Ponchielli, Amilcare.

about Verdi and about the operas La gioconda, I mori di Valenza and Marion Delorme, including Verdi's advice to him about cutting Marion Delorme a few weeks before the premiere, the cantata in honour of Donizetti, contemporary composers (including Massenet and Boito) and the leading singers (including Patti);  Ponchielli complains about Ricordi's lack of enthusiasm for his operas I lituani  and La gioconda, expressing the fear that the publisher now prefers the more mannered style of Massenet, discusses Ghislanzoni's libretto for I mori di Valenza (reporting alterations he has made), and declining another libretto offered to him (about Cromwell), reporting his difficulties and slow progress setting I mori  and explaining that he put it aside to work on Boito's libretto (for La gioconda); he praises Verdi, criticizes the singers Patti (expressing disappointment at her Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and lamenting her high fees), Pandolfini, Abragnedo and Catalgirone, and orchestras, reports the season at Rome in  1878, mentioning Freischütz, Le Roi de Lahore and Lohengrin, and Verdi's operas I Vespri [siciliani], and La forza del destino;



together with letters to Piave (asking for changes in a libretto), Giulio [Ricordi] (an important letter about La Gioconda  in 1876 and Teresina Brambilla), Golisciani, Cottrau and Durand (15)



27 pages, mainly 8vo, Milan, Bergamo and Rome, 15 December 1879-1885, light browning



 

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Ponchielli was the most important Italian opera composer contemporary with Verdi, regarding the older composer with something close to veneration, rather than as a rival.  He visited Verdi eighteen days before the premiere of his final opera Marion Delorme and Verdi evidently dispensed a trenchant critique of Golosciani's libretto, advising him to prune the work ruthlessly.  His correspondent Ghislanzoni, had written the libretto for Verdi's Aida.  

...Ora ti dirò che ieri fui dal M^o Verdi. Mi parlò naturalmente della Marion, di cui non ha letto che il solo libretto--e dice che il 2^o e il 3^o atti è un pasticcio. Mi esortò a tagliare senza miseracordia anche a costo di sacrificare qualunque che pure io prediligessi. Dice che bisogna rifarli a pianta...E gli domandai se secondo lui sopprimerebbe anche il personaggio di Lelio, e lui prontamente: Si! Si!--Questa cosa mi ha un pò preoccupato...

For another letter by Ponchielli describing this episode, see M.J. Phillips Matz, Verdi, p.680.