In his last efforts he seems definitely influenced by Wagner; for, with his _Otello_ and _Falstaff_ we find a new Verdi, surpassing in form and sincere melody anything that he had done. He was very fortunate to have Arrigo Boito, his friend, to write librettos based on Shakespeare’s _Othello_ and _Merry Wives of Windsor_. When _Falstaff_ was given in New York (1925) a young American baritone, Lawrence Tibbet, in the rôle of Ford, flashed into fame. Verdi was a man of the people, loving Italy and being loved in return, a master of voice, ready to take good suggestions to improve his work, always kind, high-minded, and generous. He knew the orchestra and wrote for it in a way that not only gave, in his last three masterpieces, a new flavor to Italian opera, but led the way for future composers. BOITO AND HIS “MEFISTOFELE” Arrigo Boito (1842–1918), journalist, poet, and composer sprang into prominence with his _Mefistofele_, in which the Russian singer, Chaliapin, has attracted huge audiences at the Metropolitan. When it was first given in Italy, the audiences missed the coloratura arias, and the critics were very hard on the young composer. So he went back to journalism for many years. His next opera _Nero_ has a gory plot, but is real and not embroidered as were most of the Italian operas. Boito had studied in Germany and had absorbed much of the realism and truthfulness that Gluck and Wagner, taught. _Nero_ had an elaborate first performance (1924) by the celebrated Arturo Toscanini, one of the greatest living conductors, at _La Scala_ in Milan. It is a tremendous stage spectacle, surpassing in scenic effect many of the older melodramas. “CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA” AND “I PAGLIACCI” In 1890 the first truly realistic opera was written in Italy. A prize was offered by the publisher Sonzogno and an unknown man, Pietro Mascagni, won it with _Cavalleria Rusticana_ (_Rustic Chivalry_). He was born in 1863, the son of a baker. He was a musical boy, but his father wished him to be a lawyer, so he had to work at the piano in secret. One day when he had been locked up by his father who did not want him to practise, he was discovered by his uncle, who sympathized with him and took him to Count Florestan, who helped the young musician to study in Milan. Mascagni’s work in _Cavalleria Rusticana_ was vivid and he used both the old and the new style of writing. It is full of the most entrancing melody (the Intermezzo, the Brindisi, or drinking song, and Santuzza’s aria, _Voi lo sapete_). He also wrote _Iris_ and _Amico Fritz_, which never equalled _Cavalleria_.