Giuseppe Verdi based three of his operas on plays by Shakespeare – two of which, Otello and Falstaff, are regularly listed among his greatest achievements. These two were written at the end of his life after a long absence from the stage and completed his progression to through-composed operas. Both have carefully wrought librettos where words, music and actions flow continuously. Macbeth was an early opera but had some innovative music and moved further away from the bel canto formula of the early 19th century. In this book, Wills compares the lives and works of Shakespeare and Verdi, noting some similarities – both were far removed from the Romantic idea of the solitary genius composing his works alone – they cut and changed their ideas in collaboration with actors or singers and librettists. Both were involved in multiple roles in the theater and had to deal with the censors which also affected their compositions.

There is much more information about Verdi’s work – some of the information on Shakespeare is conjecture. The extensive documentation of Verdi’s operas includes letters between him and his librettist, Arrigo Boito, or his publisher Ricordi, recollections by others and criticism of the performances. For all three plays and operas, Wills notes the first performers (presumed for Shakespeare), compares various topics between the play and opera and analyzes the text and music. He situates both creations in the context. Though I’ve read Shakespeare’s plays and books on him, it has mostly been analysis of the works, comparisons to his source material or speculation about the meaning of words. Wills depicts the theatrical environment – the fact that it was the actors’ company that owned the plays and how plays would be composed for a specific troupe with doubling or trebling of parts. The shortage of boy actors to play female parts is a major concern. Verdi had a similar concern with singers – often they could be forced on him and he would have to make changes in the music to suit vocal capabilities or singer demands. In his later operas, he had the standing to be a bit dictatorial about who he wanted but not everyone was ideal.

In Macbeth, Wills contrasts the diabolism of Shakespeare to Verdi’s and notes the different trajectories of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the play and opera. It was interesting – while equivocation is often mentioned in regard to Macbeth, I hadn’t heard about the relationship to the Gunpowder Plot. The demonic aspects on Verdi perhaps aren’t quite a product of 19th c Romanticism though. Lady Macbeth in the play starts out the more determined but all sorts of little concerns weigh on her until her end where Wills finds some redemption. There’s none for her husband, who backs horrified into the murder but then gradually develops a cold ruthlessness. Verdi has some wonderful music for her – another of his bel-canto-on-steroids soprano roles – but in the opera she comes across as a vicious villain until her sleepwalking scene.

In the section on Otello, Wills has a wonderful chapter on the collaboration of Verdi and Boito. Initially, it seemed like an odd collaboration as Boito was associated with the anti-Verdi Scapigliati group but they had a number of acquaintances in common and over the years they became friendly. Boito was instrumental in persuading Verdi to come out of retirement and was a true collaborator. Letters between them show a warm personal relationship with inside jokes and a high level of productivity and excitement. But there was an obstacle the pair had to overcome – the popularity of Rossini’s Otello. Wills’ descriptions did make me want to see the Rossini, which has fallen out of favor today. He compares the play and opera – the Verdi is well-known for chopping the first act and Wills shows the ways in which Otello’s early cool command was worked into the rest of the plot. Shakespeare’s play is often criticized for lacking the weighty themes of his other major tragedies. However, Wills emphasizes that the play is not just a domestic tragedy but a conflict between Venice and order, embodied in Otello, and chaos. Iago’s myriad but inadequate motives are part of his fascination in the play – in the opera, his reason is established in the famous Credo where he claims to serve an evil god. This would seem to reduce him to a stock villain but Wills finds a sort of existential nihilism in his words and actions.

Falstaff is an anomaly in Verdi’s output – a bright comedy in a sea of tragedies. Boito adapted The Merry Wives of Windsor but added some of the material from Henry IV. Various musical pieces featuring Falstaff are categorized by Wills into to types – those who present Falstaff as a buffoon or those who look back on him with a wistful Jolly Olde England nostalgia. Wills argues that Verdi’s Falstaff has some dignity and shouldn’t be played as a buffoon though he often is. The opera is through-composed with light, skittering music, constantly changing in tempo and mood. Verdi refuses to repeat his melodies and there is a notable dearth of arias – Fenton’s love song is interrupted twice. Wills traces the inflation of the pompous Falstaff, his deflation by the women’s tricks and the sprinkling here and there of Fenton and Nannetta’s love scenes. The final forest and fairies scene ends with forgiveness and happy resolutions, possibly referencing As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This is a fascinating and informative book though one should have some interest in opera since there’s a lot of musical analysis. Occasionally, the author would repeat himself and often I would be a bit surprised at the end of the chapter – I would not had minded more of the musical analysis. But Wills probably did not mean for the book to be exhaustive – more to provide context and insight and make you want to go listen to the operas, which I did. Recommended. ( )

Garry Wills displays his intellectual versatility with Verdi's Shakespeare: Men of the Theater (Viking, 2011). Opening the book with "Verdi adored Shakespeare," Wills explores the three operas Verdi wrote which draw on the Bard's works (Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff), and briefly discusses other Shakespeare plays that the composer considered working with as well.

The key point of the book is contained in the subtitle: "Men of the Theater." Wills compares the writing careers of the two main, noting that both were highly productive (sometimes writing two major pieces in a year along with other duties), and that both were very much involved with the performances of their works at every stage.

Wills points out in his introduction that both Shakespeare and Verdi were writing originally not for all time, but for the very specific circumstances existing at the time. Certain actors and singers were available for certain roles, so the plays and operas had to be tailored to fit. Today we think of actors "taking on" Shakespeare's major parts and fitting themselves to the play - but as Wills notes (he's not the first to do this, to be sure), originally the plays (and, in turn, Verdi's operas) were written with rather the reverse purpose in mind (he notes that Shakespeare's famous "Exit, pursued by a bear" direction in The Winter's Tale worked because the troupe had a young polar bear handy).

For each of the three plays/operas, Wills examines the particular actors and singers Shakespeare and Verdi had in mind for the roles (this involves some deduction and guesswork for the former, but Verdi's correspondence assists greatly with the process), and explores how the writers shaped the parts to the strengths of their performers.

Captivating, I thought. I wish he'd added a concluding essay following the three sections on the plays, though. ( )