Carlo Verdi and Luigia Uttini Remembering Giuseppe Verdi’s Parents

Verdi’s Spinneto

Luigia’s Dream

The cold November afternoon dragged waves of increasingly thick fog towards dusk.

A diaphanous light was reflected in the drops of frost embroidery, as clear as crystal roses.

Luigia, wrapped in the warmth of the big house, finished spinning, a job she had done since childhood with great skill.

The noise of the tavern in the small village of Le Roncole, where her husband Carlo Verdi and brothers-in-law Marco and Giuditta worked, was muffled by the thick walls of the upstairs room, where the work tools were kept.

He also heard the voice of his cousin Gaetano Bianchi, the village tailor, who was a member of the church choir and enjoyed the food at the inn.

It was time to gather for dinner.

A veil of melancholy descended on her beautiful face, but she held back her tears.

Giuseppe , the eldest son, affectionately known as Peppino, had recently left the family and was now living in Busseto at the home of family friend Pietro Michiara to attend school, Gymnasium and, who knows, maybe even study music, the great passion by which he was magically enchanted.

It was not easy to get used to the distance of the child.

He was only ten years old and Luigia and Carlo made such a great sacrifice in order to offer him a better future.

Intelligent and curious, he would often run into the fields that stretched as far as the eye could see around the house and meet the weary farmers to whom he generously brought food and drink. He also helped with small domestic tasks and in the tavern, but most of his time was devoted to music, for which he was particularly gifted, and to practising on the spinet, the most welcome gift, acquired with part of his maternal grandfather’s fortune.

Sometimes he would invite his friend Giovanni Biazzi, who was studying music in Parma and spending his holidays in the countryside at Roncole, to his home. Woe betide them when they were immersed in reading and commenting on so many sheets of music!

Peppino had also learned to play the organ by heart from Don Pietro Baistrocchi, organist and teacher of the village children.

Luigia was proud to go and listen to her son in the nearby church of St. Michael the Archangel carrying her youngest daughter Giuseppa in her arms. He seemed at times to be immersed in a fantasy world populated by the characters in the stories he read at school and at catechism, and to the delight of his small audience he became a prince, a leader, a warrior and also conducted choral songs of his own composition.

Pietro had been so kind when he agreed to take him in; he would be well looked after and safe within the city walls of Busseto, a short walk from the school. As well as looking after his land, which adjoined that of Carlo, Pietro was a member of the Council of Elders of the Municipality of Busseto and, due to his numerous commitments, his continuous presence in the town was necessary.

Peppino also wanted to take the spinet with him.

Only his patience could withstand this child who was constantly practising with the instrument.

In the Michiara’s country house lived Annunziata, Pietro’s wife, with an army of children. He recounted that Annunziata was from Frassinara, the area of great forests near Parma, the capital of the Duchy, where the legendary Duchess Maria Luigia resided, and that he was born at Villa Caterina in the small village of Castellina di Soragna. The countryside there was so beautiful, with its rows of mulberry trees, vines, elms, plane trees, lime trees, fruit trees, and green meadows that changed colour with the scent of the seasons.

Luigia, absorbed in her thoughts, suddenly saw the clear images of her childhood appear at “Palta Vecchia”, a tavern and tobacco shop located in “Contradone” in Saliceto di Cadeo, the small village where she was born.

He soon learned to spin while his father Carlo, mother Angela, brothers and sisters looked after the many patrons.

Women came to do their shopping, passers-by stopped to rest and refresh themselves, coachmen dropped off their mail, and sometimes there were travelling musicians.

Part of the family then moved to Busseto to run the ‘Osteria dell’Angelo’, but a few years later the Uttini family returned to Saliceto.

In the meantime Luigia had met Carlo Verdi, a young man who helped his widowed mother to support the family. He too was of Piacenza origin, from Sant’Agata, but he now lived in Roncole and ran an inn, as well as cultivating land. After a short engagement they got married in Busseto  in the Oratory of Santa Maria Annunziata on a cold January day.

Luigia had thus become part of the Verdi family where her mother-in-law Francesca, her brothers-in-law and her job as a spinner awaited her.

Peppino arrived eight years later, by which time she and Carlo had resigned themselves to participating only as godparents in the christenings of the numerous children of relatives and friends. When the child was just one year old, the courageous mother, fearing for her baby’s life, had to take refuge in the tower of the bell tower of the nearby church of San Michele Arcangelo to escape the Russian and Austrian troops who, after the Napoleonic defeat, had retaken Parma, leaving plunder and ruin behind.

Luigia had high hopes for her reserved and somewhat grumpy son, who had now taken the place of Pietro Baistrocchi and who came home every Sunday to play the organ in the Roncole church, thus contributing to her livelihood in the city. He nimbly climbed up the wooden ladder leading to the instrument and when he placed his hands on the keyboard the sounds echoed like in a cathedral. This was followed by Sunday lunch during which they listened to stories about their new life in Busseto.

Sometimes Luigia was disturbed by thoughts that she kept to herself. Perhaps the son, who was used to the simplicity and rigour of his deeply religious and clerical family, preferred the new environment and the people who belonged to such a different world. Perhaps, without showing it, he was angry with his parents because he missed them. Or maybe they were just a mother’s fears. And so she always prepared good food for him to take with him so that he would not forget the smells and tastes of his family .

But Luigia was certain that the time would come when Peppino, who had become rich and famous, would build a large and comfortable house near his own so that his parents would still be there, perhaps to look after his grandchildren…

He smiled happily and awoke as if from a dream.

As she descended the red-brick staircase to the kitchen, she thought she heard a rustling sound as her thoughts flew far into the future…….