Product Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1922 Excerpt: ... GIUSEPPE VERDI AR had descended on the little village of Le V V Roncole. Some of the villagers sought refuge in the church, but the barricaded doors soon gave way and those within were at the mercy of a drunken and infuriated soldiery. One woman, hugging a year-old child to her breast, remembered a hidden stairway which led to the belfry. There she crouched, speechless with terror, until evening fell and only a few huddled bodies told of the outrage which had been committed. Then she crept down, her child asleep in her arms. That child was Italy's greatest composer, Giuseppe Verdi. This incident, according to Arthur Pougin, one of the most authoritative biographers of the composer, occurred in 1814. On the 10th of October, 1813, Verdi was born, the son of an innkeeper, in the little village of Le Roncole. A ragged beggar, Bagasset by name, used to tell Verdi's father that his bambino would make a musician. This man Verdi never forgot. When, in after years, the composer bought himself an estate at Sant' Agata, near his birthplace, he often met old Bagasset, still playing, snuffling, and begging fop pennies. It was Verdi's habit to give the old fellow money and good things to eat, and Bagasset would weep and laugh, and stammer: "Ah, maestro! I knew you when you were very little; but now--" Verdi's father saved enough to buy the boy a spinet, a reckless extravagance for one in the humble position and circumstances of the innkeeper. The old spinet is preserved to-day, and within it one may read the following inscription: By me, Stefano Cavaletti, were made anew and releathered the jacks of this instrument, to which I have adapted a pedal. I made these jacks gratuitously in consideration of the good disposition which the young Giuseppe Verdi shows in learning to...