Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi, Giuseppe (1813–1901), Italian opera composer. He rose to fame during the struggle for Italian unification and independence; early operas, such as Nabucco (1842), express these political ideals. By the time of Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853), and La Traviata (1853), he had developed his powerful individual style well beyond the conventions inherited from Gioacchino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini. Don Carlos (1867), Aïda (1871), and the Requiem (1874) honoring the novelist Alessandro Manzoni are works of his maturity. The 2 great Shakespearian operas of Verdi's old age, Otello (1887) and Falstqff (1893), were written to libretti by Arrigo Boito.

See also: Opera.