# Giuseppe Verdi



## welldressedfellow (May 28, 2008)

What is your favorite Verdi opera? For me, it is La Traviata.


----------



## Miket61 (Mar 1, 2008)

welldressedfellow said:


> What is your favorite Verdi opera? For me, it is La Traviata.


I prefer Rigoletto. My least favorite is probably La Forza del Destino.


----------



## QuestForReason (Jan 9, 2009)

Il Trovatore, you can't beat the energy and emotion in The Anvil Chorus.


----------



## Akula (Jan 17, 2009)

La Traviata, the opera has a great congruence in its music. It seems to be driven to certain points of high emotion. Sempre libera is simply an outstanding aria. Alfredo, di questo core, in act two, scene two, has a beautiful legato juxtaposed on the chorus. But the piece as a whole is really well bound together. Similar energy in many of Verdi's operas (Il trovatore springs to mind). Probably the reason he is my favourite composer. I'm looking forward to seeing a performance of Aida in November.


----------



## mendozar (Dec 13, 2005)

Otello if you can cast a sufficiently evil Iago and schizophrenic paranoid Otello, Macbeth if you can stage a properly epic battle. (I may have a Shakespeare bias?)


----------



## DCLawyer68 (Jun 1, 2009)

I also like Il Trovatore - it's got all the great stuff you go to the opera for - great arias, a famous chorus, and an utterly insane plot. There's lots of great tunes in addition to the Anvil Chorus.

Another great choice to hear if you're a Verdi fan - Un Ballo.


----------



## Nigel W (Apr 14, 2009)

I saw Falstaff last night. The previous time I saw it was when I was in my twenties and didnt get it at all. Now that I have entered my second half century the penny has dropped. 

Such lightness of touch! Comedy and farce, yet also a moving portrait of a man entering his later years; being made fun of yet retaining a lust for life and, utimately, self awareness and ability to laugh at himself. It seemed almost Straussian. Was Rosencavallier influenced by it I wonder?

I guess Falstaff will never head the list, but I would certainly rate it a masterpiece.


----------

