Early life

Verdi was born in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro which was a part of the French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza as a son of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini. The baptismal register, on October 11, lists him as being "born yesterday", but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. The next day he was baptized in the Roman Catholic church in Latin as Joseph Fortuninus Franciscus. The day after that (Tuesday), Verdi's father took his newborn the three miles to Busseto to register him. The baby was recorded as Joseph Fortunin Francois; the clerk wrote in French. "So it happened that for the civil and temporal world Verdi was born a Frenchman." When he was still a child, Verdi's parents moved from Piacenza to Busseto, where the future composer's education was greatly facilitated by visits to the large library belonging to the local Jesuit school. Also in Busseto, Verdi was given his first lessons in composition.

Returning to Busseto, he became town music master and, with the support of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and music lover who had long supported Verdi's musical ambitions in Milan, Verdi gave his first public performance at Barezzi's home in 1830. Because he loved Verdi's music, Barezzi invited Verdi to be his daughter Margherita's music teacher and the two soon fell deeply in love. They were married on March 4, 1836 and Margherita gave birth two children, both of whom died in infancy: Virginia Maria Luigia (b. March 26, 1837 - d. August 12, 1838) and Icilio Romano (b. July 11, 1838 - d. October 22, 1839), before her own death on June 18, 1840. Verdi adored his wife and children, and he was devastated when they all died in the prime of youth. During the mid 1830s, he attended the "Salotto Maffei" salons in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei.

Initial recognition

The production of his first opera, Oberto, by Milan's La Scala, achieved a degree of success, after which Bartolomeo Merelli, an impresario with La Scala, offered Verdi a contract for two more works.

It was while he was working on his second opera, Un giorno di regno, that Verdi's wife and children died. The opera was a flop, and he fell into despair vowing to give up musical composition forever. However, Merelli persuaded him to write Nabucco in 1842 and its opening performance made Verdi famous. Legend has it that it was the words of the famous Va pensiero chorus of the Hebrew slaves that inspired Verdi to write music again.

A large number of operas followed in the decade after 1843, a period which Verdi was to describe as his "galley years". These included his I Lombardi in 1843 and Ernani in 1844.