Verdi's output

For a few weeks now, I've been listening to Verdi operas from the earliest of his output, at least as available in CDs from the library. The most recent listening has been the Lorengar performance of La Traviata (1853) under Maazel (Berlin 1968). I just picked up La Battaglia di Legnano (1849), available just a bit out of order.

The operas available excluded only the two earliest (Oberto of 1839 and Un giorno di regno of 1840) and a couple others of the output before Rigoletto: Alzira (1845), Il corsaro (1848), and Stifellio (1850). Since early March, I've listed to these operas several times each:

• Nabucco (1842)
• I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843)
• Ernani (1844)
• I due Foscari (1844)
• Giovanna d'Arco (1845)
• Attila (1846)
• Macbeth (1847)
• I masnadieri (1847)
• Jérusalem (1847)
• La battaglia di Legnano (1849)
• Luisa Miller (1849)
• Rigoletto (1851)
• Il trovatore (1853)
• La traviata (1853)

Fifteen down, eight to go. I'll miss out on hearing the Paris versions of Le trouvère (1857), Macbeth (1865), Don Carlos (1867), and La force du destin (1881). I expect that their greatest difference from the originals is the addition of ballet in the third act. That, in my opinion, is no great loss, as Verdi's modifications of I Lombardi into Jérusalem were not compelling.

My favorites of the list are Giovanna (despite it's non-historic plot), Luisa, Rigoletto, and La traviata. I had high hopes for I masnadieri with its basis in Schiller's Die Räuber. But I was disappointed, as I was with Macbeth.

What I found surprising are these observations:

1. Verdi was more an imitator than I had thought. His melodic lines are seldom innovative, orchestration mundane, and harmony pandering. Generally pleasing, I'll give you that. It's little wonder that his popularity was so strong. I remember some wag's observation that the public were humming Verdi's tunes as they went into his operas.
2. I suspect that Verdi worked quickly and perhaps overbooked his commitments to produce new operas—and rework established hits—for European stages. His schedule left little opportunity to reflect on improving what he was considered a master at.
3. Of his output through 1853, great acclaim is misplaced for Il trovatore. The book is overly complex, the score is full of tunes but devoid of provoking music. What could have become a masterful tale of doubles, discovery, and damnation was squandered in petty melody.
4. Most striking is Verdi's dependence on recitative, even through Il trovatore and La traviata. Though the half-generation of great Italian opera composers before him—Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini—also used recitative, the practice had whithered elsewhere. Wagner was writing Der fliegende Holländer and on the way to leaving the set-piece and recitative entwined in a shallow grave.