Description:

Verdi Giuseppe


Giuseppe Verdi ALS Addressed from Villa Verdi

 

1p ALS inscribed overall and elegantly signed by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) as "G Verdi" at lower right. Written on January 2, 1876 from the composer's home Villa Verdi. On cream bifold paper, the remaining pages blank. With expected paper folds, mounting traces, and isolated discoloration at center, else in very good to near fine condition. Each page measures 5.375" x 8.25".

 

Verdi writes an unknown correspondent that his estate manager, Mauro Corticelli, will be passing through Piacenza Station on Tuesday afternoon on his way to Genoa. The cook should be sent to meet to receive special instructions. Should yield more discoveries when fully translated.

 

Verdi's letter was written at Villa Verdi, the composer's rustic retreat in northwestern Italy purchased with proceeds from his first successful operas. Villa Verdi was located near the village of Sant'Agata in the province of Piacenza, just miles away from the composer's birthplace. It was Verdi's primary residence between 1848 and his death in 1901. After 1851, Verdi lived here with opera singer Giuseppina Strepponi (1815-1897), his longtime companion and second wife. Verdi relished his prosperous country squire lifestyle at Villa Verdi; he continually improved the grounds, expanding the parkland, planting exotic trees, constructing terraces, greenhouses, and other outbuildings. The main residence, an Italianate style yellow stucco mansion with green shutters and tiled roof, can still be visited today. It houses a museum operated by Verdi's cousins.

 

The subject of Verdi's letter was Mauro Corticelli, an old friend of Verdi's second wife. The two had met around 1850, when Corticelli was still managing Italian theatrical companies and performers. Between 1867-1879, Corticelli served as Verdi's "uomo d'affari," or superintendent. Corticelli managed Verdi's Sant'Agata estate, country house, and Genoese apartment, and occasionally he also handled Verdi's legal business. Yet Corticelli's personal habits (notably his numerous affairs with local women) as well as his lackadaisical approach to spending and maintenance strained the working relationship. Corticelli quit just a few years after this letter was written, in 1879. This letter containing household instructions underscores the other, more normal side of Verdi's life: as a gentleman farmer.

 

Mid-nineteenth-century Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi is well-known for such epic romantic operas as La Traviata (1853). Verdi began teaching, conducting, and composing while still a young man. Verdi's earlier work is often interpreted as political in nature--the composer's support of the Italian unification movement was well-documented. By his final period, however, he had shirked conventions and adopted a more modern aesthetic. Major works from this later period include Aida (1872), Requiem (1874), and Otello (1887).

 


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