It was a colossal success when it opened in 1842 and thus began an absurdly productive period for Verdi, what is now known as his “Galley Years”. One day, one line one day, another now one note, then a phrase. I went back home with Nabucco in my pocket. Bartolomeo Merelli, the impresario of La Scala who had championed Verdi’s work, wasn’t taking no for an answer however, and pushed Verdi to write what was to become the great Nabucco. Verdi was crushed and had no will to work and for two years he didn’t get much done, assisting on a few revivals of Oberto about the extent of it.
He turned out his second opera in 1840, a comic opera, which flopped so badly he didn’t tackle another comedy until near the end of his life. Virginia died in 1838, his new son Icilio died in 1939 and though Oberto was a success at La Scala in November 1939 (a remarkable feat for a first time composer), Verdi would fall ill in 1840 and lose Margherita by June of that year (She was only 26 taken by encephalitis).
Verdi worked on his first Opera, Oberto, but life quickly took a considerable turn for the worse. He married the daughter of one of his earlier benefactors, Margherita Barezzi, and they soon had their first child Virginia. Verdi returned to Busseto in 1835, replacing his old master Provesi who had recently died. From this point onwards Verdi’s life would enter the realm of extreme success and tragedy that would itself make a perfectly decent operatic plot.
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