Boito, Arrigo

Arrigo Boito – Nerone (opera in 4 acts)

(b. Padua, February 24, 1842 – d. Milan, June 10, 1918)

Preface
Under the title “Nerone”, the composer Arrigo Boito, known for his opera “Mefistofele”, created a monumental historical drama about the megalomaniac matricide and persecutor of Christians, the decadent aesthete and self-proclaimed artist Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (born 15.12. 37 in Antium, died 09. or 11.06. 68 near Rome), the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. A work in the spirit of Italian symbolism, imbued with mysticism and scenes full of contrasts.

The Italian writer, librettist and composer Arrigo Boito, actually Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, was born as the second son of the miniaturist Silvestro Boito (1802-1856) and the widowed Polish Countess Giuseppina Boito, actually Józefa Radolińska. He created his first compositions at the age of nine before beginning to study violin, piano and composition at the Milan Conservatory in 1853. Shortly after his studies he met Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi, who were to influence his later compositional and libretto work. From 1862 Boito 1867 he became a member of the revolutionary intellectual movement Scapigliatura. In 1866 he volunteered in the wars of liberation against Austria. In 1868 the composer wrote his first opera, „Mefistofele“, which premiered in 1868 and, after thorough revision, was premiered again in 1875. This is the only world-renowned opera by Boito to date and the only worldwide spread Faust opera alongside Gounod’s. From 1874 Boito devoted himself mainly to the translation of libretti and poetry, partly under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio.1 He wrote opera libretti for Verdi (“Otello”, “Falstaff”) and Ponchielli (“La Gioconda”) or translated libretti into Italian such as Wagner’s “Rienzi” or Weber’s “Freischütz”. …

Full preface / Komplettes Vorwort > HERE