Overview

The name Giuseppe Verdi conjures images of Italians singing opera in the streets and bursting into song at political protests or when facing the firing squad. While many of the accompanying stories were exaggerated, or even invented, by later generations, Verdi's operas—along with those by Rossini, Donizetti, and Mercadante—did inspire Italians to imagine Italy as an independent and unified nation. Capturing what it was like to attend the opera or to join in the music at an aristocratic salon, Waiting for Verdi shows that the moral dilemmas, emotional reactions, and journalistic polemics sparked by these performances set new horizons for what Italians could think, feel, say, and write. Among the lessons taught by this music were that rules enforced by artistic tradition could be broken, that opera could jolt spectators into intense feeling even as it educated them, and that Italy could be in the vanguard of stylistic and technical innovation rather than clinging to the glories of centuries past. More practically, theatrical performances showed audiences that political change really was possible, making the newly engaged spectator in the opera house into an actor on the political stage.

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Reviews

The author reminds us of the dynamism that can reside in bel canto forms and their minute variations. Readers who experience musical passages with Smart as guide are likely to gain fresh perspective on Italian opera of this period and, more generally, on the art of close listening. * Opera News * Waiting for Verdi offers a multifaceted reading of a wide array of source material. It transcends its musicological focus and offers detailed information for cultural historians dealing with Risorgimento culture. * European History Quarterly * Smart's examples problematize the relationship between art and politics. They are carefully chosen and the work is strengthened by the author's willingness to go beyond opera and delve into other cultural debates and artistic endeavors. * American Historical Review * A rich and stimulating work, exploring Italian music, mainly operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi, performed in Naples, Milan, and Paris within the political and cultural contexts of Restoration Italy. * Journal of Modern History * By meticulously analysing how Verdi structured his operas via employing canto forms and a wide range of innovative variations to achieve result oriented performances, Mary Ann Smart leads the attentive listener down a rabbit hole on a journey that assists in both illuminating facets and gaining fresh and stimulating perspectives on Italian opera and music at large. * Scene Point Blank *

Waiting for Verdi offers a multifaceted reading of a wide array of source material. It transcends its musicological focus and offers detailed information for cultural historians dealing with Risorgimento culture. * European History Quarterly * The author reminds us of the dynamism that can reside in bel canto forms and their minute variations. Readers who experience musical passages with Smart as guide are likely to gain fresh perspective on Italian opera of this period and, more generally, on the art of close listening. * Opera News *

The author reminds us of the dynamism that can reside in bel canto forms and their minute variations. Readers who experience musical passages with Smart as guide are likely to gain fresh perspective on Italian opera of this period and, more generally, on the art of close listening. * Opera News *

A rich and stimulating work, exploring Italian music, mainly operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi, performed in Naples, Milan, and Paris within the political and cultural contexts of Restoration Italy. * Journal of Modern History * Smart's examples problematize the relationship between art and politics. They are carefully chosen and the work is strengthened by the author's willingness to go beyond opera and delve into other cultural debates and artistic endeavors. * American Historical Review * Waiting for Verdi offers a multifaceted reading of a wide array of source material. It transcends its musicological focus and offers detailed information for cultural historians dealing with Risorgimento culture. * European History Quarterly * The author reminds us of the dynamism that can reside in bel canto forms and their minute variations. Readers who experience musical passages with Smart as guide are likely to gain fresh perspective on Italian opera of this period and, more generally, on the art of close listening. * Opera News *

Author Information

Mary Ann Smart is Gladyce Arata Terrill Professor in the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley. She is author of Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera and editor of Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera. 

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