that the people have been avenged. Music Modern day critical reactions to Verdi's music and musical choices varies somewhat, but there is general unanimity as to its principal weaknesses. For , Attila is "one of the weakest scores of the 'galley years'" and he references the contemporary critical viewpoint of Luigi Casamorata who wrote in the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano of 17 January 1847 that, with this opera, Verdi had reached the "apogee of cabalettism". However, Baldini does point to the strengths of the score which include the prologue's dawn over the Adriatic music, the music for the bass in his act 1 scene, and the baritone's act 2 aria as well as the final ensemble in act 3 "which possesses great powers of human communication". Both Kimbell ("the sheer noisiness of Attila made it a bête noire of fastidious critics" and Budden ("...the heaviest and noisiest of the Risorgimento operas, blunt in style, daubed in thick garish colours") refer to some of least successful aspects of the work. However, Parker states something to which the others would appear to agree: As with all of Verdi's early operas, there are impressive individual moments, particularly in those grand ensemble movements that constantly inspired the composer to redefine and hone his dramatic language. Recordings References Notes Sources Further reading De Van, Gilles (trans. Gilda Roberts) (1998), Verdi's Theater: Creating Drama Through Music. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. (hardback), Greenwald, Helen (ed.) (2012), Attila, the critical edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gossett, Philip (2006), Divas and Scholar: Performing Italian Opera, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Martin, George (1983), Verdi: His Music, Life and Times, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. Osborne, Charles (1969), The Complete Opera of Verdi, New York: Da Capo Press. Parker, Roger (2007), The New Grove Guide to Verdi and His Operas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Pistone, Danièle (1995), Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera: From Rossini to Puccini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1993), Verdi: A Biography, London & New York: Oxford University Press. Toye, Francis (1931), Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Works, New York: Knopf Walker, Frank, The Man Verdi (1982), New York: Knopf, 1962, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera New York: Oxford University Press. Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul (1973), Verdi: The Man and His Letters, New York, Vienna House. External