Verdi the outsider, Verdi the legend

Verdi is persuaded to return to the city of Milan, where he is greeted like a hero. Presented by Donald Macleod.

As the hearse carrying the coffin of the composer Giuseppe Verdi travelled through Milan, more than half of the city’s population lined the streets to pay their respects and catch a final glimpse of their hero. Few musicians have made such an indelible impression on the population of a country, or become so linked to a nation's sense of identity. Fewer still have become as ingrained in the fabric of a city as Verdi is in Milan. Today, as well as a statue to the composer, both the Conservatoire and a major theatre are named after him. So how was this relationship, between the city of Milan and Verdi forged? After all, this was a man born in Le Roncole, which was then French territory, and yet he would rise to become the most successful Italian composer of his generation. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores the twists and turns of Verdi’s relationship with Milan -where Verdi would see his first iconic successes, and where he would breathe his last, but also a city where, for a time, he tried to ban performances of his music.

In Friday’s programme, Verdi is persuaded to return to the city of Milan where he is greeted like a hero. However, he decides he won't live in the city and uses the Grand Hotel, Milan as his base. He oversees a series of late, great masterpieces at La Scala, and is mobbed by fans wherever he goes. Eventually, Verdi buys a plot of land in Milan, not to build his own home in the city but to build a rest home for musicians – the place where he himself would be buried, after dying in the city with which he had had such a turbulent relationship.

Aida – “Gloria all’Egitto, ad Iside”; triumphal march
Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
New Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Opera Chorus
Riccardo Muti, conductor

La Forza del Destino – “La Vergine degli angeli”
Montserrat Caballe (Leonora), soprano
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Ambrosian Singers
Anton Guadagno, conductor

Requiem – Libera Me, Domine
Anja Harteros, soprano
Sonia Ganassi, mezzo-soprano
Rolando Villazon, tenor
René Pape, bass
Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Coro dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Falstaff – Act II Scene II
Bryn Terfel (Falstaff), bass-baritone
Thomas Hampson (Ford), baritone
Adrianne Pieczonka (Alice Ford), soprano
Danill Shtoda (Fenton), tenor
Dorothea Röschmann (Nannetta), soprano
Larissa Diadkova (Mistress Quickly), contralto
Stella Doufexis (Meg Page), mezzo-soprano
Berliner Philharmoniker
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Otello - “Ave Maria”
Maria Callas (Desdemona), soprano
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra
Nicola Rescigno, conductor

Producer: Sam Phillips