Birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi, Busseto, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi known as Giuseppe Verdi (Le Roncole, 10 October 1813 - Milan, 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer and politician. He is universally recognized as one of the greatest opera artists and composers of all time, together with other protagonists of nineteenth-century Italian musical theater: Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti. He sympathized with the Risorgimento movement which pursued the unification of Italy and actively participated for a short time in political life; over the course of his long existence he established a unique position among his compatriots, becoming a profound artistic symbol of the country's unity. It was for this reason that a month after his death, a solemn and endless procession crossed Milan, accompanying his remains with the notes of Va, pensiero, the chorus of the Jewish slaves from Nabucco, written by him 60 years earlier, effectively expressing the feelings of Italians towards their missing hero. This demonstrated the extent to which Verdi's music had been assimilated into the national consciousness. His works still remain among the best known and performed in theaters around the world, in particular Aida (1871), the aforementioned Nabucco (1842) and the so-called "Popular Trilogy": Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore ( 1853) and La traviata (1853).