Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito (February 4, 1842 - June 10, 1918) was an Italian poet, novelist and composer, best known today for his opera libretti and his own opera, Mefistofele.
Born in Padua, Boito studied music at the Milan Conservatoire. The premiere of his only finished opera, Mefistofele, based on Goethe's Faust, came in 1868. The premiere was badly received, but Boito's revised version was a great success, and it is still frequently performed and recorded today. Other than this work, Boito wrote very little music, completing but later destroying another opera, Ero e Leandro, and leaving a further opera, Nerone, incomplete at his death. Mefistofele is the only work of his performed with any regularity today.
As well as writing the libretti for his own operas, Boito wrote them for other composers, the most notable examples being for Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff and Otello, and Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda.
Boito was director of the Parma Conservatoire from 1889 to 1897. He died in Milan.
Referenced By
10 June | 10th June | 1842 | 1842 in literature | 1918 | 1918 in literature | 4 February | 4th February | Beniamino Gigli | Diabolical pact | Falstaff | Falstaff (opera) | Famous Operas | Faust | Faust (movie) | February 4 | February 4th | Giovanni Bottesini | Giuseppe Verdi Compositions | Italian composer | June 10 | June 10th | List of Italian composers | List of Italians | List of classical composers | List of classical music composers | List of famous Italian people | List of famous Italians | List of famous operas | List of opera composers | List of operas | List of people by name: BO | List of people by name: Bo-Bp-Bq | List of people by name: Bp | List of people by name: Bq | Mefistofele | Merry Wives of Windsor | Otello | Othello the opera | Renata Tebaldi | Romantic Music | Romantic period in music | Samuel Ramey | Simon Boccanegra | The Merry Wives of Windsor
|
