Julian Budden (1924-2007) served as the Chief Producer for Opera at BBC Radio as the President of the Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini, Lucca, Italy. In addition to his Master Musicians volume on Verdi, he is also the author of the Master Musicians biography of Puccini (OUP, 2002) as well as the three-volume The Operas of Verdi (OUP, 1978-1981, revised edition 1992).
