Rossini, Gioachino

a letter of recommendation for the young contralto singer Marietta Alboni, a pupil of Rossini's at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna (from which he laments Donizetti's absence), praising her natural talents, describing her training, reporting that she has been given a contract to sing [at the Kärtnertortheater] in Vienna by the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli, and that all she needs now is Donizetti's support, asking him to help further her career ("...Marietta Alboni allieva di quell Liceo a cui Fortuna non arrise ti consegnerà la presente, scritturata da Merelli si produrrà a Vienna qual Contralto. La natura ha dotata questa buona ragazza di molti mezzi...")  

1 page, 8vo (c.20.5 x 12.5cm), integral autograph address leaf ("a Donizetti"), Bologna, 14 March 1843, light creasing along folds 

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A remarkable letter by one great Italian opera composer to another, about a young singer who was to become a leading operatic contralto, Marietta Alboni (1826-1894).  Rossini had taken a personal interest in Alboni since she was thirteen years old and his recommendation was one that Donizetti could not ignore. Rossini has here given his seventeen-year-old pupil a letter of introduction to present to Donizetti in Vienna, where he was preparing his new opera, Maria di Rohan, premiered at the Kärtnertortheater on 5 June.  Whilst there, Alboni sang for Donizetti the trouser role of Pierotto in Linda di Chamounix (premiered there the previous year).  Rossini laments that "Fortune has not smiled" on the Liceo, subtly reminding Donizetti that he had been unable to persuade him to take over his position as principal there.  Donizetti had directed the premiere of Rossini's Stabat Mater at Bologna the previous year, when Alboni had sung in the chorus. For a famous letter to Rossini by another composer, see Lot 49