Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him.
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887.
Arrigo Boito was an Italian librettist, composer, poet and critic whose only completed opera was Mefistofele. Among the operas for which he wrote the libretti are Giuseppe Verdi's monumental last two operas Otello and Falstaff as well as Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda.
Clelia Maria Giuseppa (Giuseppina) Strepponi was a nineteenth-century Italian operatic soprano of great renown and the second wife of composer Giuseppe Verdi.
Giulio Ricordi was an Italian editor and musician who joined the family firm, the Casa Ricordi music publishing house, in 1863, then run by his father, Tito, the son of the company's founder Giovanni Ricordi. Upon his father's death in 1888, Giulio became the head of the company until his death.
Camillo Boito was an Italian architect and engineer, and a noted art critic, art historian and novelist.
Teresa Stolz was a Czech spinto soprano, for long a resident in Italy, who was associated with significant performances of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, some with his supervision including Aida in the first performance in Italy, and the soprano part in his Requiem. She was his companion from 1897.
House of Ricordi is a 1954 French-Italian historical biographical melodrama film based on the early history of the Italian music publishing house Casa Ricordi. It is directed by Carmine Gallone and stars Märta Torén, Marcello Mastroianni and Micheline Presle. The Ricordi family's interactions with many of the great composers of the nineteenth century are portrayed. The film's sets were designed by Mario Chiari. It was shot at the Cinecittà Studios and on location in Milan, Paris and Rome.
Carlo Guasco was a celebrated Italian operatic tenor who sang in Italian and other European opera houses from 1837 to 1853. Although he sang in many world premieres, he is most remembered today for having created the leading tenor roles in Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Ernani, and Attila.
After Aida is a 1985 play-with-music by Julian Mitchell. It is about Giuseppe Verdi, and the pressure put upon him after his attempt to retire from composing. Continued insistent prodding from his friends eventually results in one of his greatest masterpieces, the opera Otello, which premiered in 1887.
Sara Scuderi was an Italian opera singer. She sang widely in Italy and Europe, having had a seven-year contract at La Scala, "where she received high praise for her interpretations of the most well-known operas".
Il Bacio di Tosca is a 1984 film directed by Daniel Schmid, a documentary of life in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti of Milan, the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. The New York Times review called it "Bravissimo!"
Carlo Broccardi (1886–1953) was an Italian operatic tenor who had an active international career during the first third of the 20th century. He notably sang for the first complete recordings of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto and Giacomo Puccini's Tosca ; both for His Master's Voice. He also made recordings for the Fonografia Nazionale and Kalliope record labels.
The Life of Verdi is a 1982 Italian-language biographical television miniseries directed by Renato Castellani dramatizing the life of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Castellani also co-wrote the original script with Leonardo Benvenuti and Piero De Bernardi. The English version was written by Gene Luotto and narrated by Burt Lancaster. The miniseries first aired in 1982, and was made available on DVD in 2003.
Risorgimento! is an opera in one act by Lorenzo Ferrero set to an Italian-language libretto by Dario Oliveri, based on a scenario by the composer. It was completed in 2010 and first performed at the Teatro Comunale Modena on 26 March 2011.
Gemma Bosini was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active international performance career in 1909–1930. She is especially associated with the role of Alice Ford in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff, a role which she performed more than 400 times on stage during her career. She is also remembered for being the first soprano to record the role of Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La boheme in 1917. She also made complete recordings of Gounod's Faust and Lehar's The Merry Widow. After retiring from performance in 1930, she devoted herself to teaching singing and managing the career of her husband, baritone Mariano Stabile.
Feliciano Cristoforo Bartolomeo Strepponi was an Italian composer and conductor. He was born in Lodi and died in Trieste at the age of 38. Amongst his compositions were seven operas which had a modest success in their day. The last one, L'Ullà di Bassora, premiered at La Scala in 1831. He was the father and first teacher of the opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi who later became the second wife of Giuseppe Verdi.
Giuseppe Gallignani was an Italian composer, conductor and music teacher.
Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi is an 1886 pastel portrait of Giuseppe Verdi by Giovanni Boldini, now in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, in Rome.
Maddalena Mariani Masi, sometimes written Maddalena Mariani-Masi, was an Italian soprano and voice teacher. She created the title role of Ponchielli's La Gioconda in 1876 at La Scala in Milan, and appeared in the role at several Italian theatres and the Liceu in Barcelona. She also frequently appeared as Marguerite in Boito's Mefistofele.
