Gustavo III (Verdi) to meet commitments regarding "Lear". Finally, in a letter which he wrote to Torelli in September 1857, Verdi confessed that he had "looked through an infinite number of plays...but not one of them will do for me..." but he then described an existing libretto which interested him, one which was written by the French playwright and librettist Eugene Scribe for Daniel Auber's very successful 1833 opera, "Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué": Verdi turned to the historical subject of King Gustav III of Sweden, who was shot while attending a masked ball in Stockholm in 1792 and died thirteen days
Giuseppe Verdi by Renato Castellani, where Verdi was played by Ronald Pickup, with narration by Burt Lancaster in the English version; and the 1985 play "After Aida", by Julian Mitchell (1985). He is a character in the 2011 opera "Risorgimento!" by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero, written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification of 1861. Verdi appeared on the Italian 1000 lire notes printed from 1962–76. Beginning in 1969 his house was shown on the reverse. He has also appeared on various postage stamps. Verdi's operas are frequently staged around the world. All of his operas are available in recordings in