Author Description

Now available in new paperback editions, the three volumes of The Operas of Verdi cover every aspect of the composer's rich and varied operatic achievement. Marked by extraordinary research and enhanced by hundreds of musical illustrations, this monumental study follows the developent of Verdi's oeuvre from his earliest opera Oberto to his final work, Falstaff. Julian Budden has mined the vast resources of European archives to provide a groundbreaking interpretation of Verdi's work and has discovered much new material, including an unpublished additional aria for I Due Foscari. In addition, The Operas of Verdi has now been brought up to date in light of the most recent scholarship, making it a substantially new edition of a classic work.Volume 1 traces the the organic growth and development of the composer's style from 1839 to 1851--from Oberto to Rigoletto--and examines each opera in detail, offering a full account of its dramatic and historical origins as well as a brief critical evaluation. More than 350 musical examples make the significance of these early operas to Verdi's developing style especially clear.