The famous Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901) was born in Parma in Emilia-Romagna. His best-known operas include La Traviata, Falstaff, Rigoletto and Aida. Wine plays a significant supporting role in several of them. In La Traviata, it symbolises lust for life and transience in the famous drinking song "Libiamo ne' lieti calici". In Otello, Iago uses wine deliberately to make Cassio drunk and discredit him. In Falstaff, wine becomes a leitmotif - the title character praises it as the source of all joie de vivre. Wine also appears in the margins of scenes in Un ballo in maschera and Don Carlo. Verdi thus reflects human emotions through wine - from pleasure to deception. The picture on the right shows his birthplace in Roncole Verdi.
![]()
Using the encyclopaedia is not only time-saving, but also extremely convenient. What's more, the information is always up to date.
Markus J. Eser
Weinakademiker und Herausgeber „Der Weinkalender“