Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi is an Italian opera composer from Le Roncole, Italy, born in 1813 and dying in 1901. He works in classical music and opera, and is associated with the Romantic period.

He is one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His operas are performed regularly in opera houses around the world, and his music extends beyond the genre through themes that become part of popular culture.

Among the best-known examples are La donna è mobile from Rigoletto, Va, pensiero from Nabucco, and Libiamo ne' lieti calici from La traviata. His work is sometimes described as using a mainly diatonic musical language rather than a chromatic one, and as tending towards melodrama, but his major works remain central to the standard repertoire long after their composition.