ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 examines the status of women in Italy, during the nineteenth century, as part of a social structure whose conventions and religious mores, seen as the norm, were absorbed by Verdi. Noting his braggadocio about women in general, when communicating with male friends, it also pays attention to the exceptional women whose path Verdi crossed. Beyond the confines of agriculture, unskilled labour or minor bourgeois domesticity, Verdi found intellectually worthy connections in the aristocratic women who shared his liberal views, but were also influential in Milanese society and capable of giving their valuable endorsement to an ambitious young composer.
