Verdi's Middle Period
Subtitle: Source Studies, Analysis, and Performance Practice
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: January 19, 1998
Language: eng
Number of pages: 444
ISBN-13: 9780226106595
First sentence: During his middle period (1849-1859) Verdi wrote eight new operas and extensively revised one of them (i.e., Stiffelio, Trieste, 1850, as Aroldo, Rimini, 1857).
Description: During the middle phase of his career, 1849-1859, Verdi created some of his best-loved and most frequently performed operas, including Luisa Miller, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, and Un ballo in maschera. This was also the period in which he wrote his first completely original French grand opera, Les Vepres siciliennes; the first version of Simon Boccanegra; and the intensely dramatic Stiffelio, until recent years the most neglected of all Verdi's mature works for the operatic stage.

Featuring contributions from many of the most active Verdi scholars in the United States and Europe, Verdi's Middle Period explores the operas composed during this period from three interlinked perspectives: studies of the original source material, cross-disciplinary analyses of musical and textual issues, and the relationship of performance practice to Verdi's musical and dramatic conception. Both musicologists and serious opera buffs will enjoy this distinguished collection.