Verdi’s iron character was forged in this plain landscape. Seen by his boyhood
companions as diffident and reticent, he disliked noisy games and stayed
close to home. His closest friend in childhood was his sister Giuseppa, a
seamstress who died in 1833. In Verdi’s parish and hundreds like it, church
music rang out for religious holidays, marriages, and funerals. Baptisms,
saint’s-day festivities, and fairs brought community dinners and secular
music, most of it offered by itinerant musicians and bands of dedicated
amateurs, many of whom belonged to local musical societies. Improvised
programs were common, and lively concerts on summer evenings always
ended with dancing
