Opera. Autograph letters by the members of the "Puritani, Quartet", Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini & Lablache

ITALIAN OPERA.

Autograph letters signed by the singers known as the "Puritani Quartet": Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini & Lablache, 1836-1843 

including by Giulia Grisi (to the publisher Antonio Pacini, and a letter signed to a minister inviting him to attend a performance of Rossini's Semiramide, Paris, 18 February 1841)--G.B. Rubini (to the conductor Michael Costa, mentioning “il mio buon Don Pasquale”, explaining that he is going to St Petersburg and cannot sing his new opera [Don Carlos] in London, and reporting his successful performance of an aria from Malek Adhel, Berlin, 18 February 1843)--Antonio Tamburini (to Pierre Laporte of Her Majesty's Theatre, demanding to be reimbursed for payments to Barbaja, 5 June, no year, and a letter signed to Louis Philippe inviting him to his benefit performance in Lucia di Lammermoor, Paris, 15 December 1837)--Louis Lablache (to Ferdinando Paër, asking him to pay him through the bearer of this letter, Dr Fossati, London, 17 May 1836, and a receipt signed for performing in Le nozze di Figaro, Paris, Théâtre-Italien, 4 March 1839, 7 items in all

These four Italian opera singers (arguably the greatest of their time), created the leading roles in Bellini's I puritani (1835) and Donizetti's Don Pasquale (1842) at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris--Giulia Grisi (soprano, 1810-1869), Giovanni Battista Rubini (tenor, 1794–1854; the greatest tenor of the early C19, whose letters are rare), Antonio Tamburini (baritone 1800-1876), Louis Lablache (bass, 1794-1858)--and continued to sing as a quartet, with Grisi's husband Mario eventually replacing Rubini. 'The Great Quartet'  is described by Henry Pleasants in The Great Singers (1974), pp.176-188.