It is one of the most difficult tasks which even a master-musician can have set him to write comic music that shall be at once original and humorous. Yet, here Verdi succeeded at his first attempt. True, he has left _Falstaff_, and the style thereof, until the eve of his artistic career; yet, what a crowning work it stands! Lyric tragedy occupied the master's mind for nearly the whole of his long life, until it appeared almost that he could write nothing else but lyric tragedy. Then to show that this was otherwise, he went to comedy--he composed one comic opera. What an example it is! Its proportions are colossal: its comedy is equal to Mozart; its _technique_, ingenuity, and construction rival Wagner. No grander piece of work could crown the master's career. Through Verdi, national opera as made in Italy stands to-day on as high ground as the lyric drama--the grand opera of France and Germany. England, unfortunately, cannot yet be considered in the matter.
[Footnote 61: _Athenæum_, 1st July 1876.]
[Footnote 62: _Athenæum_, 1st July 1876.]
[Footnote 63: _Athenæum_, 13th July 1889.]
[Footnote 64: _Athenæum_, 18th July 1891.]
[Footnote 65: _The Daily Graphic_, 14th January 1893.]
[Footnote 66: _Athenæum_, 18th February 1893.]
[Footnote 67: _Athenæum_, 18th February 1893.]
A born politician--Attempt to draw Verdi--The revolutionary ring of Verdi's music--Signor Basevi on this feature--National and political honours and distinctions--An inactive senator--England's neglect--The composer's nature and character--Bluntness of speech--A dissatisfied auditor--Verdi's alleged parsimony--Verdi and the curate--The gossips and his fortune--Life at St. Agata villa--An "eighty-two" word-portrait--Verdi's old-age vigour--Love of flowers--His hobby at the Genoa _palazzo_--Independence of character.
Had Verdi not been a musician, he would probably have proved an ardent, daring politician. Italy would be loving and honouring him to-day for his political principles and _amor patriæ_, not less admiringly, not less fervently, than she now regards him for his vast harmonious gifts. As it was, he persistently declined to meddle with the tapes and wires of State matters. An attempt to draw Verdi politically was made in the spring of 1894, during the rehearsal of _Falstaff_ in Paris. One of the singers put out a "feeler." "Don't, for goodness' sake," he answered, "talk to me about politics. I have never paid any attention to them, and I am not likely to do so at my time of life; I have quite enough to do with my music." We have seen how his countrymen made him their political idol, and would assuredly have him know that they were looking to him as a deliverer from the Austrian yoke, even though he spoke through a medium that is usually resorted to for peaceful, rather than for revolutionary ends. The temper of his music was just to their liking, and Verdi took no pains to hide his sympathy with his countrymen under their yoke of foreign overlordship, albeit the success of opera after opera turned upon his peace with the authorities.