Director Johan Simons, who is one of today’s most prominent European theatre-makers, has long been fascinated by the explosive and revolutionary theme of Schiller’s original play. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen presents Don Carlos in the definitive form Verdi gave to his French-language grand opéra. This is a plea for humanism and idealism and the perfect start to the season. Don Carlos is a passionate story about man in all his uncertainty and vulnerability, within a social system in which ideological fronts have become rock-hard. With no heir at the time of his death, Verdi bequeathed his copyrights to the retirement home for aging musicians that he had founded in Milan.The boundaries separating memory and dream, religion and madness become blurred. He passed away in Milan on January 27, 1901. In 1861, he was elected deputy of Busseto. Les Vêpres siciliennes (Paris, 1855), Simon Boccanegra (La Fenice in Venice, 1857), Un ballo in maschera (Rome, 1859), La Forza del destino (Saint Petersburg, 1862), Don Carlos (Paris, 1867), Aida (Cairo, 1871), the Messa di Requiem (Milan, 1874), Otello (Milan, 1887), and Falstaff (Milan, 1893) would follow. In particular, his popular trilogy, Rigoletto – Il Trovatore – La Traviata dates from this period. After 1850, Verdi was unrivalled in Italy. Verdi purchased the property at Sant’Agata, near Busseto and openly enlisted in the struggle for the liberation of Italy, which was then occupied by the Austrians. In 1847, Verdi left for London for the world premiere of I Masnadieri, then settled in Paris where he met up with Giuseppina Strepponi, who would create the role of Abigaille. Most of the works that followed would be operas with patriotic undertones (I Lombardi alla prima crocciata, Ernani, Giovanna d’Arco, Attila, La Battaglia di Legnano…). From then on, Verdi became the bard of Italian unification. That opera was a huge success at its premiere at La Scala on Maand it did not take long before all of Italy was singing Va pensiero, the anthem in which the chorus of slaves lament their lost freedom. However, he started composing again when Merelli offered him the libretto for Nabucco. For a short while following the death of his two children and then his wife Margherita, and after the relative fiasco that befell his second opera, Un giorno di regno, Verdi considered abandoning music altogether. On the recommendations of the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli, his first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio was performed at La Scala in Milan. A stipend enabled him to continue his studies in Milan where he took private lessons with Vincenzo Lavigna, a teacher at La Scala, and a friend of Rossini.
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Barezzi would become Verdi’s patron and sponsor and the composer would ultimately marry Barezzi’s daughter Margherita in 1836.
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After following music lessons with the organist and composer Ferdinando Provesi, he was noticed by Antonio Barezzi, a spirits merchant and music aficionado who also founded the Filarmonici (Societa filarmonica), the town’s amateur orchestra. In 1824, he became the organist at the church in Busseto. He received his first musical training from the village organist.
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Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813 into a modest but relatively well-to-do family in the hamlet of Le Roncole, near Busseto.