Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813-1901) was an Italian Romantic opera composer, best known for Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Aida -- an Ethiopian princess, who is captured and brought into slavery in Egypt. A military commander, Radames, struggles to choose between his love for her and his loyalty to the Pharaoh. Antonio Ghislanzoni (1824-1893) was an Italian journalist, poet, and novelist who wrote librettos for Verdi, among other composers, of which the best known are Aida and the revised version of La Forza del Destino.