We're Still Here! Roll Up!

[Donald Macleod explores Verdi's later life and music when, after years of honing his craft, he unleashed an outpouring of innovative masterworks that would propel opera from the world of the 19th century into the modern age. It wasn't a smooth road, though, and the ageing composer had to be persuaded out of retirement several times as he found himself increasingly at odds with the world around him.]

Donald Macleod looks at Verdi's last opera, the comic masterpiece Falstaff, written with the librettist Arrigo Boito, and completed in the composer's 80th year. Having lived through most of the 19th century, and revitalised Italian opera, Verdi died in 1901, with Boito at his side.