Pocket giants: giuseppe verdi

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) was the Shakespeare of opera, the composer of Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Aida and Otello. The chorus of Hebrew slaves from Nabucco (1842) is regarded in Italy as virtually an alternative national anthem, and the great tragedian rounded off his career 50 years later with a rousing comedy, Falstaff. When Verdi was born, much of northern Italy was under Napoleonic rule, and he grew up dreaming of a peninsula governed by Italians.

When this was achieved, in 1861, he became a deputy in the first all-Italian parliament. Verdi died in 1901, mourned as the emodiment of the nation he'd helped create.