Editing Giuseppe Verdi (section)

===1834–1842: First operas===
[[File:Temistocle Solera.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Temistocle Solera]], Verdi's first librettist]]
{{Further|List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi}}
In mid-1834, Verdi sought to acquire Provesi's former post in Busseto but without success. But with Barezzi's help, he did obtain the secular post of ''maestro di musica''. He taught, gave lessons, and conducted the Philharmonic for several months before returning to Milan in early 1835.{{sfn|Parker|1998|p=933}} By the following July, he obtained his certification from Lavigna.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|1993|p=67}} Eventually in 1835 Verdi became director of the Busseto school with a three-year contract. He married Margherita in May 1836, and by March 1837, she had given birth to their first child, Virginia Maria Luigia on 26 March 1837. Icilio Romano followed on 11 July 1838. Both the children died young, Virginia on 12 August 1838, Icilio on 22 October 1839.{{sfn|Parker|2001|loc=§2}}

In 1837, the young composer asked for Massini's assistance to stage his opera in Milan.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|1993|pp=79–80}} The La Scala impresario, [[Bartolomeo Merelli]], agreed to put on ''[[Oberto (opera)|Oberto]]'' (as the reworked opera was now called, with a libretto rewritten by [[Temistocle Solera]]){{sfn|Kimbell|1981|pp=92, 96}} in November 1839. It achieved a respectable 13 additional performances, following which Merelli offered Verdi a contract for three more works.{{sfn|Budden|1993|p=71}} In 1838-1839 Verdi published his first music with the Milan publisher [[Giovanni Canti]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |author=Richard Macnutt|author2= Mariapia Rosso|title= Canti, Giovanni|date=2001|entry=Canti, Giovanni|encyclopedia=Grove Music Online|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04765}}</ref>

While Verdi was working on his second opera ''[[Un giorno di regno]]'', Margherita died of [[encephalitis]] at the age of 26. Verdi adored his wife and children and was devastated by their early deaths. ''Un giorno'', a comedy, was premiered only a few months later. It was a flop and only given one performance.{{sfn|Budden|1993|p=71}} Following its failure, it is claimed Verdi vowed never to compose again,{{sfn|Parker|2001|loc=§3}} but in his ''Sketch'' he recounts how Merelli persuaded him to write a new opera.

Verdi was to claim that he gradually began to work on the music for ''[[Nabucco]]'', the libretto of which had originally been rejected by the composer [[Otto Nicolai]]:{{sfn|Budden|1993|p=16}} "This verse today, tomorrow that, here a note, there a whole phrase, and little by little the opera was written", he later recalled.{{sfn|Werfel|Stefan|1973|pp=87–92}} By the autumn of 1841 it was complete, originally under the title ''Nabucodonosor''. Well received at its first performance on 9 March 1842, ''Nabucco'' underpinned Verdi's success until his retirement from the theatre, twenty-nine operas (including some revised and updated versions) later.{{sfn|Parker|2001|loc=§3}} At its revival in La Scala for the 1842 autumn season it was given an unprecedented (and later unequalled) total of 57 performances; within three years it had reached (among other venues) Vienna, Lisbon, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris and Hamburg; in 1848 it was heard in New York, in 1850 in Buenos Aires. Porter comments that "similar accounts...could be provided to show how widely and rapidly all [Verdi's] other successful operas were disseminated."{{sfn|Porter|1980|pp=638–639}}