Falstaff, Verdi's last opera, was given its world premiere at Milan's fabled La Scala in 1893. A century later, Hans Busch collected, translated, and annotated 665 letters, telegrams, and reviews from the years 1889-1894 to trace the genesis of one of Verdi's greatest triumphs.

A human and artistic drama emerges from this collection, a story revolving around the lives of a great triumvirate: the octogenarian Verdi, librettist Arrigo Boito, and their publisher and producer, Giulio Ricordi. Lending insight into the mores of the fin de siecle are some intimate letters exchanged by Boito and the actress Eleonora Duse.

This book makes available the first English translation of the majority of these letters - and none of the other documents has appeared in English before. Indeed, much of the material in this volume is now being published for the first time in any language.