Verdi

The two dominant opera composers in the middle years of the 19th Century were Richard Wagner of Germany and Giuseppi Verdi of Italy. There are hardly two men who were less like each other in temperament. Wagner, the arrogant genius who used "friends" left and right for his own purposes. Verdi the quiet, thoughtful man who composed some of the loveliest opera music on record. Due to his character flaws, despite the brilliance of his opera music the personality of Wagner does not hold up too well to scrutiny today. But Verdi has gained admirers since his death 105 years ago. One cannot imagine any opera company banishing his music, as Wagner's was banished for decades after World War II put his racial ideas to work. As his name translates to "Joe Green", Verdi remains the Superstar of his team of opera composers.

Oddly enough both Wagner and Verdi were subjects of mini-series about their lives and careers over twenty years ago. I have commented on Wagner's mini-series first because Richard Burton played his last great role as that defective genius. But in the supporting cast of WAGNER was British character actor Ronald Pickup, who played (very well) Friedrich Nietzche, Wagner's one time friend but later persistent critic. Pickup played Verdi in this series made only a year earlier. Again his performance was quite good.

There was less sturm und drang in Verdi's life than in Wagner's. He always lived within his means, did not smash relationships on selfish grounds, and did not preach racial hatreds. But he was a patriot - his first great success, NABUCO (an opera about the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and the Jewish "Babylonian Captivity") gave a choral song that became an Italian popular nationalist anthem. He had his flops. It took him years to get THE MASKED BALL to be accepted in the international repertory after it's premiere just preceded a bloody assassination attempt against Napoleon III at the Paris Opera House in 1858 - THE MASKED BALL dealt with the events leading to Ankerstrom's murder of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792, so the libretto had to be moved to colonial Boston in the American Revolution! He had to change plots - RIGALETTO was originally about King Francois I of France (1512 - 1547) to a fictitious Duke of Mantua, so that the French would put the opera on. Still the number of successful operas that came out of Verdi is amazing - NABUCO, RIGALETTO, TRAVIATA, IL TROVATORE, THE MASKED BALL, OTHELLO, FALSTAFF, THE FORTUNES OF DESTINY, and many others.

Verdi did not, like Wagner, write pamphlets advocating mass murders of "undesirables". His life was full of some good works, culminating in his willing a sizable portion of his fortune and property to found a retirement home for opera singers in Italy. Seldom have I heard of anyone in Verdi's situation doing something like that - how refreshing when compared to Wagner's moving heaven and earth to have a lunatic king fund a permanent festival for Wagner's music only at Bayreuth. But for everyone who has heard of Verdi's generosity, far more have heard of Bayreuth.

It was a pleasant series, with famous opera singers singing the arias, duets, trios, and quartets from the operas. Certainly it left a pleasanter feeling at the conclusion about it's hero than WAGNER did. It restores one's faith in mankind that while some swine have genius and misuse it, others exist who leave our Earth a little happier and pleasanter.

Ronald Pickup brings opera composer Verdi to life.

It's only fitting that the two greatest (arguably) opera composers of the nineteenth century have duelling, operatic biopics.

Okay, age-ists, crawl out if your caves and surrender! In "Wagner" Richard Burton gives the performance of his life. He was born to play Wagner and he's supported by some great English actors who were marquee names of stage and screen. "Wagner" also has a fantasy feel, as if Wagner were one of his own heroes. Perhaps, in his mind, he was.

While Ronald Pickup is equally well-chosen to play Verdi, his name lacks Burton's across-the-pond resonance. I'd seen lots of movies with the guy and never noticed him until this miniseries highlighted him for me.

"Verdi" is more down to Earth than "Wagner." It doesn't have that ethereal feel the other biopic gives the German. And since Verdi is an Italian hero the series is filled with Italian actors who are dubbed for us Englush speakers, which makes their lips look a bit rubbery and unnatural.

Both "Wagner" and "Verdi" have narration to help the novice understand what's going on. Most of us aren't Verdi experts, after all. Even the shorter, story-driven "Amadeus" had narration. While narration in "Wagner" is subtly done by a minor character who may not be altogether trustworthy, "Verdi" in its English incarnation has no-bones-about-it narration by American actor Burt Lancaster, and he's just fine.

