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
Plays of Three Decades "A Preface to the Plays Including Certain Personal Reflections." The introduction includes information about Ardrey's personal relationship to the theater, but it is mainly concerned with detailing the history of the avant garde theater movement of 1930's New York which Ardrey identifies the plays as belonging to. An "avant garde" theatre occurs when enough skeptical artists raise their voices in a common tune. The three plays presented in this volume might be dedicated to that "avant garde" theatre of which they were a part and which, born in the 1930's, died prematurely soon after the Second World War and like