This research paper discusses in detail the masterpieces of Verdi’s Operas.

The chosen operas

which are discussed in detail relate to Father-Daughter Relationship.

To analyze the Father-daughter relationship in Verdi’s opera, let’s first have a brief introduction

about the opera’s composer as all his work in opera reflects and is inspired from his personal life

incidents.

Introduction of Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi whose full name was Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born on 9th

October, 1813 in Roncole near Busseto. He is famous for his emotional work in opera especially

about sensational relationship between father and daughter. He is well known operas are

Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), Aida (1871),

Otello (1887), Falstaff (1893) , Requiem Mass (1874), Simon Boccanegra (1857), Luisa Miller

(1849),

The reason why many believe in his art of writing operas is his tragedy in his first marriage

which left a lifelong impact on his life.

He married to one of his music students, Margherita Barzzi at the age of 23 in 1836. They both

loved each and married. They both were blessed with two children in successively in two years

immediately after their marriage one daughter in 18367 and then a son in 1838. Their daughter

died in the very same year, their son was born. One year after the death of his daughter, his son

also died. The tragedy was that his wife also died. After losing his children, losing his wife was

very tragic move in his life when he just started his career in opera and this incident left

everlasting impact on him. Although he remarried in 1859 but this marriage gave him no
children. Later this impact of sensation of family and relations took the form of operas which

made him famous in this area.

To understand the relationship of his work in operas and his real life tragedies, it is important to

discuss his famous operas in detail.

Simmon Boccanegra:

Verdi’s operas give many examples of disastrous and moving father- Daughter relationships.

Simon Boccanegra stands best out all of them. This masterpiece of him seems to be very close to

his own personal life and the tragedy that occurred in his life.

In Simon Boccanegra, Simon is named the candidate for the doge’s office as Chief magistrate of

republican. He accepts this offer as he assumes that this designation will help him marry the lady

whom he loves, Maria. She is imprisoned by her dad named Fiesco as she gave birth to an

illegitimate child of Boccanegra. This child later on mysteriously disappears. Before, Simon gets

know that Maria has died as her father appears to be very sad and alone he offers a peace talk to

Fiesco as a result Fiesco demands her granddaughter. Simon explains to Fiesco that his daughter

has been disappeared and this disappearance is the first curiosity that this opera brings. To see

Maria Simon gets to enter into the palace where he finds Maria’s body and at the same time he is

chosen as chief magistrate (Doge) by the public. At the time of this victory, he realizes the loss

of two people he loved the most in the world.

Then opera takes a leap of 25 years, where Amelia is waiting for Gabriele in the garden of

Grimaldi palace. She tells Gabriele that he should better stop doing political activities which can

put him in danger and informs him that Doge wants her to marry Paolo who is his courtier.
Gabriel besides is himself willing to marry Amelia assuming that she is Grimaldi. This remains a

mystery for a time being that if Amelia is not Grimaldi then who is she?

Amelia is an orphan who was adopted by Grimaldis to replace their young daughter who died in

very young age.

In the next scene, simon Boccanegra informs Amelia that he has forgiven her brothers, The

Grimaldi brothers. As Amelia witnesses this generosity of Boccanegra, she confesses about her

love with Gabriele and tells about her tragic past to him. During this discussion, Bacconegra

founds out that Amelia is no one else but his very own daughter whom he lost years ago. Amelia

is now grown up girl who is confessing about her love with Gabriele and Boccanegra warns

Paolo to forget about the idea of marrying her. Now, Paolo is planning to kidnap Amelia.

Paolo reacts to Boccanegra’s warning by pouring poison into his drinking water. Paolo asks the

Fiesco to be the part of the plan to assassinate Boccanegra. Fiesco refuses to be involved in the

plan even though he hates Boccanegra for his marriage to his daughter Maria.

Paolo makes an unpleasant hint about Boccanegra’s relationship with Amelia to Gabriele which

makes be jealous with Boccanegra for being in a relationship to Amelia. Amelia enters into the

scene to explain about her relationship with Boccanegra, Boccanegra himself appears and

Gabriel hides himself. Amelia asks her father to forgive her lover, to which Boccanegra agrees.

Gabriele still does not know about the story of Amelia’s relation with Boccanegra. Boccanegra

drinks the poisoned water himself alone and falls asleep. As Gabriele was not listening to the

conversation Amelia had with her father, he is now on his mission of stabbing Boccanegra when

Amelia suddenly arrives in.

Boccanegra explains that he is Amelia’s father and pardons the repentant Gabriel.

