Editing Giuseppe Verdi (section)

===1853–1860: Consolidation===
In the eleven years up to and including ''Traviata'', Verdi had written sixteen operas. Over the next eighteen years (up to ''Aida''), he wrote only six new works for the stage.{{sfn|Parker|2001|loc=§5}} Verdi was happy to return to Sant'Agata and, in February 1856, was reporting a "total abandonment of music; a little reading; some light occupation with agriculture and horses; that's all". A couple of months later, writing in the same vein to Countess Maffei he stated: "I'm not doing anything. I don't read. I don't write. I walk in the fields from morning to evening, trying to recover, so far without success, from the stomach trouble caused me by ''I vespri siciliani''. Cursed operas!"{{sfn|Walker|1962|p=218}} An 1858 letter by Strepponi to the publisher [[Léon Escudier]] describes the kind of lifestyle that increasingly appealed to the composer: "His love for the country has become a mania, madness, rage, and fury—anything you like that is exaggerated. He gets up almost with the dawn, to go and examine the wheat, the maize, the vines, etc....Fortunately our tastes for this sort of life coincide, except in the matter of sunrise, which he likes to see up and dressed, and I from my bed."{{sfn|Walker|1962|p=219}}

[[File:Verdi and Naples censor-caricature by Delfico.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Verdi confronting the Naples censor when preparing ''Un ballo in maschera'' (caricature by [[Melchiorre Delfico (caricaturist)|Delfico)]]]]Nonetheless, on 15 May, Verdi signed a contract with La Fenice for an opera for the following spring. This was to be ''[[Simon Boccanegra]]''. The couple stayed in Paris until January 1857 to deal with these proposals, and also the offer to stage the translated version of ''Il trovatore'' as a grand opera. Verdi and Strepponi travelled to Venice in March for the premiere of ''Simon Boccanegra'', which turned out to be "a fiasco" (as Verdi reported, although on the second and third nights, the reception improved considerably).{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|1993|p=355}}

With Strepponi, Verdi went to Naples early in January 1858 to work with Somma on the libretto of the opera ''Gustave III'', which over a year later would become ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]''. By this time, Verdi had begun to write about Strepponi as "my wife" and she was signing her letters as "Giuseppina Verdi".{{sfn|Walker|1962|p=219}} Verdi raged against the stringent requirements of the Neapolitan censor stating: "I'm drowning in a sea of troubles. It's almost certain that the censors will forbid our libretto."{{sfn|Werfel|Stefan|1973|p=207}} With no hope of seeing his ''Gustavo III'' staged as written, he broke his contract. This resulted in litigation and counter-litigation; with the legal issues resolved, Verdi was free to present the libretto and musical outline of ''Gustave III'' to the [[Teatro dell'Opera di Roma|Rome Opera]]. There, the censors demanded further changes; at this point, the opera took the title ''Un ballo in maschera''.{{sfn|Rosselli|2000|pp=116–117}}

Arriving in Sant'Agata in March 1859 Verdi and Strepponi found the nearby city of [[Piacenza]] occupied by about 6,000 Austrian troops who had made it their base, to combat the rise of Italian interest in unification in the Piedmont region. In the ensuing [[Second Italian War of Independence]] the Austrians abandoned the region and began to leave Lombardy, although they remained in control of the Venice region under the terms of the armistice signed at [[Villafranca di Verona|Villafranca]]. Verdi was disgusted at this outcome: "[W]here then is the independence of Italy, so long hoped for and promised?...Venice is not Italian? After so many victories, what an outcome... It is enough to drive one mad" he wrote to Clara Maffei.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|1993|p=394}}

Verdi and Strepponi now decided on marriage; they travelled to [[Collonges-sous-Salève]], a village then part of Piedmont. On 29 August 1859, the couple were married there, with only the coachman who had driven them there and the church bell ringer as witnesses.{{sfn|Rosselli|2000|p=70}} At the end of 1859, Verdi wrote to his friend [[Cesare De Sanctis (businessman)|Cesare De Sanctis]] "[Since completing ''Ballo''] I have not made any more music, I have not seen any more music, I have not thought anymore about music. I don't even know what colour my last opera is, and I almost don't remember it."{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|1993|p=405}} He began to remodel Sant'Agata, which took most of 1860 to complete and on which he continued to work for the next twenty years. This included major work on a square room that became his workroom, his bedroom, and his office.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|1993|pp=412–415}}
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