VERDI 



6059 



VERDUN 



Theater at Milan, and by his eighteenth birth- 

 day knew far more about composition and or- 

 chestra directing than the school could have 

 taught him in the same period. In 1838 he 

 removed permanently to Milan. He had mar- 

 ried some years before, and the struggle to 

 maintain his wife and two children was a bitter 

 one. In 1839, however, an opera of his was 

 pted for the Scala Theater, and the price 

 paid him, nearly four hundred dollars, gave him 

 more money at one moment than he had had 

 in all the previous years combined. Commis- 

 M for three new operas immediately fol- 

 lowed, and then came a shock that almost 

 drove Verdi insane. Within a period of eight 

 weeks his wife and children died. It was almost 

 a year before he returned to his music, and 

 then extraordinary success crowned his work. 

 He was paid $4,000 simply for the right to pub- 

 li>h one of his operas, and in later years he re- 

 ceived for A'ida $20,000 merely for the right to 

 present it the first night. 



His earlier operas, such as The Corsair, were 

 imitative of works by Rossini and other com- 

 posers, but Verdi's tunes were far more spirited, 

 and they fascinated his audiences. In the mid- 

 dle period of his musical career he broke away 

 from old methods and composed with such 

 unity and vigor that he became the most popu- 

 lar writer of operas in the world. Such compo- 

 sitions as Rigoletto, II Trovatore and La Travi- 

 ata are hardly equalled in public favor. Some 

 critics still maintain that these works are too 

 noisy, and that the bass instruments are too 

 prominent, but the world as a whole seems not 

 to think so. By 1859 Verdi was a rich man, and 

 for the next eleven years he wrote almost noth- 

 mp. Then, in 1870 the khcdive of Egypt re- 

 quested an opera from him for a Cairo theater, 

 and the result was A'ida, generally considered as 

 Verdi's best work. 



Again he retired from the musical world, and 

 his friends had concluded that his genius was 

 dead; but in 1887 he produced his vigorous 

 Otello, founded on Shakespeare's Othello. Six 

 passed, an 1 tin -n. just before his eightieth 

 iy, he wrote Falstaff, one of the most hu- 

 morous of all operas, and almost equal in 

 humor to the Shakespearean character that fa- 

 it. Thousands of citizens journeyed to 

 Mil-tii from all parts of Italy to see tli 



nance of this opera, in February, 1893, 



and the greeting given the old man has scarcely 



been equalled in musical history. There fol- 



-even years of silence and rest, and (lien 



. at Milan, January 27, 1901. B.D.M 



Consult Visetti s Verdi; Crowesfs Verdi: Man 

 and Musician. 



VERDIGRIS, vur'diyree*, a poisonous, 

 bright-green pigment, made by the action of 

 crude acetic acid on copper. The color of the 

 pigment varies from blue to green, and the 

 composition varies slightly with the color. It 

 is used in dyeing, calico printing, in making 

 Paris green and in paint manufacture, and 

 sometimes in the preparation of medicinal lini- 

 ments and salves. Taken internally it is an 

 irritant poison for which milk and white of 

 egg are antidotes. 



VERDUN, vairduN', a fortified town in the 

 northern part of France, about 140 miles north- 

 west of Paris and forty-three miles east of 

 Metz, in Lorraine. It lies on the right bank of 

 the Meuse River and on the main line of the 

 Eastern Railway between Metz and Paris. The 

 fortifications about Verdun are a part of the 

 advanced line of defense of the republic, and 

 since the Franco-German War, when the place 

 was bombarded and captured, they have been 

 vastly strengthened. With the great French 

 army in front of them, they successfully with- 

 stood one of the greatest assaults in history 

 during the War of the Nations (see below). At 

 the outbreak of the war the town had a popula- 

 tion of over 21,000. 



Battle of Verdun. In February, 1916, a Ger- 

 man army commanded by the Crown Prince 

 began a determined attack on the outer de- 

 fenses of Verdun. It is believed that the object 

 of the assault was the winning of a decisive vic- 

 tory which would open a breach, in the line of 

 defenses about Paris and discourage the allies 

 from further prolonging the war. General 

 Henri Petain (which see) commanded the 

 French forces. From February to September the 

 Germans, by violent artillery bombardments 

 and desperate infantry attacks, fought their 

 way through lines of forts and intrenchmcnts 

 and gained about 130 square miles of territory. 

 Verdun itself, however, remained unconquered, 

 and to accomplish what they did the Germans 

 sacrificed between 250,000 and 500,000 men. 

 battle was counted a French victory. 



In July the allied forces began an offensive 

 along the Somme (see Sou MB, subhead Battle 

 of the Somme), and this drive caused the Ger- 

 man command to withdraw some of its forces 

 along the Meuse. During the summer and 

 early fall little was heard of the Verdun sector, 

 but in October, General Nivelle, who had super- 

 seded General P6tain, suddenly delivered a 

 counterattack on the east bank of the Meuse, 



