Part of the Listen to This Audio Guide
Maria Callas as Violetta in La traviata.
Verdi remains popular. A search on the site Operabase, made early in September 2011, yielded listings for 969 forthcoming performances of 174 productions in 112 cities, from Albuquerque to Zurich. The Fondazione Verdi has much information on the composer, including sound and pictures. There are also sites for the Casa Verdi, the composer's home for retired singers; the Institute for Verdi Studies, which also has a good photo gallery; the Verdi Museum in Busseto, the composer's birthplace; and the Villa Verdi, the composer's longtime home in Sant'Agata, outside Busseto. Opera Glass has librettos for all the Verdi operas; scores can be found at IMSLP.
Film footage of a funeral cortège for Verdi in 1901, with, oddly, Verdi and Mozart on the soundtrack:
Caruso sings "La donne è mobile," from Rigoletto (p. 190), in a Victor recording made in 1904:
From the Internet Archive; restoration by Bob Varney.
The Grand Inquisitor scene from Don Carlo, with Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip II and Eric Halfvarson as the blind master of the Inquisition (p. 193):
Callas at the height of her powers, singing "Amami, Alfredo" from La traviata at La Scala in 1955 (pp. 194-95):
With Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the orchestra of La Scala; EMI 556 330‐2.
Video of Callas in Traviata at Lisbon, 1958:
Some riveting footage of Callas in concert, singing Lady Macbeth's opening scene:
Frida Leider sings "D'Amor sull'ali rosee," from Il trovatore, in German translation (p. 196):
Francesco Tamagno, the original Otello, singing "Ora e per sempre addio" (p. 196):
From the Internet Archive; restoration by Tim Ecker.
Sondra Radvanovsky works to hold her own against the archives of the past in "D'amor sull'ali rosee" (p. 197):
With Constantine Orbelian conducting the Philharmonia of Russia; Delos 3404.
The great Plácido Domingo sings the final scene of Otello (pp. 197-98):
One of the more outré examples of Regietheater — a production of Un ballo in maschera set at the site of the collapse of the World Trade Center (p. 199, lady Hitler not visible):
Peter Konwitschny's remarkable staging of the auto-da-fé from Don Carlos (p. 201):
"Va pensiero" at the Met, 2002 (pp. 202-203):
