Boito, Arrigo, BOH ee toh or BOY taw, ahr REE goh (1842-1918), was an Italian composer, author, and poet. He was an aristocratic scholar who greatly influenced Italian music of his time. However, he completed only one opera, Mefistofele (1868), a work based on the story of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil, Mefistofele. From 1862 until he died, Boito worked on Nerone, an opera produced in 1924 after his death.