Despite an impressive and innate talent for music, Giuseppe Verdi's path to a career as a composer wasn't an easy one. Born to a modest family in the small town of Roncole, Italy, Verdi's youth was defined by constant challenges and disappointments. As an adult, life was not any easier. He quarreled with the papacy, was oppressed by political censors, weathered numerous failures, and was besieged by personal tragedy. Yet he eventually came to be Italy's most famous and successful composer, writing twenty-six operas and numerous revisions, including Rigoletto, La Traviatia, and Aida, many of which are still performed today. He also became a symbol of Italian patriotism against the forces of political oppression. This new biography details Verdi's tumultuous life, and shows how the nineteenth century world of opera parallels the contemporary world of pop music. From his early rejection from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Milan to his acclaimed adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies for the opera, the story of this remarkable man and his work is brought to life for a new generation of readers.