Arrigo Boito was an Italian librettist, composer, poet and critic whose only completed opera was Mefistofele. Among the operas for which he wrote the libretti are Giuseppe Verdi's monumental last two operas Otello and Falstaff as well as Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda.
Arrigo Boito
Boito at age 44
Birthplace in Padua
A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.
Cover of a 1921 libretto for Giordano's Andrea Chénier
The composer of Cavalleria rusticana, Pietro Mascagni, flanked by his librettists, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci
Pages from an 1859 libretto for Ernani, with the original Italian lyrics, English translation and musical notation for one of the arias
Henry Purcell (1659–1695), whose operas were written to English libretti