Verdi had now retired to his estate of Sant’Agata, and it was supposed his career as composer had closed, as he gave his time principally to the care of his domain.  From time to time it was rumored he was writing another opera.  The rumor proved true, for on February 5, 1887, when Verdi was seventy-four years old, “Otello” was produced at La Scala, Milan, amid indescribable enthusiasm.  Six years later the musical world was again startled and overjoyed by the production of another Shakespearean opera, “Falstaff,” composed in his eightieth year.  In all, his operas number over thirty, most of them serious, all of them containing much beautiful music.

At Sant’Agata the master lived a quiet, retired life.  The estate was situated about two miles from Busseto, and was very large, with a great park, a large collection of horses and other live stock.  The residence was spacious, and the master’s special bedroom was on the first floor.  It was large, light and airy and luxuriously furnished.  Here stood a magnificent grand piano, and the composer often rose in the night to jot down the themes which came to him in the silence of the midnight hours.  Here “Don Carlos” was written.  In one of the upper rooms stood the old spinet that Verdi hacked at as a child.

Verdi was one of the noblest of men as well as one of the greatest of musical composers.  He passed away in Milan, January 27, 1901, at the age of eighty-eight.

XVI

RICHARD WAGNER

One of the most gigantic musical geniuses the world has yet known was Richard Wagner.  Words have been exhausted to tell of his achievements; books without number have been written about him; he himself, in his Autobiography, and in his correspondence, has told with minutest detail how he lived and what his inner life has been.  What we shall strive for is the simple story of his career, though in the simple telling, it may read like a fairy tale.

Richard Wagner first saw the light on May 22, 1813, in Leipsic.  Those were stirring times in that part of the world, for revolution was often on the eve of breaking out.  The tiny babe was but six months old when the father passed away.  There were eight other children, the eldest son being only fourteen.  The mother, a sweet, gentle little woman, found herself quite unable to support her large family of growing children.  No one could blame her for accepting the hand of her husband’s old friend, Ludwig Geyer, in less than a year after the loss of her first husband.  Geyer was a man of much artistic talent, an actor, singer, author and painter.  He thought little Richard might become a portrait painter, or possibly a musician, since the child had learned to play two little pieces on the piano.

Geyer found employment in a Dresden theater, so the family removed to that city.  But he did not live to see the blossoming of his youngest step-son’s genius, as he passed away on September 30, 1821, when the child was eight years old.