Boito, Arrigo (redirected from Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito)

Boito, Arrigo (ärrē`go bô`ētō), 1842–1918, Italian composer and librettist. His opera Mefistofele (1868, rev. 1875), influenced by Wagner's music-drama, helped to bring about a new dramatic style in Italian opera. Its first performance, at La Scala, Milan, caused a riot, but it subsequently became very popular. Another opera, Nerone, was posthumously finished and produced by Toscanini in 1924. Many consider Boito's masterpieces to be the librettos for Verdi's Otello and Falstaff. He also was librettist for Ponchielli's La Gioconda and wrote novels and poems.

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Boito, Arrigo

 orig. Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito

(born Feb. 24, 1842, Padua, Lombardy-Venetia—died June 10, 1918, Milan, Italy) Italian composer and librettist. As a composer, he is remembered for his opera Mefistofele (1868). He wrote the text for Giuseppe Verdi's Inno delle nazioni (1862) and revised the libretto for his Simon Boccanegra (1881), tasks that led to his writing the celebrated texts for Verdi's masterworks Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). He was also the librettist of Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda (1876). His own opera Nerone was left unfinished at his death.