On this site, you will find links to manuscripts, unique images, archival repositories and their finding aids, sound recordings, and more. Explore as much as your time permits. Start with the four “quantitative interrogatives”: who? what? when? where? Use these questions to guide your discovery.
— Dr. Melanie Zeck
When Giuseppe Verdi died in 1901, he was mourned by loyal fans around the world, especially by Italians who had moved across the Atlantic Ocean and settled in the United States. In San Francisco, California, for example, a memorial concert was held at the local Tivoli Opera House, where four excerpts from Verdi’s on Messa da Requiem were performed, including “Recordare” and “Ingemisco” (both of which are in Movement 2), “Domine Jesu,” and “Lux Aeterna,” In the years between Verdi’s death and the conclusion of WWI, excerpts from several of his operas were recorded on the Victor and Columbia record labels, as was “Ingemisco,” which was performed by the famous tenor Enrico Caruso for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1915. Like Verdi, Caruso was also quite popular along both American coasts, including among Italian Americans in smaller communities, such as Monterey, California, whose local newspaper announced Caruso’s death on the front page. In New York City, the Metropolitan Opera Company sponsored a memorial concert for the beloved tenor, at which two excerpts from Verdi’s Requiem—the Introit and Kyrie (Movement 1)—were performed. At a similar event in Chicago, 15,000 people were treated to a performance of “Ingemisco” by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia Company artists.
Music has been and continues to be very important to Italian Americans. Today, you can learn more about the traditional cultural expression of Italian Americans by visiting the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and exploring its archival collections. Despite the word “American” in its title, the American Folklife Center has ethnographical materials in over 500 languages, documenting cultural expression around the world. Learn how to make the most of your visit to the American Folklife Center.
Link: Italian Americans in the West Project
Citation: Italian Americans in the West collection (AFC 1989/022), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Description: The Italian Americans in the West Project collection contains the sound recordings, photographs, video recordings, fieldnotes, publications, ephemera, and accompanying manuscript materials associated with the American Folklife Center’s Italian Americans in the West project. Field research was conducted from 1989 through 1991 and was directed by American Folklife Center staff. During the course of the field research, teams of folklife researchers explored the ways Italian Americans have defined their identity as a cultural group in the past and present. Subject areas included public and private aspects of expression, foodways, occupations, festivals, and vernacular architecture. Multiple research sites, including Monterey and San Francisco, California, afforded the opportunity to map cultural intersections of ethnic and regional history.
Citation: Light, Ken. Saints Peter and Paul Church; Procession by Society Maria SS del Lume, San Francisco, California. San Francisco California United States, 1989. San Francisco, California, October 1. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1989022_kl_b179/.
Description: These images document elements of a religious procession by members of the Society Maria s.s. del Lume that followed a Mass at Saint Peter and Paul Church, San Francisco.
Link: Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection
Citation: Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collection (AFC 1981/004), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Description: The Chicago Ethnic Arts Project survey was conducted in 1977 by the American Folklife Center at the request of the Illinois Arts Council to assess and document the status of ethnic art traditions in more than twenty ethnic communities in Chicago, and was jointly sponsored by both organizations.
The collection consists of approximately 344 sound recordings, 14,141 photographs, 269 folders of manuscript materials, 2 video recordings, publications, ephemera, administrative files, and field notes produced and collected during the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project field survey from 1976-1981. This collection contains recordings of Italian button accordion music and numerous interviews with Italian Americans in Chicago.
Other divisions at the Library of Congress hold materials related to Giuseppe Verdi and Enrico Caruso.
Consider exploring all of the opera resources available through the Library of Congress’s Performing Arts Reading Room, which is the access point for the vast and diverse collections in the custody of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. For example, The Moldenhauer Archives contains an autograph manuscript of Verdi’s Romanza (from his opera Attila).
Link: The Moldenhauer Archives – The Rosaleen Moldenhauer Memorial
Citation: Moldenhauer Archives at the Library of Congress, Music Division, Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division has several images related to Giuseppe Verdi, including:
The Library of Congress’s Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room offers “Chronicling America”—which provides free access to millions of historic American newspaper pages published through 1963. This research guide will take you to the articles about Enrico Caruso’s performing tours of the United States.
Through the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox, you can listen to Enrico Caruso’s performance of “Ingemisco” and to hundreds of recordings of music by Verdi.
If you’ve enjoyed National Philharmonic and Cantate’s performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, consider using the resources at the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center to learn more about the ways Italian and Italian American culture continues to flourish. Then, broaden your opera knowledge by consulting a variety of resources held throughout the Library of Congress.
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