Verdi

Early Years

Giuseppe Verdi was born in a small village near Parma in 1813. He studied privately with Antonio Barezzi. In 1836, Verdi married Barezzi's daughter Margherita. Verdi began composing operas a few years later.

Verdi was overcome with the death of his two children and eventually his wife all by 1840. Between this and the failure of his most recent opera, Verdi almost gave up composing.

Verdi, however, was encouraged by a friend to start work on his opera Nabucco, which turned out to be a huge success all over Europe. Soon, Verdi was being labeled as an Italian Nationalist.