ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 reviews a new perspective on Verdi, Giuseppina Strepponi and Teresa Stolz. To the image of benign, philanthropic elder statesman, with pious, adoring wife, and only briefly bothered by a home-wrecking singer, other details accrue. The young Verdi, constrained by parochial Catholicism, dominating father, and timid reliance on the powerful, could claim superiority only to women. Giuseppina Strepponi’s exceptional intellect and musicality brought Verdi career opportunities, affection, a scandalous past and decades of proving her worth to a vulnerable husband. Teresa Stolz, exceptional exponent of his later style, offered rejuvenating support to a Verdi no longer afraid of others.
