Wagner may always be more memorable due to his distinctive opinions and personality through and beyond music, but Verdi represented a contemporary so well-matched that together the duo has taken high rank in musical history. This, however, should not prompt modern audiences to assume the two composer are the same, as their operas show distinctive features as well. While the two had similar endpoints with their operatic careers, the time before that showed key differences such selectiveness with the libretti and setting of the operas, their own goals for their work, and where they sourced their inspiration from.
While Wagner and Verdi felt compelled to control the various representations of their work, they chose varying ways to accomplish that
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The two composers sought to control every aspect possible of their work from inception to stage, and when things began to change around them, they would rather refine their own craft than attempt to dip into sensationalism. When French and German productions found their way into Italy and audience tastes began to shift, Verdi shied away from further public production, and instant focused on his own passions in his private work. This is not to say that the development and exploration in the Romantic era was a negative, in fact it provided a large sum of the foundations for music today with its focus on storytelling, emotion, and creativity. Verdi and Wagner found their own specialties and kept to them. Their respective senses of humor was not lost on them through their seriousness and intense study, as evidenced by their final works. Wagner’s Parsifal (1878. 1882) and Verdi’s Falstaff (1893) demonstrated senses of self-reflection and awareness of the two composers’ respective careers. With their varying styles and goals in composing operas, Verdi and Wagner provided unique designs for Italian and German opera, while simultaneously creating careers that looking back now, seem so