'Verdi" isn't an Oscar-worthy flick; nor is it an operatic fantasy. It's a straightforward retelling of the life of Verdi (so far as I know) for those of us who appreciate the background material.

But whether "Wagner" or "Verdi" what's most important is the music.

At this point I have watched only two of the seven episodes but I am questioning my decision to buy this series. Even allowing for the fact it was done in 1982, the production values are mediocre. Both the audio and video quality on the 4 DVD set are poor.They appear to be dubs from the original VHS. The performances become incidental rather than the highlights they should be. Worst of all is the dubbed in English sound track which gives the whole thing an artificial quality. It is like watching a radio program. I'll slog through the rest of it and may amend this review if it improves. But I am not optimistic. One positive is that the series is historically accurate both in the story line and the occasionally inserted voice over narration. But if that's all I had wanted, I would have bought a book.

High quality biography! A fantastic, historical, well researched super production. Castellani did a very good job on biography and cinematographic art. The casting is excellent and Ronald Pickup is perfect as Verdi. The musical selection is also superior, and the performance of the interpreters are first class. Very good and famous voices are singing its preferred parts. The operatic performances are well cut. A rich scenario and also a nice review of the theatrical background technology at Verdi's time could be seen on the sunrise in "I Lombardi", the waves and the storms in "Otello", and in waterfalls. They are superb. For Verdi lovers it's a must, but also for non initiates it will be delightful. May be Giuseppina is a little to subservient and a bit away from a real woman. Also the final scenes are a little to long. By the way, the name of the opera is Rigoletto and not Rigaletto.

THE LIFE OF VERDI is a stunning, beautiful and virtually exhaustive (at about 10 hours) chronicle of the life of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Formerly available on the controversial Kultur label, this new DVD release by Acorn Media is a dream come true for people who appreciate composer biographies, historical epics and, especially, this particular film, which was the last film by Italian director/writer Renato Castellani. The transfer is excellent, whereas the previously available print was mediocre at best. This new release looks crisp and does justice to the film's visual artistry--it looks very much like a series of paintings.

Verdi lived a long, rich life and his output was truly amazing, mostly operas--and most of his operas were masterpieces. There are generous allotments of Verdi's glorious music throughout this film and the period detail is lushly evocative of Verdi's life and times. Ronald Pickup is perfect as Verdi. He is probably the only "name" and face that will be familiar to at least some outside of Europe. Pickup has been in countless films and television programs, including several other composer biographies, though here, finally, he plays the title role. Speaking of names, when THE LIFE OF VERDI was shown on PBS way back in the early eighties, Burt Lancaster was the on camera narrator. I recall this very clearly because I remember being enthralled by the series even back then. In this version--perhaps for the better--Lancaster is not seen on camera (his star power was a bit distracting, if I recall). He does, however, continue to narrate in voice-over. Lancaster was a big fan of opera and his enthusiasm bubbles through in his voice, despite some mispronunciations that some will find distracting.

That's a minor observance compared to the beauty and lovingly re-created world that director/writer Castellani presents. Castellani will not be entirely unfamiliar to North American audiences, though your tastes might have to be a bit specialized to recognize his name and style of film making. One of his first films, from 1954, was a version of Romeo & Juliet starring Laurence Harvey and is a gorgeous evocation of Shakespeare's play, if a bit slowly paced. It even has John Gielgud as the Chorus! It took another Italian, Franco Zeffirelli, to bring Italy and Shakespeare to life for a contemporary audience back in 1968.

A few years before making THE LIFE OF VERDI, Castellani turned his attention to another great Italian, Leonardo Da Vinci, in a five part television film that I recall with great fondness, for it really brought Leonardo to life and gave me a deeper appreciation of his incredible achievements.

But back to THE LIFE OF VERDI. Thank you to the distributors of this magnificent film! The time you invest in watching it will pay dividends, for like any great work of art, it will stay with you long afterwards.