Francesco Maria Piave
Francesco Maria Piave (18 May 1810 – 5 March 1876) was an Italian opera librettist who was born in Murano in the lagoon of Venice, during the brief Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. His career spanned over twenty years working with many of the significant composers of his day. In addition to Giuseppe Verdi, for whom he was to write 10 librettos, other composers include Giovanni Pacini (four librettos), Saverio Mercadante (at least one), Federico Ricci, even one for Michael Balfe.
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[edit] Career
Piave was not only a librettist, but a journalist and translator. He was resident poet and stage manager at La Fenice in Venice and later at La Scala in Milan. His expertise as a stage manager and tact as a negotiator served Verdi well over the years, although Verdi bullied him mercilessly. For example, during the efforts to have Rigoletto approved by the censors, Verdi goaded Piave to make every effort to get the subject approved: "Turn Venice upside down to make the censors permit this subject"[1]
Later, Verdi wrote to him not to allow matters to drag on:
- If I were the poet, I would be very, very concerned, all the more because you would have a great deal of responsibility if by chance (may the Devil not make it happen) they should not allow this drama [to be given]"[2]
But the librettist became Verdi's life-long friend and collaborator - "someone Verdi loved",[3] following Salvadore Cammarano as Verdi's main mid-career librettist and writing the libretti for Verdi's operas Ernani (1844), I due Foscari (1844), Attila (1846), Macbeth (1847), Il Corsaro (1848), Stiffelio (1850), Rigoletto (1851), La traviata (1853) Simon Boccanegra (1857), and La forza del destino (1862). Like Verdi, Piave was an ardent Italian patriot, and in 1848, during Milan's "Cinque Giornate," when Radetsky's Austrian troops retreated from the city, Verdi's letter to Piave in Venice was addressed to "Citizen Piave."
Piave would have also prepared the libretto for Aida, the commission for which Verdi accepted in 1870, had he not suffered a stroke, which left him paralyzed and unable to speak. Verdi helped to support his wife and daughter - by proposing that "an album of pieces by famous composers be compiled and sold for Piave's benefit"[4] - and paid for his funeral when he died nine years later in Milan at age 65. Piave was interred there in the Cimitero Monumentale.
[edit] Librettos by Piave
[edit] 1842
[edit] 1844
[edit] 1845
[edit] 1846
[edit] 1847
[edit] 1848
[edit] 1850
[edit] 1851
[edit] 1853
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[edit] 1854
[edit] 1856
[edit] 1857
[edit] 1859
[edit] 1860
[edit] 1861
[edit] 1862
[edit] 1865
[edit] 1867
[edit] 1868
[edit] 1872
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Letter to Piave, 6 May 1850, quoted in Phillips-Matz, p. 265
- ^ Verdi to Piave, in Phillips-Matz, p. 270
- ^ Phiilips-Matz, p. 644
- ^ Werfel and Stefan, p. 262, in reference to a letter of 1 August 1869 from Verdi to Léon Escudier requesting the composer's piece for the album
- ^ List from opera.stanford.edu Retrieved 27 November 2010
[edit] References
- O'Grady, Deidre, Piave, Boito, Pirandello: From Romantic Realism to Modernism (Studies in Italian Literature). Edwin Mellon Pess, 2000. ISBN 9780773477032 ISBN 0773477039
- Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, ‘’Verdi: A Biography’’, London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 ISBN 0193132044
- Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul, Verdi: The Man and His Letters, New York: Vienna House 1973 ISBN 0844300888
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