Only after Italy was unified in
1861, did Verdi propagate the apocryphal story of how he snapped out
of his depression when the libretto fell and opened in the chorus "Va,
pensiero", the song of the enslaved Hebrews. The new nation of Italy
needed heroes and Verdi was "recruited", his earlier work deliberately
recast as subversively anti-Austrian and nationalistic.
A series of successful operas - such as Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore
(1853) and La Traviata (1853) - brought him international acclaim.
When the Suez canal was completed, the Khedive of Egypt commissioned
Aida (1871) to celebrate the opening of the waterway.
Verdi's dream was to retire early as a "gentleman-farmer" to land he
purchased in 1844. He reluctantly served as a member of the Chamber of
Deputies after the unification of Italy in 1861 but soon resigned. He
did finally settle down in 1873 and became a very wealthy landowner.
Like Puccini, Verdi lived, out of wedlock, with the common-law wife of
a musical agent, the prima donna Giuseppina Strepponi. When she met
Verdi, she already had three children, the oldest of whom was being
reared by her former maid.
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