Editing Giuseppe Verdi (section)

====Middle period====
[[File:Rigoletto premiere stage set for Act 1, Scene 2.jpg|thumb|Stage set by Giuseppe Bertoja for the premiere of ''Rigoletto'' (Act 1, Scene 2)]]
The writer David Kimbell states that in ''Luisa Miller'' and ''Stiffelio'' (the earliest operas of this period) there appears to be a "growing freedom in the large scale structure...and an acute attention to fine detail".{{sfn|Chusid|1997|p=1}} Others echo those feelings. Julian Budden expresses the impact of ''Rigoletto'' and its place in Verdi's output as follows: "Just after 1850 at the age of 38, Verdi closed the door on a period of Italian opera with ''Rigoletto''. The so-called ''ottocento'' in music is finished. Verdi will continue to draw on certain of its forms for the next few operas, but in a totally new spirit."{{sfn|Budden|1984a|p=510}} One example of Verdi's wish to move away from "standard forms" appears in his feelings about the structure of ''Il trovatore''. To his librettist, Cammarano, Verdi plainly states in a letter of April 1851 that if there were no standard forms—"cavatinas, duets, trios, choruses, finales, etc. ... and if you could avoid beginning with an opening chorus....", he would be quite happy.{{sfn|Budden|1984b|p=61}}

Two external factors had their impacts on Verdi's compositions of this period. One is that with increasing reputation and financial security he no longer needed to commit himself to the productive treadmill, had more freedom to choose his own subjects, and had more time to develop them according to his own ideas. In the years 1849 to 1859, he wrote eight new operas, compared with fourteen in the previous ten years.{{sfn|Chusid|1997|p=3}}

Another factor was the changed political situation; the failure of the 1848 revolutions led both to some diminution of the Risorgimento ethos (at least initially) and a significant increase in theatre censorship.{{sfn|Chusid|1997|p=3}} This is reflected both in Verdi's choices of plots dealing more with personal relationships than political conflict, and in a (partly consequent) dramatic reduction in the operas of this period in the number of choruses (of the type which had first made him famous)—not only are there on average 40% fewer choruses in the 'middle' period operas compared to the 'early' period', but whereas virtually all the 'early' operas commence with a chorus, only one (''Luisa Miller'') of the 'middle' period operas begin this way. Instead, Verdi experiments with a variety of means, e.g. a stage band (''Rigoletto''), an aria for [[bass (voice type)|bass]] (''Stiffelio''), a party scene (''La traviata''). Chusid also notes Verdi's increasing tendency to replace full-scale overtures with shorter orchestral introductions.{{sfn|Chusid|1997|pp=9–11}} Parker comments that ''La traviata'', the last opera of the 'middle' period, is "again a new adventure. It gestures towards a level of '[[Realism (arts)|realism]]'...the contemporary world of [[waltz]]es pervades the score, and the heroine's death from disease is graphically depicted in the music."{{sfn|Parker|2001|loc=§4 (vi)}} Verdi's increasing command of musical highlighting of changing moods and relationships is exemplified in act 3 of ''Rigoletto'', where Duke's flippant song "La donna è mobile" is followed immediately by the quartet "Bella figlia dell'amore", contrasting the rapacious Duke and his inamorata with the (concealed) indignant Rigoletto and his grieving daughter. Taruskin asserts this is "the most famous ensemble Verdi ever composed".{{sfn|Taruskin|2010|p=587}}