But neither in precept nor in practice was the great Italian brought to disavow the native genius of his people. That is the great glory of Verdi. For decade after decade he kept pace with his German rival in the march toward truthfulness and variety of expression in the lyric drama; but never did he forget that the first, the elemental, appeal which music makes is through melody. His conception of melody changed as his artistic nature grew and ripened; but song, vocal melody, is as dominant a factor in his first successful opera, “Nabuco,” performed in 1842, as it is in “Falstaff,” which he gave to the world fifty-one years later. Verdi’s music illustrates every step of progress which Italian opera has taken, from the time when Rossini overcame the taste formed by the last masters of the eighteenth century till the advent of the impetuous champions of realism who disputed popularity with him in the closing years of the nineteenth. His ideals when he wrote “Oberto” in 1839 were those of his immediate predecessors, Bellini (bel-lee´-nee) and Donizetti (don-nee-dzet´-tee); but his voice was ruder,--so rude, indeed, as to lead Rossini (ros-see´-nee) to describe him as a “musician with a helmet.” This rudeness was the first expression of his desire for passionate and truthful expression, a desire which at the height of his spontaneous creative powers reached its finest flower in the final trio of “Il Trovatore” and final quartet of “Rigoletto,” two examples of operatic writing which are as good in their way as any that French or German opera has to show. [Illustration: VERDI’S BIRTHPLACE AND HIS HOME] It is no depreciation of the mature and perfect Verdi of “Otello” and “Falstaff” to say that he reached the climax of his melodic inventiveness in “Il Trovatore” (tro-vah-to´-re), “Traviata” (trah-vee-ah´-tah), and “Rigoletto” (ree-go-let´-to), and that “Aïda” (ah-ee´-dah), which is now his most universally admired work, is such because it is a product of his combined melodic inspiration and his marvelous judgment, skill, and taste, developed by study and reflection. The greater charm which “Aïda” exerts now is due as much to the advanced ideals of the public, which Wagner was largely instrumental in creating, as to the refined and deepened sense of dramatic propriety and beauty which Verdi discloses in its melody, harmony, and instrumentation. [Illustration: GIUSEPPE VERDI From a painting by Millicovitz.] [Illustration: LA SCALA OPERA HOUSE Where many of Verdi’s works had their first performance.]