Riding the Bus of Our Life--a Muse

                                                   

                                    Reverse Psychology--Critics and Giuseppe Verdi 

When my grandchildren were young, I took them  to see the  wonderful, movie, Ratatouille.  There's a fearsome food critic in it with the power of damaging a restaurant's reputation.

There are critics for just about everything--movie critics, show critics, opera critics, restaurant critics.  If you believe everything they say, you may miss some fine entertainment or a great meal.  Critics have probably been around the opera since it's beginnings in the 17^th century. We go back to the 19^th century for this story. 

For consistent composing on the highest level, plotting, character, suspense, and entertainment, Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi was tops. Verdi didn't write for snobs. He wrote his operas for regular, down-to-earth people. He once said: "From the beginning, my best friends have been the common people."

The story goes that a famous critic came to call on Verdi just as the composer was finishing up his masterpiece Il Trovatore. Verdi sat down at the piano and played some of the music from the opera. "What do you think?" he asked. "That's terrible!" the critic replied. "Well, what about this?" Verdi asked, playing another number. "That's even worse!" shuddered the critic. "All right, just one more." And Verdi played the "Anvil Chorus" with an impassioned delivery. "Oh my goodness!  Absolutely horrible!" cried the critic, covering his ears.

Verdi, smiling broadly, got up from the piano and threw his arms around the critic. "Thank-you, thank-you so much!" he cried, "I've been writing an opera for the common people of Italy. If you, the eminent and refined critic had liked it, then nobody else would have. But if you hate it, that means the whole world will love it!"  And they did! 

Now that's reverse psychology!