Re: Verdi and Jewish music

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Umm, it's MUCH more likely that the reverse is true, i.e., that the 
cheerfully eclectic Sephardim of the day lifted the Verdi melody and set 
their own words to it. Though I have heard various whacked out theories 
that he was on vacation someplace and learned the melody from an obscure of 
local Sephardim, etc., etc.

J

At 12:03 PM 2/11/00 -0800, you wrote:
>This is fascinating, as Verdi's "Addio, del passato" from LA TRAVIATA also 
>resembles, and may well (perhaps consciously) borrow from, a Jewish 
>melody, namely the Ladino standard "Adio, querida."
>
>I wonder what (evidently) so attracted Verdi to Jewish music.
>
>
>>From: Agustin(dot)Fernandez (at) newcastle(dot)ac(dot)uk
>
>>Has Robert Wiener had a full  answer to his question on Shulamis
>>yet? I certainly don't have a full answer, but Mark Slobin mentions
>>another song in page 190 of Tenement Songs: the Popular Music of the
>>Jewish Immigrants (University of Illinois Press, 1982).
>>
>>This song, Slobin informs us, is entitled 'Ot der brunen, ot der'. He
>>goes on to show similarities between this tune and 'Ah. fors'e lui'
>>from Verdi's  La traviata. However, the tune he quotes next to
>>the Verdi is confusingly titled 'The Oath' and not 'The Well' or
>>anything that may resemble what we are told the Yiddish title means.
>>I leave those who know Yiddish, or the plot of Shulamis, or both, to
>>clarify this inconsistency.
>>
>>Agustín
>>
>>
>>



Joel Bresler
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