A biography with extensive commentary on Verdi's works and the events surrounding their composition and production.
“THE origin and above all the length of this book demand a few words of explanation. The origin is simple enough. Some five years ago I was lucky enough to hear several performances of Verdi operas at La Scala under Toscanini, and these performances brought with them a conviction that the importance attached to Verdi by conventional musical opinion in England was miserably inadequate. I was not unprepared for this. Nobody who had the good fortune at Cambridge to come under the influence of Professor Dent, most large-minded and stimulating of teachers, was likely to consider the composer of “Il Trovatore” a mere purveyor of tunes. Performances, usually indifferent, of the operas in England and Germany had already given me great pleasure; a few, in Italy, greater pleasure still. But in Milan I was carried away by a new enthusiasm, a sudden realisation that this music contained vital and poetical elements distinct from those of any other music even when presented by the same conductor in the same conditions. Elements, it should be explained, not necessarily better but different and capable, moreover, of awakening a particularly responsive echo in me.”
