Clearly, Walt Whitman was an exceedingly sensual man, pouring into all of his work a passion and emotion surpassed by few others. Is it not natural, then, that he would fall in love with one of the most passionate forms of art by one of the most passionate nationalities of composers? For an Italian composer, there is no other way to express the vastness of emotion that gushes forth from them other than to capture it in the opera. For Whitman, likewise, few methods of expression could truly capture his deeply rooted emotion. It seems that he too found such an outlet in the Italian opera, and since he was not a music composer, made it his life-long quest to translate opera and music into his poetry. Without the Italian operas of the 1840's and 50's, Walt Whitman as we know him might not exist, for Whitman owes much of his inspiration to the singers and composers of this art form. Both Italian opera and the poetry of Whitman encapsulate a broad range of emotions, and the former is hardly separable from the latter.
To see the opening curtain again, just click the notes.