The Operas of Verdi

Volume Two covers those works written during the decadence of the post-Rossini period. During this time Verdi having exhausted the vein of simple lyricism to be found in Il Trovatore and La Traviata achieved self-renewal in direct confrontation with the masters of the Paris Opera with his Les Vêpres Siciliennes. A new scale and variety of musical thought can be sensed in the Italian operas that follow culminating in La Forza del Destino.