(Fortunino Francesco), Italian opera composer whose genius for dramatic, lyric, and tragic stage music has made him a perennial favorite of opera enthusiasts;b. Le Roncole, near Busseto, Duchy of Parma, Oct. 9, 1813;d. Milan, Jan. 27, 1901. Verdi's father ran a tavern, and it was there that the young musician first heard music. A local organist, Pietro Baistrocchi, noticed his love of musical sound and took him on as a pupil. When Baistrocchi died, Verdi, still a young child, took over some of his duties at the KEYBOARD. His father sent him to Busseto for further training. There he began academic studies and also took music lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, director of the municipal music school.

At the age of 18 Verdi became a resident in the home of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and patron of music. Barezzi supplied him with enough funds so that he could go to Milan for serious study. Surprisingly, in view of Verdi's future greatness, he failed to pass an entrance examination to the Milan Conservatory. The registrar, Francesco Basili, reported that Verdi's piano technique was inadequate and that in composition he lacked technical knowledge. Verdi then turned to Vincenzo Lavigna, an excellent musician, for private lessons and worked industriously to master COUNTERPOINT, CANON, and FUGUE.

In 1834 Verdi applied for the post of maestro di musica in Busseto, and after passing his examination received the desired appointment. In 1836 he married a daughter of his patron, Barezzi. Tragedy intervened when their two infant children died, and his wife succumbed in 1840. Verdi deeply mourned his loss, but he found solace in music.

In 1838 Verdi completed his first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio. A year later, he moved to Milan. He submitted the score of Oberto to the directorship of La Scala. It was accepted for performance, which took place that year, with satisfactory success. He was now under contract to write more operas for that renowned theater. His comic opera Un giorno di regno was performed at La Scala in 1840, but it was not successful.

Somewhat downhearted at this reverse, Verdi began composition of an opera, Nabucodonosor (the title was later abbreviated to Nabucco). It was staged at La Scala in 1842, scoring considerable success. Giuseppina Strepponi (b. Lodi, Sept. 8, 1815; d. Sant' Agata, near Busseto, Nov. 14, 1897), a prominent SOPRANO, created the leading female role of Abigaille. Although she was in vocal decline, Strepponi became a great favorite of Verdi's.

Nabucco was followed by another successful opera on a historic subject, I Lombardi alla prima Crociata, produced at La Scala in 1843. The next opera was Ernani, after Victor Hugo's drama on the life of a revolutionary outlaw. The subject suited the rise of national spirit, and its 1844 production in Venice won great acclaim. Not so popular were Verdi's succeeding operas through 1846.

In 1847 Verdi produced in Florence his first Shakespearean opera, Macbeth. In the same year he received a commission to write an opera for London. The result was I Masnadieri, based on Friedrich von Schiller's drama Die Räuber. It was produced at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1847, with JENNY LIND in the leading female role.

A commission from Paris followed, for which Verdi revised his opera I Lombardi alla prima Crociata in a French version, renamed Jerusalem. It was produced at the Paris Opéra in 1847, followed by the Italian production at La Scala in 1850. This was one of several operas by him and other Italian composers where mistaken identity was the chief dramatic device.

In 1848 Verdi produced his opera Il Corsaro, after Lord Byron's poem The Corsair. There followed La battaglia di Legnano, celebrating the defeat of the armies of Barbarossa by the Lombards in 1176. Its premiere took place in Rome in 1849, but Verdi was forced to change names and places so as not to offend the central European powers that dominated Italy. Two subsequent operas were not successful.

Verdi's great triumph came in 1851 with the production of Rigoletto, fashioned after Victor Hugo's drama Le Roi s'amuse. It was performed for the first time at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 1851 and brought Verdi lasting fame, entering the repertoire of opera houses around the world. The ARIA of the libidinous duke, La donna e mobile, became one of the most popular operatic tunes throughout Europe.

This success was followed by even greater acclaim with the productions in 1853 of Il Trovatore in Rome and La Traviata in Venice. Both captivated world audiences without diminution of their melodramatic effect on succeeding generations in Europe and America—despite the absurdity of the action represented on the stage. Il Trovatore resorts to the common device of unrecognized identities of close relatives, while La Traviata strains credulity when the lead soprano sings enchantingly and at great length despite her struggle with terminal consumption.

Another commission from Paris resulted in Verdi's first French opera, Les Vêpres siciliennes, after a LIBRETTO by Scribe to GAETANO DONIZETTI'S unfinished opera Le Duc d'Albe. The action deals with the medieval slaughter of the French occupation army in Sicily by local patriots. Despite the offensiveness of the subject to French patriots, the opera was given successfully in Paris in 1855.

