Arrigo Boito

Arrigo Boito (1842–1918) was an Italian composer, librettist, and poet whose works include the opera Mefistofele and librettos for Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff.

Mefistofele: An opera by Arrigo Boito, first staged in 1868 and revised after its unsuccessful premiere. Boito’s most substantial operatic work sets Goethe’s Faust drama in his own music and libretto.
Opera: A staged drama in which singing and instrumental music carry the action. Boito worked across both sides of opera, composing music and writing librettos.
Scapigliatura: A nineteenth-century Italian artistic movement that challenged bourgeois conventions and established cultural forms. Boito became one of the movement’s leading figures, voicing its anti-conventional ideals.
Otello (opera): Giuseppe Verdi’s 1887 opera based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito. Its success marked the culmination of Boito and Verdi’s artistic partnership.
Otello: An 1887 opera by Giuseppe Verdi with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy. Boito reshaped Shakespeare’s play into the libretto for Verdi’s late opera.
Libretto: The text written for a musical work, especially an opera or oratorio. Boito’s revisions of source texts demonstrate how a libretto is made for musical drama.
Italian unification: The nineteenth-century political process that created a unified Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Boito’s generation debated what a modern Italian national culture should become.
Verdi's late style: The mature musical and dramatic approach found in Giuseppe Verdi’s final operas. Boito’s librettos gave Verdi tightly integrated dramatic structures for Otello and Falstaff.
Falstaff: A comic opera by Giuseppe Verdi, premiered in 1893, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito. Boito’s compressed Shakespearean libretto helped Verdi create his final opera.
Operatic adaptation: The transformation of a literary or dramatic source into an opera’s libretto and musical structure. Boito condensed Shakespeare and Goethe while preserving dramatic force for the stage.

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