Verdi, Giuseppe.

written to Giovanni Ricordi about the first edition of the opera, giving corrected versions of two short vocal passages in Lady Macbeth's first aria and in her final sleep-walking scene ("...ti vo' quel freddo..." & "...andiam Macbetto..."), transcribing the music and the words, and giving Ricordi further instructions ("... anche Nella scena del Sonambulismo farai fare la cadenza nel modo presente...")



1 page, 8vo (20.5 x 13.5cms), integral autograph address panel, annotated by the recipient with Ricordi's plate numbers for the two arias concerned and also the name of the engraver ("19625" & "19640 Briochi"), postmarked: Florence, 12 March 1847, remains of mount with small tears, repaired on verso

From the collection of the composer Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007).

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Apparently unpublished: not in D. Rosen & A. Porter, Verdi's Macbeth. A Sourcebook (Cambridge 1984) or the Copialettere.  However the alterations are referred to in Abbiati, Verdi, i, 686.

This is an important letter to Ricordi, containing corrections for Verdi's greatest early opera before Rigoletto and La traviata.  Verdi made these revisions during the rehearsals for the opera in Florence, where the opera was first performed two days later on 14 March at the Teatro della Pergola.  He took particular interest in the singers' parts during these unusually extensive rehearsals: "more than one hundred", reported Marianna Barbieri-Nini, the first Lady Macbeth, who was coached to ensure that every nuance in her part was as the composer wished.  For her published recollections of these rehearsals, see Rosen & Porter, pp.49-53 or M. Conati, Encounters with Verdi (1984), pp.24-27).  The present corrected passages were incorporated on pages 41 and 240 of Ricordi's first edition of vocal score.