Verdi and his time
This section contains biographical profiles of the people who were in contact with Verdi or who accompanied him throughout his personal life and artistic production. The section has an alphabetical push-button which facilitates research with reference to individual personalities, while other buttons allow the researcher to choose figure of interest on the basis of his/her professional qualifications or their personal relationship to the composer.
Verdi in pose
A selection of portraits, photographs and caricatures inspired by Verdi. From Nadar’s famous photograph to the portraits taken by Boldini, from Melchiorre Delfico’s caricatures to the sculpture by Gemito, this section presents the many portraits of Verdi and are witness to a life lived, notwithstanding all, “with great passion".
I write Opera
Discover Verdi’s operas through the consultation of four sections: “Opera describes itself” a RAI (Italian national television) film which introduces the viewer to the historical and political background of Verdi’s life time with an overview and a description of each opera’s plot: “Documents” enables the viewer to access librettos, literary sources, original manuscripts and editions for voice and pianoforte; “Productions” contains sketches, images, lists of technical necessities, posters, fliers, staging instructions; “Historical recordings” presents a listing of the musical works held in the record archives for the National Institute for Verdi Studies and at the Central Institute for Audiovisual Documents and Cultural Heritage (ICBSA).
Venues
An excursus through the cities with which Verdi had particularly close emotional ties, the theatres where first performances of his operas were produced, the institutions (museums, libraries, archives, conservatories) where documents pertaining to the life and works of Giuseppe Verdi are to be found.
Correspondence
This section of the portal currently contains the letters written by Verdi to his friends Cesare De Sanctis, Vincenzo Luccardi and Giuseppe Piroli, held in the archives of the National Academy of the Lincei, together with those written to the impresario Giulio Ricordi and which are held in Casa Ricordi’s Historical Archives. This section will be enlarged in the future with the arrival of other letters written by Verdi and addressed to other correspondents.
To understand more
Some hints on topics of particular interest, even for non expert readers, as, for instance, Verdi’s relation to agriculture, the fortune of Verdi as a character and of his operas in the movies, interviews to performers, etc. Educational elements will be made available in the «Verdibook» project which is still under development, while the section «The opera in a nutshell» provides a dictionary of opera terminology. This section ends with a bibliography and a discography of Verdi, in order to give access to the extraordinary heritage kept at the National Institute of Verdi studies