Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi seemed to have retired after Aida, but his publisher and the composer and librettist Arrigo Boito coaxed him back. Otello premiered in 1887, when he was 73, and the comedy Falstaff in 1893, when he was 79. Many critics rank them as his finest operas, more continuous and dramatic than his earlier number operas. The partnership with Boito is part of the story.