Verdi in the Age of Italian Romanticism - Tapa dura

'Professor Kimbell demonstrates that there is a great deal to be added to our knowledge of Verdi, his times, and his works.' Notes

' ... it constantly stimulates thought, Kimbell utters many perceptive judgements, and few that are not supported by sound evidence and a fine critical discrimination.' Music and Letters

'... a magnificent exposition of this momentous operatic revolution.' Times Educational Supplement

Professor Kimbell's classic study illuminates the first fifteen years of Verdi's composing career, the era that culminated in his trio of masterpieces, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata. Verdi had become an acknowledged master of the peculiar brand of Romanticism that flourished in Italy in the 1830s and 40s; this background is examined in its political, social and literary light, and his consequent transformation of Italian operatic conventions is analysed. The four parts of Professor Kimbell's book range over biographical, documentary, literary and close-analytical ground. Attention is given to individual operas in order to show how Verdi assimilated and developed the Romantic tradition in his work.