Perhaps it Was Fate

Giuseppi Verdi was one of the most inspired composers of all time. But when circumstances overwhelmed him, he needed help from a strong-willed friend – and fate.

Verdi was born on October 10″, 1813. He was not yet twenty-seven when he was overwhelmed by a triple tragedy — the deaths of his young son and daughter and their mother from sickness within a span of only two months.

Verdi had been under contract to write an opera. He wanted to turn away from art altogether. He begged theater manager Bartholomew Merelli to release him from his contract.

Merelli’s response was a strange mix of firmness and sympathy.

“Listen, Verdi,” he said, I can’t force you to write. My confidence in you is undiminished. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll pick up your pen again. If you do, just give me two months notice before the beginning of the season and I promise you the opera you deliver me will be put on stage.”

Some months later Mereilli showed Verdi a libretto.

“So fine a subject,” he said. “Take it, read it.”

“What the devil do you expect me to do with it?” Verdi asked. “I have no wish to compose.”

“Well, it won’t hurt you to read it. Just have a look at it and bring it back.”

When he returned to his room the still-grieving Verdi tossed the manuscript onto a table. The pages fell open to a verse that began “Va pensiero” – “Go, my thought, on gilded wings.” Despite himself, Verdi read the entire libretto over and over again until he had all but memorized it.

Nonetheless, when Verdi went to return the libretto, he refused to set it to music.

Merelli stuffed the libretto into the pocket of Verdi’s overcoat, pushed Verdi out of his office, shut the door in his face, and locked himself in.

Verdi went home and began writing, note by note until at last he had written his great opera Nabucco. To be continued…