Giuseppe Verdi came from peasant stock and never lost the blunt imprint. But the composer of some of the most moving and impassioned operas ever writtenTrovatore, Traviata, Rigoletto, Aïda, Otelloremained a hard man only outwardly. Verdi's music eloquently tells the story of the inner man. And so, in a way, did his will.
A comparatively wealthy man, Verdi gave some 450,000 lire, five years before he died, at 87, to establish a Casa di Riposo for worn-out musicians. In his will he left it 250,000 lire, plus all future opera royalties.
Until World War...
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