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Several years ago I had the occasion to hear a series of performances of those two old favourites, Traviata and Boheme.1 At the time my feelings towards Verdi and Puccini were about the same--both of them efficient, with routine and apt stage-craft, but not very interesting musically. So I was not surprised when after four or five performances I never wanted to hear Boheme again. In spite of its neatness, I became sickened by the cheapness and emptiness of the music. On the other hand, I was surprised to find myself looking forward with excitement to each successive performance of Traviata. In fact, after at least a dozen performances I felt I was only just beginning to know it, to appreciate its depths of emotion, and musical strength. That was the beginning of a devotion to the music of Verdi which grows greater as I grow older, as I get to know fresh works of his, and deepen my understanding of the ones I already know.To analyse a devotion to an art is beyond me, but here are a few observations, which I hope will explain a little why I love the music of Verdi so much. The variety and strength of his melodies. Verdi can, of course, write the obvious square tunes, which use many repetitions of the same little phrase and work to an effective climax. These abound in the earlier operas, and are immediately endearing: I think particularly of Parigi o cara in Traviata. But he can also write the long casual lines, a succession of apparently unrelated phrases, which repeated hearings discover to have an enormous tension deep below the surface. The wonderful ‘conversational’ duet at the end of Act I of Otello is a case in point.
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