Perhaps no musician has ever been more typecast than Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889), known in his own day as "the Paganini of the double bass." There is no escaping the fact that no composer wrote more (or more characteristic) music for this instrument, despite the fact that Bottesini also wrote a number of successful operas, and was so admired as a conductor that he led the world premiere of Verdi’s Aida in 1871.