Followers of “La traviata,” “Aida,” and “Otello” creator Giuseppi Verdi met at his statue in New York Metropolis Friday to mark 212 years since his delivery.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Now to a birthday celebration. Yearly, followers of Giuseppe Verdi collect in New York to rejoice him and his operas, like “La Traviata,” “Aida” and “Otello.” The most recent gathering was Friday, marking 212 years because the composer’s delivery, and reporter Jeff Lunden was there.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: Verdi Sq., on Manhattan’s Higher West Aspect, is correct by a subway station. And that is the place a bunch of Verdi lovers collect – by his statue.
AUGUST VENTURA: My identify is August Ventura, and I needed to discover a strategy to be pleased with my Italian heritage, however to have a look at one thing that’s extra of a uniting drive – the drive of music and the drive of this nice man, Giuseppe Verdi.
LUNDEN: The ceremony begins with a violin solo of a few of Verdi’s ballet music carried out by Morning Huang.
MORNING HUANG: (Enjoying Violin).
LUNDEN: Then Ventura addresses the gang of largely senior residents, which additionally contains some curious staff in laborious hats and passersby.
VENTURA: He gave us a lot, and he’s a mirror to which we have a look at ourselves. Final yr, what was on our minds was immigration and human displacement, and these determine prominently in Verdi’s operas. This yr, I believe what’s on a variety of our minds is freedom of speech.
LUNDEN: Music is handed out, and the group sings a well-known refrain from Verdi’s first hit opera, “Nabucco,” about historic Jews oppressed by the Babylonians.
HUANG: (Enjoying Violin).
AUGUST VENTURA AND UNIDENTIFIED VERDI ENTHUSIASTS: (Singing, in Italian).
LUNDEN: Opera dramaturg Cori Ellison explains that the refrain was written to talk to Italians who had been then striving to create a brand new nation.
CORI ELLISON: Though he was speaking about historic peoples, historic biblical peoples, the audiences understood – and we perceive – that he is speaking to all of us throughout his personal time and as we speak and ceaselessly.
LUNDEN: A lot of Verdi’s operas take care of not simply political struggles, however the private struggles of outsiders. And so they function stunning music. One participant names every of Verdi’s operas.
UNIDENTIFIED VERDI ENTHUSIAST: “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata”…
LUNDEN: And every participant locations a crimson rose in a vase, which is then set in entrance of the statue. And as a finale, the group exclaims…
UNIDENTIFIED VERDI ENTHUSIASTS: Viva Verdi.
LUNDEN: For NPR Information, I am Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED GROUP’S PERFORMANCE OF VERDI’S “NABUCCO”)
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