CHAPTER X

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF STYLE

Verdi's popularity--An important personality in music--Most successful composer of the nineteenth century--Verdi's opportuneness--Keynote of future struck in _Nabucco_--Its characteristics--Distinguishing features of Verdi's music--Stereotyped pattern operas--Change of style imminent in _Luisa Miller_--Altered second period style of _Rigoletto_--This maintained in _Il Trovatore_--_La Traviata_ forebodings--Basevi's charge of an altered style therein--_La Traviata_ and _débutantes_--True Verdi style in _Les Vêpres Siciliennes_--_Simon Boccanegra_ and _Un Ballo in Maschera_--Third period works--_Aïda_--Alleged Wagner influence--Mistaken criticism--Orchestration of _Otello_--Its style and _technique_ compared with _Aïda_--_Falstaff_--Its position as an opera--A saviour of Italian art--The _Illustrated London News_ defends Verdi from early critics--Later critics silenced--Verdi vindicated 223