Verdi, Giuseppe

giving his views of the singers at the Paris Opéra, and the difficulties of finding a position for the mezzo soprano Emilia Goggi there, even without Marietta Alboni's presence, as the Directors of the Opéra have persuaded themselves that they don't need any more female lead singers, although he adds that some have been signed on because Meyerbeer insists on having Pauline Viardot in his new opera Le Prophète, which may perhaps be staged there next year, explaining this is why he cannot offer more for his friend's appeal on behalf of Goggi, informing him that he has stayed in Paris to oversee Jérusalem at the Opéra (“...appena in scena l'opera...”), but assuring him that he will return to Italy soon.

2 pages, 8vo (19 x 12.5cms), integral blank, [Paris], 6 January 1848, small crease to lower corner, later pencil annotation to the blank leaf

together with 2 letters about Verdi's Attila (and Giovanna d'Arco) by Sofia Loewe and Fred. Loewe, discussing the production of Attila at Venice in 1846 and the cavatina that Verdi had promised to write for Sofia Loewe, 7 pages in all, 8vo, autograph envelope, Venice, 14 December 1845 and 20 March 1846

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
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...è altresi vero che l'Alboni  non è all' Opéra ma con tutto ciò i Direttori sono persuasi di non aver bisogno d'altre donne: aggiungi a questo che sono stati costretti a scritturare loro malgrado la Viardot, perchè Mayerbeer la vuole per cantare nel suo Profeta che forse andrà in scena l'inverno venturo...

Verdi mentions two of the leading figures of the French Grand Opera in this letter, Pauline Viardot and Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose Le Prophète, completed in 1841, was finally staged at the Paris Opéra in 1849.   At the time of this letter, Verdi was completing his opera Il corsaro in Paris, where Jerusalem had been staged at the Opéra on 22 November 1847.   Verdi did compose a cavatina for Sofia Loewe (the first Odabella in Attila) to sing in the production of Giovanna d'Arco at Venice in spring 1846; however, his music has been lost.