MW EXCLUSIVE 4CD sets £18 each or £28 for both postage paid

Classical CD and DVD reviews. MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is our advertisers that pay for it. Please visit their sites regularly to see if anything might interest you. Purchasing from them keeps MusicWeb free.
  Classical Editor: Rob Barnett  
Founder Len Mullenger   
 


BOITO, Arrigo
b Padua, 24 February 1842
d Milan, 10 June 1918, aged seventy-six

His mother was a Polish countess. He studied music al the Milan Conservatory, but developed a talent for literature, becoming a music critic and journalist. His first opera, Mefistofele, written in 1868, resulted in a riot between progressives and traditionalists at its first performance. He worked on his other opera, Nerone for the rest of his life, never completing it; it was first performed in 1921, six years after his death. Otherwise, his musical output was extremely small. His chief claim to fame is as librettist for other opera composers; notable are his La Gioconda for Ponchielli and Otello and Falstaff for Verdi. His later life was uneventful; he was interested in politics and became a senator in 1912.

1860 (18)

Il Quattro Giugno, cantata

1861 (19)

Le Sorelle d'Italia, opera

1868 (26)

Mefistofele, opera

1875 (33)

La Notte Difonde, for four voices and piano

1877-1915 (35-73)

Nerone, operatic tragedy

Return to Index