Italian Opera Composers Verdi and Puccini –

Some Comparisons of Their Musical Styles and Backgrounds

Oct 1, 2009

The core repertoire for the world's opera houses boasts many Verdi and Puccini creations, and these composers were strikingly different.

When many opera goers immerse themselves in the melodies and stirring stories found in such favorites as Puccini’s La Boheme, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, or Verdi’s Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata, the emotions and resonance they experience may cloud their ability to immediately pick up on the composers’ points of departure.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) is considered the greatest Italian artiste since the Renaissance. He dominated Italian opera for half a century, and had an incredible 60-year career in which he composed 28 operas.

He was a controversial political figure and lived when Italy was striving for unification. Some of his operas have barely disguised themes dealing with oppressed peoples desiring freedom. Nabucco and I Lombardi were especially associated with the uprising that led to the Republic of Italy.

Father-daughter relationships pepper Verdi’s operas, and may be partly due to the possibility he had an illegitimate daughter given up for adoption who never may have known who her father was. He also had some devastating losses that probably contributed to his ability to portray tragic characters so effectively. He married at 23, had two children, and by age 27 his wife and children had all died.

His sense of drama rivals Shakespeare’s. His characters struggle with weighty issues such as obligations to God or country vs. personal desires (Aida, Don Carlo), the complexities of parental love (Il Trovatore, Rigoletto), and accountability for one’s actions (Othello).

As a composer, he did not start out as an iconoclast. He began with the Italian opera formulas of the time, adhering to constructs such as recitative-aria-ensemble. He gradually merged these elements to make them serve the dramatic storyline – ever his concern. He also involved the orchestra more and more in what was going on; the music came to reflect the action and emotions.

Verdi added even more to the dramatic element by not adhering to bel canto, the art of “beautiful singing,” which dominated Italian opera from 1810-1845. All that was asked of opera singers then was that they sang in this particular style. Characterization of a role by the type of voice was not a concept. Verdi's performers’ voices had to suit the role. For instance, he wanted a soprano whose voice was dark enough to convey Lady Macbeth’s evilness. A voice had to reflect the character, i.e., “dramatic characterization.”

Thus his operas grew in complexity, and by the end of his career he had revolutionized Italian opera and brought it to its pinnacle.

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) came along almost a half century after Verdi and was the last of the great Italian composers that began with Monteverdi, the father of modern opera. He was born into a five-generation musical family, and composed 12 operas. He would give the operatic world a great gift, but never take over Verdi’s mantle.

Puccini was not at all political, but was interested in exotic venues. While Verdi’s stories were anchored in Europe, Puccini’s went to Asia (Madama Butterfly; Turandot), and even America’s “Wild West” (La Fanciulla del West).

Puccini’s operas exemplified verismo (truth), a dramatic movement focusing on the “little guy.” Verismo is distinguished by stark, even sordid or violent, depictions of everyday life, especially in society's lower echelons. While a few Verdi operas can be considered verismo, Professor Robert Greenberg, well-known musicologist and composer, says that "Puccini was the best of verismo and Tosca was the best of Puccini." 1

Somehow he had a lot of insight into women’s psyches, and capitalized on it to produce theatric and musical tours de force. He had an unparalleled gift for melody that wrapped itself around suicide, murder, unrequited love, betrayal and other gut-wrenching calamities.

His compositional style didn’t change much over his career. He brought nothing essentially new to opera. But he understood theater, knew what people wanted to hear, and produced some world-class tear-jerkers. This sense of theater was masterful, not in the Shakespearean sense, but definitely in the Andrew Lloyd Webber mode. His tunes have the knack of taking up almost permanent residence in the listener’s head.

Nonetheless, from Puccini’s day to present day, his works have taken nasty hits from many a critic and composer. They have called his works disappointing, cheap, empty, trivial, and so on. This is in spite of his long-term success and popularity. Some have called this the “Puccini paradox.” Whatever the case, Puccini’s works tug at the heartstrings until they scream, and who doesn’t need a good emotional catharsis now and then?

In an ironic twist, when Verdi applied for admission to the Milan Conservatory he was rejected for not having enough musical talent. When Puccini applied he was accepted.

America loves Puccini unconditionally, and opera expert Fred Plotkin, in the July 2008 Opera News article "American Idol," felt he may even have an edge over Verdi in the U.S. This may have started when Puccini came to New York and created four operas for the Metropolitan Opera and connected with musicians and audiences. He even had airtime on WNYC radio in the 1930s thanks to Mayor LaGuardia. But Plotkin feels that Verdi reigns supreme in Italy, where Puccini is considered to be in the second tier of composers along with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.

Verdi’s and Puccini’s Legacy

Verdi and Puccini have delighted the world with operas that continue to attract audiences everywhere. While Verdi’s style has more of a “highbrow” nature, hardly anyone can deny Puccini’s appeal. Whatever his shortcomings, he was a wonderful composer. Maybe part of his appeal is his identifying with the little guy. Some even feel it would be better for the first time operagoer to start with Puccini’s soaring melodies.

1. Greenberg, Robert. How to Listen to and Understand Opera: Parts III,IV. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 1997.

Plotkin, Fred. Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera. New York: Hyperion, 1994.

Forman, Denis. A Night at the Opera: An Irreverent Guide to the Plots, the Singers, the Composers, the Recordings. New York: The Modern Library, 1994.

The copyright of the article Italian Opera Composers Verdi and Puccini – in Italian Opera is owned by Barbara Jezior. Permission to republish Italian Opera Composers Verdi and Puccini – in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.