How did Giuseppe Verdi compose?

A picture is worth a thousand words

http://www.omifacsimiles.com/brochures/verditrav.html

The matter is so subjective that anything goes.

It varies from person to person: personally, I prefer to write everything down immediately and then eventually make a piano reduction and modify it if necessary... there are those who write directly on the computer, etc.

As for the piano reduction, given the little time available, I assume it would have been done by a student as the final score emerged, but the frequent corrections found in Verdi's manuscripts suggest that he did everything himself, starting from the piano to arrive at the orchestra once everything was in order.

... maybe by reading the letters one could know more

If you obtain the autograph sketch of Rigoletto (which has been printed in facsimile by Arnaldo Forni) and compare it with the score, perhaps you can understand many things; for example, you find all the vocal parts and notes for the orchestra.

To give an example, in "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" there is the vocal line, the model of an accompaniment measure every time the formula changes, the bass, and the interventions of the chorus.

Through

aaa wrote:

An image is worth more than a thousand words

http://www.omifacsim.../verditrav.html

for example, one can understand that in the first measure the toast was in C major