Verdi is the composer of Life, and for sure he is the composer of my life. As a composer, he was so capable of undisclosing and dealing with our passions and our pains, our values and our flaws – that we see ourselves in them and this is one of the reasons of his universality. As long as man will be the same as today, each generation will find in Verdi’s music a comforting word.

Riccardo Muti