pay was fixed at as much as 36 francs franes a aY year Y ar which was raised afterward to 40 francs franes annually Big Sig a wealthy wine mer merchant merchant merchant chant assisted Verdi when hen the latter went some years later ter to Milan to study me He paid his board and tuition though Verdi subsequently married Sig daughter This occurred in 1131 when Verdi was 3 2 years old having K b been Deen en born horn Oct 9 I 1814 Verdis first fir t great success as a mu musical musical j steal composer was wag made at La Sea Scala Scalar la lain in Milan the same ame me theatre prepared nearly years later biter for tor the pro pre production of his bit Falstaff This was in 1335 1118 and the opera was Oberto cute CUnte de Sun Its success was so 80 great that the young youn composers name nam extended throughout Italy In the first flush of fame misfortune overtook Ver Vet di He fell tell ill III dad and before he recovered his wife and two tw children attacked also alPO by illness died Grief affected his hili mind So much that Verdis next work Un Giorno di dl was a failure Ashamed hamed A of ot himself and finding no pleasure hi In his hl art the young composer compo er refused to work wark and Insisted ed upon throwing up his hig contract with Merelle was evidently a discerning man mait and he did nut not lose sight of or Verdi One day he hunted up Verdi rei and asked him to go with th him to the theatre On the way the le manager complained that bad had refused to compose an o ote ope e a for a libretto Written by y Solera S lera who had lied written the libretto fr fbi 1 Verdis first o oera era Verdi had h d previously ly dang d n sorpe some work on a musical mu ka seeds score c re which h ti I had Rd left at the theatre When hen they the w ht there to together together together gether Merelle came across it ft He seized s it thrust IL U in Is Verdis hand band and told him t ia go 0 home house and amid finish It Verdi I rolled roiled the manuscript up and went home hones But with no Intention of doing the work He Re opened the th manuscript ard looking it over o er became deeply In Interested But Bur still he hf fell felt In no mood for work Ho Bc 11 rolled the fhe manuscript up 14 I and took look it bad to 11 11 would not receive it He tr Ton l it into Verdis pocket ket pushed him hint tut ut tit of ot the tho th office and locked the door Verdi went home again took up the manuscript n 1 second time t and at aL last went to 80 wOrk At length he came because bt ab absorbed absorbed in the Ute task tolled roiled faithfully at atH atIt H It day ds d after tel day say until he De finished Na huron bucce which wb h made European and an permanent VJ tI ti jv J I After the tb production of Verdi V worked rapidly In 14 I he be ibm fin finished T r 1 Lombard Lombardi and aad In m tim the follow following ing leg two years produced four tour grand Dd opera hI I D Duo o na dAreo dArco d ArtO and anti Aisles A For a time was as his most popular work but it has been heen ov by bythe bythe the Ole brilliancy of t his later During this portion of hs lila h life Verdi Ve wrote an opera almost alm st every year BU I A number of or hem them have shared Ute the late fate of or Alella and Macbeth but in iii i B Bhe he be produce at Rome II n re has bite beer eer the most popular lar fit of f all his dB and abounds abound in dramatic sit situations t ution and brilliant ant melody An odd circumstance m in Verdis liI must musi musical m cal career was the complete failure of La Traviata at its first fire t production fn In Venice In Iii 1253 This as most mo t people know is founded on Dumas Duma La Dame Aux Camelias Camellas and the part of Vio Io Inta I or Camille Camill r as she is known in inthe Inthe inthe the familiar play pia on the same me subject was taken by Signor Signer Donatelli Dona tell i an enor enormously fat woman This and the tact fact tt that all alt the remainder of the cast CIt was wan w lacking kicking In talent spoiled polled the whole thing and the failure was wu so M evident that after Arter the performance all 11 of the ue singers offered him their condolences condol He merely r replied pHed d Make them only to yourself your elf who have not understood my music S 0 i iNow Now La Traviata has bu long looK been one of ot Verdis most popular works work He wrote Aida for the khedive of ot Egypt who gave him ZIo to compose an aD opera for him and It K wa was produced at Cairo in 1871 1811 with muck much magnificence and made a great success s When Aida Akia marking the change hange and anti new development of oC Verdis genius was produced at Cairo in m 1171 and re received received received an instant and testing lasting success It was as thought that the composers com rs work had hart ended He was nearing Rearing W N Wand Nand and at that age the Imaginative faculties faculties ties usually are growing dim But many years later came carne Otello which many aWe critics consider con lder lila hit masterpiece though it has lisa not achieved the popular popularity ity of Trovatore or Aida And after Aida came Falstaff which the old man started to compose In 1890 |
