Verdi: composer, farmer and philanthropist
by Wendy Neikirk
Boston Lyric Opera
While Giuseppe Verdi's (1813-1901) operas, Requiems and other compositions have earned him worldwide recognition as a composer and musician, Verdi was more than a famous and composer. Verdi was the active owner of a farm, Sant'Agata , a generous philanthropist, and the founder of La Casa di Riposo , a retirement home for musicians. Giuseppe Verdi donated his time, talents and finances to organizations designed to better life for those who, as he explained, "were not as fortunate as I."
Sant'Agata
When Verdi purchased Sant'Agata in May of 1848, it was a run-down isolated farm in the region of Le roncole near his childhood home. Verdi built a new manor house, for which he supervised design, construction and gardening, at Sant'Agata and he and Giuseppina Strepponi, his mistress who later became his second wife, moved to the farm in the spring of 1851. Verdi continued his musical endeavors, but pursued them primarily while visiting Milan or other cities. Sant'Agata was a farm and when in residence, Verdi was occupied first and foremost with its operation. Verdi explained in a letter to his friend Filippo Filippi, "I know that you are a tireless, avid musician?But alas!...Piave and Marini have probably told you that we never play or even discuss music at Sant'Agata , and you run the risk here of finding a piano which is not only out of tune but has missing strings." Although it was an isolated, rural location, Verdi's friends often visited Sant'Agata, enjoying delicious elaborate dinners and Verdi's favorite beverages, Chianti and Asti Spumante.
Verdi enthusiastically involved himself in the matters of the farm. He aggressively initiated agricultural reforms that affected not just Sant'Agata, but the entire region. Verdi introduced threshing machines and steam powered plows to the region of Le roncole . He excavated and built canals and roads. Ghizlanzoni, the librettist for Verdi's opera Aïda was impressed:
Their cultivation bears testimony to the scientific principles that he has introduced here from less naturally fortunate foreign countries. Verdi's gift of keen observation has turned every advance in English and French agriculture to the profit of his own country. While the weeping willows, the dark thickets of trees, the melancholy lake, all reflect the dreamy passion of the artist, the fields outside reveal the orderly energy and acute understanding of the man.
Verdi's commitment to the improvement of his region extended beyond agricultural reform. In 1880, during a severe economic depression, Verdi became distressed at the sheer numbers of people who were leaving the country. He decided to expand Sant'Agata even more, adding three additional large dairy farms and remodeling the house. Hiring builders and workers to staff the farm, Verdi was able to employ an additional two hundred of his countrymen. He wrote to Opprandino Arrivabene in 1881 explaining, "The work isn't necessary to me. Such buildings will not increase the income from my property by a penny. But the men earn a little something and that means there is no emigration from my village."
La Casa di Riposo
Verdi established the Casa di Riposo (1902-present) as a retirement home for musicians and other performing artists, teachers and directors. He purchased the land, a parcel on the Piazza Michelangelo Buonarroti in Milan, during the fall of 1889 and in 1896 deposited money in Milan to begin construction of the house. It is a large Venetian-style palazzo with small gardens, a chapel, a large assemble hall for concerts, spacious rooms, artist studios, a library, a grand dining hall and a tomb?where Verdi and his wife Giuseppina were later buried.
Verdi asserted that he wanted to establish the Casa di Riposo as a way to remember and provide for musicians less fortunate than himself. In his will, Verdi bequeathed the building and grounds, seventy thousand lire in Italian bonds and all the royalties from his compositions to the institution. Additionally, he stipulated that the Board of Directors could only spend five thousand lire of the royalties each year for the first ten years in order to establish an endowment for the foundation. In so doing, Verdi sought to enable the Casa di Riposo to function as a self-sufficient entity. The composer also left his Erard grand piano, the spinet from Sant'Agata and various mementos, decorations, pictures and furniture to the Casa di Riposo to assist with furnishing and decor.
In establishing the Casa di Riposo, Verdi founded a lasting organization. The Casa still exists, although now predominately funded by private donations. It serves as a home for singers, dancers, musicians, conductors, teachers, directors and anyone else who has established their careers in the field of performance. Residents of the "residential hotel" pay rent on a sliding scale according to what they can afford. The only requirements are that applicants are to have made their living from music and to be physically self-sufficient. In recent years, music students studying in Milan have also been allowed to apply to live at the Casa . Residents young and old remain active in music?performing for each other, some maintaining active concert careers throughout the globe, attending other performances (residents receive free tickets to La Scala), teaching and conducting. In Daniel Schmid's award-winning documentary about the Casa di Riposo entitled Tosca's Kiss , one can see the vivacious residents and their admiration for and gratitude to Verdi and his gift to them. While Verdi described the Casa di Riposo as, "my final achievement," in his will he also provided generous donations to organizations in Genoa including the Almshouses, the Institute for Rachitics (a home for children who suffered from malnutrition and rickets), the Institute for the Deaf and Mute and the Institute for the Blind. Verdi provided financial gifts for his servants, valet and gardner and stipulated that six thousand lire be distributed to the poor in the village of Sant'Agata the day after his death.
The "Real Life" and Verdi's music
A September 1879 letter to Opprandino Arrivabene reflects on Verdi's summer and a concert for flood victims in Milan. He eloquently and succinctly displays his dualistic commitment to artistic excellence and human needs:
I returned here in the midst of a suffocating heat, with hardly enough energy to breathe. I've wasted time and done nothing worth-while. No, I've done one worth-while thing. I've helped out at a concert which produced 37,000 lira for the poor. I am not speaking of the artistic success and of the performance, which although outstandingly good, had only a secondary importance in the circumstances. The first and only aim was the 37,000 lira! And that gave me immense pleasure.
Giuseppe Verdi was a widely recognized composer of great artistic abilities; however, he was also a generous and dedicated philanthropist, devoted to the well-being of his colleagues and countrymen.
