Verdi and the French Aesthetic Giger Hardback Cambridge University Press

Verdi and the French AestheticVerse, Stanza, and Melody in Nineteenth-Century Opera\nAuthor(s): Andreas Giger\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521878432, 978-0521878432\nSynopsis\nFocusing on Verdi's French operas, Giger shows how the composer acquired an ever better understanding of the various approaches to French versification while gradually bringing his works in line with French melodic aesthetic. In his first French opera, Jrusalem, Verdi treated the text in an overly cautious manner, trying to avoid prosodic mistakes; in Les Vpres siciliennes he began to apply more freedom, scanning the verses against some prosodic accents to convey the lightheartedness of a melody; and in Don Carlos he finally drew on the entire palette of prosodic interpretations. Most of Verdi's melodic accomplishments in the French operas carried over into the subsequent Italian ones, setting the stage for what later.