Giuseppe Verdi is one of many statues to the composer in Italy. The Giuseppe Verdi Monument, a 1906 marble memorial, sculpted by Pasquale Civiletti, is located in Verdi Square in Manhattan, New York City. The monument includes a statue of Verdi himself and life-sized statues of four characters from his operas, (Aida, Otello, and Falstaff from the operas of the same names, and Leonora from "Il trovatore"). Verdi has been the subject of a number of film and stage works. These include the 1938 film directed by Carmine Gallone, "Giuseppe Verdi", starring Fosco Giachetti; the 1982 miniseries, "The Life of Verdi", directed
Giuseppe Verdi fact, I must have—a grandiose, impassioned and original subject." The result was "Les vêpres siciliennes", and the scenarios of "Simon Boccanegra" (1857), "Un ballo in maschera" (1859), "La forza del destino" (1862), "Don Carlos" (1865) and "Aida" (1872) all meet the same criteria. Porter notes that "Un ballo" marks an almost complete synthesis of Verdi's style with the grand opera hallmarks, such that "huge spectacle is not mere decoration but essential to the drama...musical and theatrical lines remain taut [and] the characters still sing as warmly, passionately and personally as in "Il trovatore"." When the composer Ferdinand Hiller asked Verdi