Giuseppe Verdi

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Verdi, portrait by Giovanni Boldini, 1886; in the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Rome

Opening scene of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello

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Giuseppe Verdi

Italian composer

Also known as: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi

Written by Dyneley Hussey, Joseph Kerman•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jan 3, 2025 • Article History

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In full:: Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi

Born:: October 9/10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, duchy of Parma [Italy]

Died:: January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy

Notable Works:: “Aida”; “Don Carlos”; “Ernani”; “Falstaff”; “Il trovatore”; “La battaglia di Legnano”; “La traviata”; “Nabucco”; “Oberto, conte de San Bonifacio”; “Otello”; “Quattro pezzi sacri”; “Requiem”; “Rigoletto”; “Simon Boccanegra”; “The Force of Destiny”; “The Sicilian Vespers”; “Un ballo in maschera”; “Un giorno di regno”

Movement / Style:: Romanticism

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Verdi’s ‘Aida’ Gets a New Staging at the Metropolitan Opera • Jan. 2, 2025, 1:51 AM ET (New York Times)

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Giuseppe Verdi (born October 9/10, 1813, Roncole, near Busseto, duchy of Parma [Italy]—died January 27, 1901, Milan, Italy) was a leading Italian composer of opera in the 19th century, noted for operas such as Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Don Carlos (1867), Aida (1871), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) and for his Requiem Mass (1874). Verdi’s father, Carlo Giuseppe Verdi, an innkeeper and owner of a small farm, gave his son the best education that could be mustered in a tiny village, near a small town of about 4,000 inhabitants, in the then-impoverished Po Valley. The child ...(100 of 3921 words)

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