Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1901-01-27

was still alive, but slowly sinking at
Z o'clock this morning.
Giuseppe Verdi was born in Rancola,
in the duchy of Parma, in 1910. His
father was an innkeeper. AS a child
Verdi was wont to follow about the
streets of his native village every organ
grinder who happened along. The lit
tie fellow seemed to drink in inspira-
tion from the seldom accurate and al.
most always discordant barrel organs.
At the age of seven Verdi begged his
parents to have him taught music, and
they acceded to the extent of buying
for him an old spinet This quaint in
strument is still preserved in the villa
St. Agata.
An Organ;st at Eleven.
At IL years of age Verdi's first dream
of ambition was realized, for he was
named organist at LIE Boncole, with the
large pay of 35 francs (afterward raised
to 40) year. In the meantime he had
been sent to school at Busseto, where
an honest cobbler boarded him for the
munifcent sum of 6 cents per diem.
merchant of whom Verdi's father had
been in the habit of buying the small
stores needed in his humble inn, took
the greatest interest in young Verdi,
allowing him to practice on his excel
lent piano and giving him the run of
the house. 1t was he, too, who not only
obtained one of the four purses of the
Monte di Pieta when Verdi went to
study at Milan, but became responsible
for the expense of his board and his les
sons, a generosity which was honorably
repaid as soon as the young man was
able to earn his own living.
Eventually he became the father-in-
law of the young composer, who had
fallen i'll love with the handsome Mar
guerite, Barezzi's s eldest daughter. The
marriage took place in 1885, and in 1889,
on the evening of Nov. II, "Oberta
Conte di San Bonifacio, " his first opera,
was represented with such success at
La Scala that Merelli, the then impre.
sario, made contract with the COM
poser to write three more operas for the
same theater. One of these was to be
an opera bouffe.
But, alas, while hard at work at it
terrible misfortune befell the man hith-
erto so happy and so fortunate. In the
short space of two months his two chill
dren and beloved wife were taken from
him, and he was alone i'll the world. 1t
is scarcely to be wondered at if, under
such circumstances, the "Giarno de
Regno, as it was called failed TO please,
and disgusted with himself, and even
with his act, in such a season of grief
| and despair, the young maestro insisted
upon giving up his contract and ceasing
| to write. For some time he persisted in
his resolution.
Libretto Forced Upon Him.
One evening, however, he met Me-
relli, who asked him to accompany him
| TO the theater. On the way thlther the
| manager complained that Nicolai had
refused to compose All opera to a libretto
of Solera's. fSolera wrote the hbretto
| of Verdi first opera.) ''Such a splen-
| did work! Such dramatic sltuationsl
| Splendid said Mereli. 'And, what
is worse, don't know where to find an
| other he added While the librarian
! of the theater was looking for the PRO
| scritto" Merelli came across the work of
which he had been speaking and said:
| "Take it and read it. You can bring it
| back TO me. "
He crammed it into Verdi's pocket,
| pushed him out of his office and locked
| the door in his face while crying out:
"Set it to music!" The libretto being
| thus forced upon him, Verdi was
| obliged to carry it home, and once
there, as though amid its pages fingered
a spell mightier than his reluctance,
first one verse or scene attracted him,
| then another and another and another,
/ till finally 'Nabucco" was completed
The success of this work in 1912 was
emphatic, and was followed by "Otel-
10, !" which bears marks of poetic Con-
ception, of profound study, of mind
ever open to receive fresh artistic i'm
| pressions and of vigor to embody them
marvellous in man of his years. Sig
norma Guiseppina Strepponi, who cre-
ated the part of Abigalle, eventually be-
came his second wife.
Verdi's best known operas are "Neb-
uchadnezzar, "Ernani," "Attla, y
Macbeth, :" "Riggoletto, I'll Trova-
tore, la Traviata," /" "Otella, "Gio-
vanni d. 'Arco. . Aida" and ''Una Ballo
| in MaSchera -