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Article: Verdi Biography Was Long Labor of Love
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 13, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK - On and off for more than 25 years, Mary Jane
Phillips-Matz burrowed through musty records, documents and church
registers with the ardor of a research junkie to find out more than
anyone had ever discovered about the life of Italian opera composer
Giuseppe Verdi.
She tells all in her 941-page biography, Verdi.
She loved every minute of her task.
"I'd rather do research than breathe," she says.
And after living with Verdi for so many years, Phillips-Matz
admired him when it was all over.
"He was a decent, noble, utterly common-sense man," she says.
"He is more dignified and noble than ever has been portrayed. He's
one of the fathers of Italy.
"He was ...