Which composer is older, Giuseppe Verdi or Henry Purcell?
Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (] ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian opera composer.
Belfagor Belfagor (premiere 26 April 1923) is an Italian-language opera by the composer Ottorino Respighi to a libretto by Claudio Guastalla (1880-1948) based on the comedy "Belfagor" of Ercole Luigi Morselli (1882-1921), itself loosely based on the novella "Belfagor arcidiavolo" by Niccolò Machiavelli. It was premiered in 1923 at La Scala in Milan, under the baton of Antonio Guarnieri, since Toscanini was unavailable. The cast featured Irish soprano Margaret Burke Sheridan as Candida, tenor Mariano Stabile as her lover Baldo, and baritone Francesco Merli as the titular Belfagor, a "arcidiavolo" who tries to marry a human maiden while in disguise as a nobleman, using gifts of money to her father.