Antonello Venditti è nato a Roma l'8 marzo 1949.
Appena adolescente, compone due delle sue canzoni più famose, Roma capoccia e Sora Rosa. L'occasione di farle ascoltare in pubblico arriva alla fine degli anni sessanta con la partecipazione alle attività del celebre locale romano Folkstudio, assai importante per la formazione dei giovani autori e la crescita musicale della città (vi suonò anche Bob Dylan). In questo locale conosce molti altri cantautori e musicisti tra cui Francesco De Gregori e Rino Gaetano.
È proprio con De Gregori e la collaborazione di Giorgio Lo Cascio ed Ernesto Bassignano che Antonello comincia ad esibirsi al Folkstudio in uno spazio del programma denominato "I giovani del folk".
The première of Ernani at Venices' Teatro La Fenice in 1844 failed to come up to Verdi's expectations, primarily because of the poor health of some of the singers. Both critics and audiences, however, soon warmed to Ernani, especially after the following performances. The opera contains some of Verdi's most successful, impassioned arias (first and foremost Elvira's cavatina and Silva's cantabile) and clearly denoted an evolution in terms of dramatic structure, more cohesive and with lesser use of blocks of closed numbers. Despite a turbulent 'premiere', Ernani became a real international success, beginning with the felicitous Vienna productions of May/June 1844. The cast of this Teatro Regio of Parma production features some of today's best singers for this type of repertoire.
Oberto was the first of Verdi’s operas to be staged and was heard for the first time at La Scala, Milan, in November 1839. As a young and unknown composer, Verdi was subject to the rules then governing the opera industry in Italy. Even so, there are already many scenes in this early work that reveal unmistakable signs of the composer’s individual style.