The Aria Never Ends in the Opera That’s Casa Verdi
Retired singers, musicians and conductors find a home in Milan, Italy, where a zest for music works like a fountain of youth
Music works like a fountain of youth for the residents of Casa Verdi, a home for retired singers, musicians and conductors in Milan. The Venetian-style palazzo was built by Giuseppe Verdi, the great 19th-century Italian composer, who said he wanted a beautiful place "for musicians less fortunate than I" to spend their last days. But Casa Verdi is a rest home where the residents are much too busy to rest, a retirement haven where hardly anyone is retiring. The themes of great opera flourish at Casa Verdi love, death, passion, jealousy, betrayal, more jealousy, tragedy, tears and triumph. Verdi, composer of Aida, La Traviata, Il Trovatore and Rigoletto, would be pleased.