La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 29 October 1862 O.S..
c. 1870 poster by Charles Lecocq
First edition (1862) of the libretto of La forza del destino, Saint Petersburg, with bilingual Italian and Russian text
Verdi in 1859
Francesco Maria Piave, librettist of the opera
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him.
Portrait by Giovanni Boldini, 1886
Verdi's childhood home at Le Roncole
Antonio Barezzi, Verdi's patron and later father-in-law
Margherita Barezzi, Verdi's first wife