Biography
Arrigo Boito was born in Padua in 1842 and studied violin, piano and composition at the Milan Conservatory from 1853. During the 1860s he was a leading figure of the Scapigliatura literary and artistic movement in Milan and in 1862 wrote the text for the "Hymn of the Nations", set to music by Verdi; in 1866 he fought under Giuseppe Garibaldi in the war against Austria. His opera "Mefistofele", based on Goethe's "Faust" and for which he wrote both libretto and music himself, premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1868 and was initially a failure; the thoroughly revised version triumphed in Bologna in 1875 and remains the version performed today. Under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio he wrote the libretto for Amilcare Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" in 1876, and later wrote the librettos for Verdi's "Otello" (1887) and "Falstaff" (1893). Boito directed the Parma Conservatory from 1889 to 1897 and died in Milan in 1918.
On Stagelog
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