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It is believed that Piave had a way of allowing Verdi to "let his hair down" (Berger 2000) as he was often much more uptight around others. They did develop a solid working relationship and they were even known for carousing around Venice (2000) (a city that is known for carousing). Their relationship would span two decades, however, this working relationship, which sometimes involved carousing, was not necessarily equal when the two were in the theatre.
The relationship between composer and librettist in the theatre was, in general, known as one that was not one of equals and this is especially true in the relationship between Verdi and Piave. In the story of Giuseppe Verdi: oberto to un ballo in maschera by Baldini, d'Amico, and Parker (1980), the authors state that the "composer completely dominates and enslaves the librettist, who becomes scarcely more than an instrument in his hands." In the book the complete operas of Verdi, Osborne (1977) writes that "in the composer-librettist relationship with Verdi, Piave's role…was a completely subservient one."
Verdi was not quite sure of Piave's abilities at the beginning of their relationship and this made the creative relationship between the two rather tumultuous (Opera Company of Philadelphia Education Department 2007). Verdi harassed Piave relentlessly because of this and is known to often have Piave's work revised by others. However, this did not change how Piave worked for Verdi. He worked "with dog-like devotion, and the two remained good friends. He was often Verdi's unofficial collaborator and advisor on librettos...
It is interesting to note that Piave did work as a librettist for other composers, yet his non-Verdi librettos seem to pale in comparison to those that were written for Verdi, which signifies that the did indeed have a working creative relationship, even if Verdi was difficult to work with. There was more dramatic tension in the librettos that Piave created for Verdi. "He would take Verdi's prose scenarios and transform the dramatic situations into verse. Verdi insisted on brevity; Piave responded accordingly" (2007). Piave had the correct instincts, both poetically speaking and dramatically speaking, to go along with Verdi's musical needs (2007).
In Verdi in the age of Italian romanticism, Kimbell (1985) describes Piave as a docile and amenable man and before meeting Verdi he was unbeknownst to the power that Verdi had and how he easily was able to put people under his spell.
References
Baldini, Gabriele., d'Amico, Fedele., & Parker, Robert. (1980). The story of Giuseppe Verdi:
oberto to un ballo in maschera. Cambridge University Press.
Berger, William. (2000). Verdi with a vengeance: an energetic guide to the life and complete works of the king of opera. Vintage; 1st edition.
Kimbell, David R.B. (1985). Verdi in the age of Italian romanticism. Cambridge University
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