BOITO, beci7"t4, Amino (1842—). An Italian composer. born in Padua. It is an anomalous fact that Boit° owes his musical fame to an opera, .11 clistor etc. which has been a comparative failure, :Ind that this work, despite its apparent lack of lasting popularity, should be considered epoch-making—one of the most important Italian musical products of the Nineteenth Century— because it forms the pivotal point on which Ital ian opera turned from mere tunefulness to the new dramatic school exemplified in the later Verdi and in Ponchielli. llaseagni, Puccini, and Leoneavallo. The writing of the libretto, the composition and remodeling of this 'remarkable failure' occupied Boito for nearly twenty years. The son of cultured parents—his father was an Italian painter. his mother a Polish woman. a parentage which is supposed to account for the blending of southern and northern temperament in his artistic nature—he entered the Milan Con servatory in 1556. While studying there be COM posed the garden scene in Ilelistorcle and other portions of the work. But the score was not finished and rearranged for stage production until 1868. Meanwhile, L'oito had done much lit erary work and had lived in France, Germany, and Poland. 1/efigiojcie was produced on March 5, 1868. at La Scala. Milan. The performance lasted six hours. and though it had several repe titions (amid scenes of disorder, due to hissing and applause, which caused the work to be with drawn by order of the piddle authorities). its failure was undoubted. Milt.) again remodeled the opera, among other change: making Faust a tenor, instead of a baritone. mile, In 1875 the revised version was produced in Bologna with great snee•esss which wes repeated in other Euro pean cities. Nevertheless. it has not maintained
itself as a imimpular opera in the n'pertoire. The difficulty seems to be that Boito has attempted to cover too much of the Faust legend in a single work. Gounod's Faust. especially when given will t the Brocken scene, tells a consecutive story of love, betrayal, and death. In lielisto felc the story is episodic—delayed by a prologue, and interrupted not only by the Brocken, but by the classical scene in which 1Iarguerite reap pears as Helen of Troy to the titter mystification of the greater portion of an operatic audience, so that however fine they may be musically, these parts of the work detract from the impression as a whole. Boito's music, though showing traces of such utterly different geniuses as the early Verdi and kVagner, is, nevertheless, a notable achievement and the most musicianly score brought forward by an Italian prior to the new Italian school. Marguerite's death is one of the most dramatic and deeply moving scenes in all opera. In this country Mefistofele was produced at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in 1883, with Campauini and Nilsson. A note worthy revival occurred at the same house in IS96 with Calve as Marguerite and Edward de Reszke as Mefisto, and another in 1901 with Planeon in the titte-rele. Boito's other operas, Pro c Leandro, Nerone. and Orestiade, have never been performed. The libretto of the first-named he afterwards gave to Bottesini (q.v.) and to Mancinelli (q.v.). He also wrote the libretti for Faceio's Andeto, Ponehielli's Gioconda, and for Verdi's Otc//o and Falstaff.