Bisbee daily review., 1919-05-28
Our Italian Opera, or Fifty Years of Europe in Five Nights of 5isbee.

AO lhe cOld loglclan, Grand Opera may seem. merely grotesque exag geration of feeling, lurid plot. and melodramic verse, but to those hap pier mortals, who have really lived mid-channel or struggled in the mael strom and grown strong against it's currents. or scorched and convalesced from youths lava-stream of. emotion opera gives just that artistic outlet to soaring thoughts and seething emotion as felt by poetic 'human-kind en todo del mundo.
 Every soul in the world yearns and strives for utterance, and, as Oscar Wilde says in his De Profundis," we are in our longing for self-expression, like the trees in the prison-yard, all grimed with soot, yet struggling forth toward joyous spring vestments of tender green.
 An opera like "Rigoletto" may, however be felt sympathetically, yet not not easily understood in case one has no historical data to help the in- depreciation. It's composer, the i'm mortal Giuseppe Verdi, had a life of the usual fateful ingredients, for tune mixed with misfortune, joy with grief. According to one of his com mentators, the distinguished Boston teacher and lecturer, Ollin Downes, he married the daughter of Signor Barezzi, an appreciative patron of Verdi's genius. "The union was hap py," says the biographer, "but trag- edy was stalking the composer q Verdi had scarcely begun the com position of a comic opera, when a di- sease which the physicians could not name, carried off, first his wife and then his two children.
 The blow affected profoundly both the man and his music. All the succeeding operas of Verdi, until he reached his eightieth year, were of a serious and tragical character. For the moment the heart of the master failed him. But he had HIS life to live, his WORK to do, and his genius drove him on. Love of country, If not of life, was strong within him. Italy was fighting for her life as a nation and it was for Verdi with his music as for Garabaldi with his arms, to set that spirit free.
 VerdPs name became eventually so bound up with the liberation of Italy that the Italians said the very letters of it each stood for something of profound significance to Italy.- V)ictor (E)mmanuel (R)ey Opel U)talia
 His libretto for l. Lombardi did not openly expose Italy's wrongs, but it had verses susceptible of patriotic interpretation and even the presence of the police could not silence the tu- multuous demonstration of the au- dience when the chorus began the broad and stately hymn to Liberty, opening with the words, "Oh, God of ALL Nations" This Pilgrims cho- rus from l. Lombardi shows us in what simple and eloquent way Yer di was able, even SO early in his ca reer, to stir the emotions of his coun- trymen.
 "Rigoletto," like "Ernani," was in- spired by a drama of Victor Hugo, -Le Rois 'amuse." This astonishing opera. produced in Venice, March II, 1851, is far ahead of its period. Even today, there are pages which surprise one by their modern feeling and at- mosphere. Mark the opening solo of the Duke of Martua. Surrounded by his brilliant court, this tyrant and libertine sings of his conquests. The song, "Questa O quella" Searching Amongst the Fair Throng) reveals his cynical and capricious heart. "Rigoletto", the hunch-backed buf- foon of the court, insults Mon terone a nobleman whom the Duke has wronged, and Monterone terrible in his wrath, curses the jester. This curse is soon awarding.
 Rigoletto loves but one being in the world. his daughter, Gilda, (Jeel-dah). The Duke secretly woes her disguised as a student. Alone in her garden, GiIda sings one of the most famous of Verdi's melodies. Dearest Name" (Caro Nome), she murmers, thinking of her lover, f'Name of One Whom I Adore" The melody is in the old-fashioned style of Rossini, simple air with elabo- rate musical ornaments. It is worthy of especial consideration however, because 1t not only displays the skill of the singer. but also lays bare the innocent nature of Gilda, an. inexpe- rienced idolatrous girls, singing hap oily of her lover.
 I shall make songs and give them to
 the breeze,
 And die amid a thousand ecstacies. 1 shall be dust, and feel the joyous
 sting
 Of that sweet arrow from the bow of Which men call Spring.
 And out of my dead mouth a rose
 shall come like rime.
 The end of this song is well known fin soprano literature because of the high E.