This is the story of a warmhearted peasant boy whose inborn genius, a rare combination of sturdiness and sensitivity, brought him the affection and loyalty of his own artistic nation, the love of two remarkable women, and fame that is still undimmed.

Giuseppe Verdi, or Beppino as he was called, was an urchin with a dream. His parents learned early of his strange hunger for music, but the demands of such a career were not easy to satisfy for poor people who could scarcely provide their son with necessities. One day Giuseppe accompanied his father on a routine shopping trip to the  town of Busseto, and there at last destiny took him by the hand.

Then came the joy of achievement and of falling in love; privation and heartache as his early ambitions were discouraged; and tragedy when his first success in opera claimed as its price the lives of those he loved the most. But again destiny—rarely disguised in so charming a form—sought him out in the sympathetic Giuseppina Strepponi, a beautiful and well-loved prima donna, who was so impressed with his earnestness and talent that she would not allow the opera world to forget him. One day, exalted by a single passionate line in a new libretto, Verdi found his heart relieved of its burden and his true genius of expression free at last. Fly, thought, on golden wings, the libretto said, and working with a new intensity and joy, he moved into the creative period of his maturity to produce some of the world's favorite operas—Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera and Aida.

Another inspiring biography for young people by the author of PATRIOT'S DAUGHTER.

From the dust jacket