Giuseppe Verdi stands with Richard Wagner and Giacomo Puccini as one of the three most celebrated operatic composers, having written a number of the most frequently performed operas.
- "Va, pensiero"
from Nabucco, also known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, is a good introduction to Verdi's music. - Rigoletto rightly enjoys a level of enduring popularity matched by few other operas.
- "La donna è mobile" is operatic hypocrisy at its catchiest, as The Casanova Duke of Mantua sings about how it is women who are the fickle ones, never giving their affection to the same man for more than a few moments at a time. It gets a memorable Dark Reprise in the opera's final scene when, as the Duke wanders past in the background while singing the aria, Rigoletto comes to the horrible realisation that the body in the sack he is holding is not the Duke's after all...
- "Bella figlia dell’amore". So famed is this piece that you just have to say "the quartet" and pretty much every opera fan will know exactly what you mean.
- "La donna è mobile"
- "Vedi! Le fosche", AKA the "Anvil" Chorus, from Il trovatore is another of Verdi's most familiar operatic moments, with a chorus of gypsies hailing the dawn of a new day, punctuated by the metallic clang of hammers on anvils, that is guaranteed to rouse any spirits.
- "Libiamo ne' lieti calici", the brindisi or "drinking song" from Act I of La Traviata, is pure joy from start to finish (worlds away from the opera's inevitable tragic conclusion), with an instantly recognisable melody that hops back and forth across an interval of a major sixth.
- La forza del destino opens with a powerful overture that combines one of the most compelling "fate" motifs outside Beethoven's Symphony No.5 (a unison E, played thrice) with the haunting melody of the aria "Invano, Alvaro". The melody in question was memorably adapted by Jean-Claude Petit into the score of Claude Berri's 1986 cinematic duology Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources.
- The dignified Triumphal March from Aida is one of the greatest musical encapsulations of a celebration of victory, and has become a favourite at graduations and similar ceremonies.
- The "Dies irae" from Verdi's Requiem Mass brings new meaning to the phrase "Day of wrath". It was used to great effect in the opening cinema of Quidditch World Cup.