Verdi's next opera, Simone Boccanegra, was produced at the Teatro La Fenice in 1857. This was followed by Un ballo in maschera, staged in Rome in 1859, based on the original LIBRETTO written by Scribe for Daniel-François-Esprit Auber' s opera Gustave III. It is based on the story of the assassination of King Gustave III of Sweden in 1792. But the censors would not permit the murder of a king to be shown on the stage, and Verdi was compelled to transfer the scene of action.

Unexpectedly, Verdi became a factor in the political struggle for the independence of Italy. The symbol of the nationalist movement was Vittorio Emanuele, the future king of Italy. Demonstrators painted the name of Verdi in capital letters, separated by punctuation, on fences and walls of Italian towns (V.E.R.D.I., the initials of Vittorio Emanuele, Re D'Italia), and the cry "Viva Verdi!" became code for "Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia!"

In 1861 the composer received a commission to write an opera for the Imperial Opera of St. Petersburg. He selected the mystical subject La forza del destino. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg in 1862, and Verdi made a special trip to attend. He then wrote an opera to a French text, Don Carlos, after Schiller's famous drama. It was first heard at the Paris Opéra in 1867, with numerous cuts, not restored until a century had elapsed after the initial production. (Verdi wrote three versions in all, none of which contain all the music he wrote for the opera.)

In June 1870 Verdi received a contract to write a new work for Cairo, where Rigoletto had been performed a year before. The terms were most generous, with a guarantee of 150,000 francs for the Egyptian rights alone. The opera, based on life in ancient Egypt, was Aida. The original libretto was in French, and Antonio Ghislanzoni prepared the Italian text. It had its premiere in Cairo on Christmas Eve 1871, with great pomp and circumstance. Verdi stubbornly refused to attend despite persuasion by a number of influential Italian musicians and statesmen. He declared that a composer's job was to supply music, not to attend performances. The success of Aida exceeded all expectations. The production was hailed as a world event, and the work itself became one of the most famous in opera history.

After GIOACCHINO ROSSINI'S death in 1868, Verdi conceived the idea of honoring his memory by a collective composition of a REQUIEM, to which several Italian composers would contribute a movement each. Verdi reserved the last section, Libera me, for himself. He completed the score in 1869, but it was never performed in its original form. The death of the famous Italian poet Alessandro Manzoni in 1873 led him to write his great Messa da Requiem. This became known simply as the Manzoni Requiem, and he incorporated in it the section originally composed for Rossini. The Requiem received its premiere on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death, in Milan. It was criticized as being too operatic for a religious work, but it remained in musical annals as a masterpiece.

After a lapse of some 13 years of rural retirement, Verdi turned once more to Shakespeare. The result this time was Otello, its libretto by Arrigo Boito, a master poet and composer who rendered Shakespeare's lines into Italian with extraordinary feeling. It received its premiere at La Scala in 1887. Verdi was 79 years old when he wrote yet another Shakespearean opera, Falstaff, also to a libretto by Boito, who used materials from The Merry Wives of Windsor and the two parts of Henry IV. Falstaff was performed for the first time at La Scala in 1893. The score reveals Verdi's genius for subtle comedy coupled with melodic invention of the highest order.

Verdi's last composition was a group of sacred choruses—Ave Maria, Laudi alla Vergine Maria, Stabat Mater, and Te Deum—published in 1898 as Four pezzi sacri. In the Ave Maria, Verdi made use of the so-called SCALA ENIGMATICA.

Innumerable honors were bestowed upon Verdi. In 1864 he was elected to membership in the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he filled the vacancy made by the death of GIACOMO MEYERBEER. In 1875 he was nominated a senator to the Italian parliament. Following the premiere of Falstaff, the king of Italy wished to make him Marchese di Busseto, but he declined the honor. After the death of Strepponi in 1897, he founded in Milan the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a home for aged musicians. For its maintenance, he set aside 2.5 million lire.

In January 1901, Verdi suffered a massive stroke. He died six days later at the age of 87.

Historic evaluation of Verdi's music changed several times after his death. When the opera world was dominated by RICHARD WAGNER and his followers, Verdi was denigrated as a purveyor of "barrel-organ music." However, when Wagner in turn fell out of favor, modern composers, music historians, and academic theoreticians discovered unexpected attractions in the flowing Verdian melodies, easily modulating harmonies, and stimulating symmetric rhythms.