Travel tips for opera lovers – Naples and Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi had a kind of love-hate relationship with Naples. Love connected him with the Neapolitan way of life and the local friends like the librettist Cammarano and the confidant Sanctis. Contempt associated Verdi with the representatives of the kingdom, who made his life difficult with their policies and the censorship of his operas. Paradoxically, Verdi, a republican, wrote a hymn for the Neapolitan Bourbon king as late as 1848; no one knows what devil was driving him, perhaps simply Mammon.

Verdi was at times at war with the theater management of the Teatro San Carlo, which had a difficult relationship with his librettist and friend Cammarano in particular. The theater’s regulations were eons long as to how an opera had to look. Thus, Luisa Miller became Verdi’s last first performance opera for Naples, he had to move the “Ballo in maschera” to Rome for censorship reasons, and later he shifted his attention to Paris and Milan. However, the public remained loyal to the northern Italian and the Aida productions of 1873 and later Otello became great triumphs.

Later he came to Naples several times in winter to spare Giuseppina the winters of Busseto. When Verdi began an affair with the soprano Teresa Stolz, it led to a deep marital crisis. Eventually Giuseppina accepted the situation and the three even spent a vacation together in Naples.