Which composer is older, Giuseppe Verdi or Henry Purcell?
Henry Purcell Henry Purcell ( or ; c. 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Benjamin Britten in the 20th century.
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.