The doge reveals that he is Amelia’s father and forgives the repentant Gabriele. Crowd rebelling

outside is being heard and Gabriel decides to fight from the side of Boccanegra.

Boccanegra’s victory over rebels is being celebrated in Genoa. Paolo confronts about his evil

plan of poisoning Boccanegra to Fiesco when he encounters him and also tells him about his act

of kidnapping Amelia. Boccanegra enters into the scene; he is sick and is thinking about Genoese

sea. Fiesco is informed about his granddaughter Amelia by Boccanegra. This mysterious truth

revelation makes the Fiesco break in tears. Fiesco and Boccanegra forgets about the rivalry they

have for each other and develop friendly relations. Amelia and Gabriele enter into the scene.

Boccanegra blesses the couple while dying and declares Gabriele as his successor after his death.

This is how the saddest reunion of father and daughter occurs.

Rigoletto

The scene starts with Duke flirting with Ceprano’s wife in his casino while Rigoletto who is

Duke’s co partner in mocking, mocks her husband. Here Duke’s entourage steps into the crowd,

gossiping about Rigoletto having a young mistress at his home. Rigoletto does not know about

this rumor spreading about him and continues taunting Ceprano who is busy with other people to

punish Rigoletto for his insults. In the meantime, another man makes his way into the crowd,

denouncing Duke for seducing his daughter and is badly scorned by Rigoletto. Monterone who is

an Arab tycoon gets arrested and curses Rigoletto.

Rigoletto is disturbed by Monterone’s curse and becomes very possessive about his daughter,

Gilda’s security. He is very much concerned about, Gilda and warns the housekeeper, Giovanna

to do not let anybody inside the home. Duke arrives at Rigoletto’s place and bribes Giovanna to
get in. Duke saw Gilda in church before coming at this place and now he confesses his love for

her and Gilda starts thinking about her newfound love.

The Duke’s entourage gathers nearby, intending to abduct Rigoletto’s “mistress.” When

Rigoletto arrives, surprising them, they convince him they are abducting the Countess Ceprano,

and enlist his aid in their scheme. They become successful in deceiving Rigoletto and kidnap

Gilda instead. Rigoletto gets to know that his daughter has been kidnapped, his mind take him to

Monterone’s curse.

The entourage returns and tells the story of how they kidnapped a girl from Rigoletto’s place and

left her in Duke’s bedroom. Rigoletto enters into the scene looking for her daughter. The

entourage now realizes that it was not his mistress but his daughter who is now on mercy of

Duke as Duke and Gilda are now in the bedroom. Gilda thinks Duke is in love with her she is

unaware of his cruel intentions. The entourage does not allow Rigoletto to enter into the room

even though he begs for mercy. Gilda returns from the Duke’s room. She tells Rigoletto of the

Duke’s courtship, her abduction, and losing her virginity by the Duke.

Duke’s men kill Monterone and Rigoletto swears that both he and the Arab will be avenged.

Gilda begs her father to pardon the Duke.

Rigoletto takes Gilda at the place of Sparafucile where he lives with Maddalena, his sister. Duke

arrives at this place and appears to be flirting with Maddelana. Rigoletto asks his daughter to run

away from the town disguising her and pays money to Sparafucile to kill Duke. Gilda hears the

conversation between Maddelana and Sparafucile in which Maddalena is begging her brother to

not kill Duke but kill Rigoletto instead to which Saparfucile disagrees but agrees to kill next

person who will arrive at the club. Here Gilda gives the sacrifice by coming into the club where
she is murdered and later Rigoletto gets to know about it and remembers the curse of that Arab

man whom he ridiculed.

Verdi’s operas are as sensational as his own life. The nature of operas can be predicted from his

few famous operas that are discussed above. The Pattern witnessed so far can best be described

by three words “Found and Lost.” His operas conclude that Father’s behavior towards the

daughter’s of society holds the great importance for him to be with his daughter and not just be

but be in a healthy relationship. One should not forget the fact that the Verdi presented mournful

relationship between father and daughter in his Simon Boccanegra; one of his best art.

Simon Boccanegra holds a very sensational scene of reunion of a father and a daughter with such

a bittersweet twist of losing his daughter whom he just found after 25 years and his life at the

same time. One cannot imagine, how much mourn writing this scene has brought to Verdi as he

just spent an year and a half with his daughter when he lost her for rest of his life.

Rigoletto has another deep relation of a father’s character as a person for society with a father’c

character for his daughter.

The operas conclude that in order to be a good Father, you need to be a good human to every

other father who has daughter.

