Volume Three covers roughly a quarter of a century, a period which saw grand opera on the Parisian model established throughout Italy, the reform of the Conservatories, and the spread of cosmopolitan influences to an extent that convinced many that Italian music was losing its identity. Verdi produced his four last and greatest operas--Don Carlos, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff--in this period, which ended with the advent of "verisimo", in which a new, recognizably Italian idiom was inaugurated.