Giuseppe Verdi remains the greatest operatic composer that Italy, the home of opera, has ever produced. Yet throughout his lifetime he claimed to detest composing and repeatedly rejected it. He was a landowner, a farmer, a politician and symbol of Italian independence; but his music tells a different story. An obsessive perfectionist, Verdi drove collaborators to despair but his works lauded from the start as dazzling feats of composition and characterization. From Rigoletto to Otello, La Traviato  to Aida, Verdi’s canon encompassed the full range of human emotion. His private life was no less complex: he suffered great loss, and went out of his way to antagonize supporters and his own family. An outspoken advocate of Italian independence and a sharp critic of the church, he was often at odds with nineteenth-century society. In Verdi: The Man Revealed, John Suchet attempts to get under the skin of perhaps the most private composer who ever lived. Unravelling his protestations, his deliberate embellishments and disavowals, Suchet reveals the true character of this great artist - and the art for which he will be forever known. “Suchet writes about the vaulted world of opera with insight and wit. This handsomely designed edition is beautifully illustrated with theatrical illustrations and dramatic period photography.” - New York Journal of Books “Music lovers and opera aficionados will applaud Suchet’s skillfully orchestrated biography.” - Booklist