Composer of dramatic opera, born in Le Roncole, Italy. Of humble, rural origin, his early musical education was subsidized by locals who admired his talent. He studied at La Scala, Milan, and began to write operas, achieving his first major success with Nabucco (1842). Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), and La traviata (1853) established him as the leading operatic composer of the day. His spectacular Aida was commissioned for the new opera house in Cairo, built in celebration of the Suez Canal (1871). Apart from the Requiem (1874), there was then a lull in output until, in his old age, he produced Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). An enthusiastic nationalist in his youth, he came to find active participation in politics not to his taste, and he resigned his deputyship in the first Italian parliament (1860). Later in life he became a senator.