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Arrigo Boito (Italian:[arˈriːɡoˈbɔito]; bornEnrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito;[1] 24 February 1842 – 10 June 1918) was an Italianlibrettist, composer,poet and critic whose only completed opera wasMefistofele. Among the operas for which he wrote thelibretti areGiuseppe Verdi's monumental last two operasOtello andFalstaff as well asAmilcare Ponchielli'sLa Gioconda.
Along withEmilio Praga and his brotherCamillo Boito, he is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of theScapigliatura (Italian bohemian) artistic movement. He wrote essays under the anagrammaticpseudonym of Tobia Gorrio.[2]
Boito was born inPadua. He was the son ofSilvestro Boito, a painter of miniatures, who was not of noble birth but passed himself off as a nobleman, and his wife, aPolish countess, Józefina Radolińska. His older brother,Camillo Boito, was an Italian architect and engineer as well as a noted art critic, art historian and novelist.
Boito studied music at theMilan Conservatory withAlberto Mazzucato until 1861, where he was a contemporary ofAlbert Visetti andAmintore Galli. In 1866, with Galli,Franco Faccio, andEmilio Praga,[3] Boito fought underGiuseppe Garibaldi in theSeven Weeks' War in which theKingdom of Italy andPrussia fought againstAustria, after whichVenice was ceded toItaly.[citation needed]
Between 1887 and 1894, he had an affair with the celebrated actressEleonora Duse. Their relationship was carried out in a highly clandestine manner, presumably because of Boito's many aristocratic friends and acquaintances. Despite this, their voluminous correspondence over the years survives. The two remained on good terms until his death.
Towards the end of his musical career, Boito succeededGiovanni Bottesini as director of theParma Conservatory after the latter's death in 1889 and held the post until 1897. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from theUniversity of Cambridge in 1893, and on his death in Milan, he was interred there in theCimitero Monumentale. He was an atheist.[4]
A memorial concert was given in his honour at La Scala in 1948. The orchestra was conducted byArturo Toscanini. Recorded in very primitive sound, the concert has been issued onCD.
Boito wrote very little music, but completed (and later destroyed) the operaEro e Leandro and left incomplete a further opera,Nerone, which he had been working at, on and off, between 1877 and 1915. Excluding its last act, for which Boito left only a few sketches,Nerone was finished after his death byArturo Toscanini andVincenzo Tommasini and premiered at La Scala in 1924. He also left a Symphony in A minor in manuscript.[5]
Mefistofele
His only completed opera,Mefistofele, based onGoethe'sFaust, was given its first performance on 5 March 1868, atLa Scala,Milan. The premiere, which he conducted himself, was badly received, provoking riots and duels over its supposed "Wagnerism", and it was closed by the police after two performances. Verdi commented, "He aspires to originality but succeeds only at being strange."[citation needed] Boito withdrew the opera from further performances to rework it, and it had a more successful second premiere, inBologna on 10 April 1875. This revised and drastically cut version also changed Faust from a baritone to a tenor.Mefistofele is the only work of his performed with any regularity today, andEnrico Caruso included its two tenor arias in his first recording session.[6] The prologue to the opera, set in Heaven, is a favourite concert excerpt.
Libretti
Boito's literary powers never waned. As well as writing the libretti for his own operas, he wrote them for greater operas by two other composers. As "Tobia Gorrio" (ananagram of his name), he provided the libretto forAmilcare Ponchielli'sLa Gioconda.[citation needed]
Collaboration with Verdi
Shortly after he had collaborated with Verdi onInno delle nazioni ("Anthem of the Nations", London, 1862), Boito offended him in a toast to his long-time friend, the composer (and later conductor)Franco Faccio. Therapprochement was effected by the music publisherGiulio Ricordi, whose long-term aim was to persuade Verdi to write another opera. Verdi agreed that Boito should revise the libretto of the original 1857Simon Boccanegra.MusicologistRoger Parker speculates that this was based on a desire to "test the possibility" of working with Boito, before possibly embarking on a larger project. The revisedBoccanegra premiered to great acclaim in 1881. With that, their mutual friendship and respect blossomed, and that larger project becameOtello.[7] Although Verdi's aim to write the music for an opera based on Shakespeare'sKing Lear never came to fruition (despite the existence of a libretto), Boito provided subtle and resonant libretti not just forOtello (based on Shakespeare's playOthello) but also forFalstaff (which was based on two other Shakespeare plays,The Merry Wives of Windsor and parts ofHenry IV). After those many years of close association, when Verdi died in 1901, Boito was at his bedside.
The years given are those of the premieres. Boito also provided the text to Verdi's cantataInno delle Nazioni which was first given on 24 May 1862 atHer Majesty's Theatre, London.
Recordings of two operas exist:
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