Text Box:  16. Now we learn about a composer from Italy who is considered the main rival of Wagner, and Mozart in terms of creating the best operas. He is the great Giuseppe Verdi, who was born in 1813, and died in 1901 at age 87. It was a miracle that Verdi ever had a chance to grow up, let alone become a great classical composer. His mother, in fact, barely saved his life. When little Giuseppe was only several months old, the Russian and Austrian armies came through the village where he lived, and as an act of revenge, the soldiers killed every man, woman, and child they could find...even as they knelt in prayer. Verdi’s mother hid herself and her son in the belfry of a church and escaped the soldiers. Thus, was saved the baby that grew up to be, according to Goulding, the 16th greatest classical composer in history, and who many people feel is the greatest operatic composer of all. A famous opera that he wrote was Aida.