Verdi, Giuseppe

about Les vêpres siciliennes, reporting developments on planning the opera during his visit to Paris, including the fact that libretto will be written by Eugène Scribe, confiding that he would much rather compose two or three operas for Italy than write one in French, thereby earning more, but that his hopes of being commissioned for one at Naples are fast diminishing and that, unless something unexpected happens to save him, he will need to compose the opera for Paris

...Sperando di finire l’inverno a Napoli, ma di giorno in giorno le mie speranze disvaniscono. Intanto Scribe stà scrivando il libretto per me, e se qualche circostanza improvista non viene a salvarmi, bisognerà scrivere all’ Opéra, in francese, ma Oufa!!! Ed intanto avrei scritte due o tre opera in Italiano con più piacere e maggior guadagno...

Verdi also launches a characteristically abrasive diatribe against Piave's apparent stupidity, partly written out in short lines like verse, describing Piave as deluded and completely wrong, prompted by a letter from [Cesare] Vigna, possibly about the biography of Verdi by Vigna's friend Luigi Luzzati, which had displeased the composer (“...Non so il perche!, il come, il quando tu ti sia incapellato, ma quel che so di certo che tu hai torto.  Non so il perché ma tu hai torto, torto, tortissimo...”), unsigned, but with the salutation at the end: "Addio--La Peppina ti saluta..."   

1 page, 8vo (c.20.5 x 13.5cm), integral autograph address panel (“Francesco Maria Piave, Venezia”), remains of red seal, [Paris], 1 December 1853, some light foxing, small seal tear, 

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This letter is apparently unpublished, although a microfilm of it is held in the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York. 

This a characteristically forthright, indeed dismissive, letter by Verdi to his most important early librettist, Francesco Piave.  Verdi had little respect for Piave's skills (even though he had written the librettos for Rigoletto and La traviata amongst others) and no time for his opinions, often treating him abruptly.  Piave and Dr Cesare Vigna had reported on the success of the revised Traviata at Venice, and had also been the middlemen over supplying information for Luigi Luzzati's “biographical notes”.  Verdi does not specify exactly what enraged him about Vigna's letter, and his part in the débacle, but it seems that Luzzati had sought damages when Verdi refused to authorize his work (see M.J. Matz, Verdi, (1993), pp.330-331; see also page 336).   Verdi exclaims that he does not know why Piave is so "incapellato”(perhaps Luzzati or Vigna wore a hat?), but that he is “wrong, wrong and very wrong”, and that that sooner or later he will have to admit it as he always does.  The extent of Verdi's disdain for Piave, despite the poet's devotion to the composer, is all too apparent.

...E bada che non m’inganno: tu sai.  
che nelle case più strane
tu finisci col dire: hai ragione
anche questa volta. Tu
dirmi ciò da qui un mese
due, tre, quattro, non
so quando ma lo dirai.  Fidati da me...