Editing Arrigo Boito (section)

==Career in music==
Boito wrote very little music, but completed (and later destroyed) the opera ''[[Ero e Leandro (Boito)|Ero e Leandro]]'' and left incomplete a further opera, ''[[Nerone (Boito)|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 by [[Arturo Toscanini]] and [[Vincenzo Tommasini]] and premiered at La Scala in 1924. He also left a Symphony in A minor in manuscript.<ref>{{cite web|last=Boito |first=Arrigo |editor=Przeslica, Agnieszka |title=Publication of Boito's A minor Symphony |url=http://boccacciniespada.com/shop/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=42&products_id=159 |publisher=Boccaccini E Spada |access-date=11 November 2008 }}{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

'''''Mefistofele'''''

His only completed opera, ''[[Mefistofele]]'', based on [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'', was given its first performance on 5 March 1868, at [[La Scala]], [[Milan]]. The premiere, which he conducted himself, was badly received, provoking riots and duels over its supposed "[[Richard Wagner|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|date=September 2013}} Boito withdrew the opera from further performances to rework it, and it had a more successful second premiere, in [[Bologna]] 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, and [[Enrico Caruso]] included its two tenor arias in his first recording session.<ref>{{author}}, ''The Independent Review'', 4 August 2003, p. 15.</ref> 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" (an [[anagram]] of his name), he provided the libretto for [[Amilcare Ponchielli]]'s ''[[La Gioconda (opera)|La Gioconda]]''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

'''Collaboration with Verdi'''

Shortly after he had collaborated with Verdi on ''[[Inno 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]]. The ''rapprochement'' was effected by the music publisher [[Giulio Ricordi]], whose long-term aim was to persuade Verdi to write another opera. Verdi agreed that Boito should revise the libretto of the original 1857 ''[[Simon Boccanegra]]''. [[Musicologist]] [[Roger 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 revised ''Boccanegra'' premiered to great acclaim in 1881. With that, their mutual friendship and respect blossomed, and that larger project became ''[[Otello]]''.<ref>Parker, p. 382</ref> Although Verdi's aim to write the music for an opera based on Shakespeare's ''[[King Lear]]'' never came to fruition (despite the existence of a libretto), Boito provided subtle and resonant libretti not just for ''[[Otello]]'' (based on Shakespeare's play ''[[Othello]]'') but also for ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'' (which was based on two other Shakespeare plays, ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' and parts of ''[[Henry IV, part 1|Henry IV]]'').  After those many years of close association, when Verdi died in 1901, Boito was at his bedside.