Boito, Arrigo
(1842–1918)
Boito, Arrigo (24 February 1842, Padua; 10 June 1918, Milan) was admitted to the Milan Conservatory at age 14, and his work here won him a scholarship enabling him to continue his studies in France and Germany. He returned to Italy to be caught up in the Garibaldi movement, but, in the meantime, he continued to work on his opera Mefistofele designed to clarify and to win acceptance for the new ideas about the lyric theatre that his experiences in northern Europe had awakened in his mind. After…