In 'Louisa Miller',Louisa was suppressed and out upon by local noble. Freedom of

Louisa’s father was taken away and oppressed. Hence the music expresses their voice of love

and devotion. They vowed together to run away and escape to the land where their freedom is

nurtured. They call it the land of freedom. Louisa Miller formed a fresh wholly verdian. Styles

presented in Luisa miller were aberration from the style presented before by Bellini and

Donizetti who were Verdi's precedence.

 There were many factors behind the scenes that Verdi's opera presented. It is known that

Verdi was very serious man. He was greatly obsessed with serious subjects of society. Verdi's

Opera used to give little touch to nonsense romance. He earned no reputation as ladies’ man. So

Verdi's interest was mostly on psychological and dramatic themes in opera. His constant love for

baritone voice was perhaps major tone for the themes of daughter and father relationships. Verdi

was up brought in village life. Every Italian was seen with 'bandas' so was Verdi. Moreover,

Italian villagers also had manly choir so would Verdi. He had sonority of baritone voice.

Verdi's operas are generally on the theme of psychological penetration. Verdi brought

depth and insight in all the characters that were performed. Nothing could escape her fascinating

eyes. He uses to pay great focus on details including music and characters. He used to create

human universe in the Opera. "Louisa Miller" is great Opera broaching parent and child themes.

”Il Trovatore” was a mocked at. Story, by some people, was ridiculous. If we look at the story

with different lenses, he actually brought s realistic and human portraits. He explored mother and

son relationship in ‘il trovatore’. Verdi showed immense care to absurd characters and made the

theme realistic and heart touching. Even “La Triviata” portrays father and daughter themes

.Violetta and Rudolfo escape the country along with society to abandon the norms of society.

They were against the demands that a society put on couples. Father in this character threats the

daughter .But soon he realizes that her daughter should be treated nobly and should be delivered

the messege with softness and fatherly way rather than with toxicity and threats. This theme was

also conversion of psychological persuasion in to drama in opera.

Conclusion:

Verdi was met by a great tragedy. His creativity, that later flourished and personal life

was mostly the product of that tragedy in his twenties. Few years passed that his son and
daughter died out of fever. Thus Verdi was drove to despair. Despite some failures in initial

stage, he created musical history then. It may be is due the fact that he lost paternal instincts that

most of themes touched by Verdi were on parent child relationship. Hence most of the opera's

depict parental love in guise. His works,"Rigoletto","Il trovatore" and "Louisa Miller'" were

dynamic depths of parental love. Following Louisa Miller,"il trovatore" and " La traviata" were

also very unique that were never heard and presented in the genetics of opera before. His opera

mentioned above were truly emotional and genuinely musical tint. Other operas by other

renowned scholars were more or less analogous in many aspects. But Verdi's opera had always

brought something unique to the music world with its distinct style and mesmerizing sounds.

Verdi somehow got to manage the mood of writing. Simon Boccanegra was a living example of

the uniqueness and heart touching compose.

Verdi always poured his paternal heart in the themes. Along with love and devotion,

possessiveness and instincts of revenge are also rampant in verid's operas. His drive for taking

revenge ends up always in wreaking his heart more. He witnesses the death of his daughter and

bears the music of revenge instincts. Verdi showed himself the master of psychology and

nuances. He didn't show Gilda a completely innocent girl. Gilda was subconsciously and subtly

an iron strong and rebellious girl who challenges her father's commands and wishes. He even

after sexual tortures by Duke (her boyfriend) continues to visit him and sacrificed her life. This

makes Rigoletto a very fascinating but complicated character. Rigoletto in that aspect was rated

neither moralistic nor a bad character. Verdi in the love and devotion of his daughter tried to take

revenge and loses his daughter too.

Verdi himself was neurotic. His obsession shows his mental upset-ness. Hence father

daughter relationship was specially emphasized in cordelia mad lear's theme also. So Verdi's sub
consciousness always had possessiveness with Lear. Concluding the analysis, we can say that no

other opera scholar could explore the depths of humanity in their work as Verdi did. He had a

sound test of digging psychological depths of characters. Also no other from his proceeds could

ever characterize the relationships of parent and child. He genuinely explored the founding of

love and devotion in family by referring to child and parent relationship. He had true compassion

for father and daughter relationship. He sketched the love with utmost understanding and insight.

Such profound emotions were may be the product of his early life losses and love for his family.

Nevertheless, whatever the factors behind his emotional and parental instincts, He gave legacy of

love with music that is never given before.

Referrences:

https://www.metopera.org/user-information/synopses-archive/simon-boccanegra

http://files.coc.ca/studyguides/simonstudyguideverdisfathersanddaughters.pdf

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123810464

https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/rigoletto/