Donizetti, Gaetano

with a phrase of music in place of a signature at the end, notated on a hand-drawn stave ("un abbraccio dal tuo aff[ettuoso] [nine-note musical phrase]...c'est un soldat qui revient de l'allemagne, où il fait cocagne le jour, la nuit"), 

comprising a lengthy diatribe against the management of the Paris Opéra, in which he describes being messed around by the director Léon Pillet and the librettist Eugène Scribe, regarding projects based on Jeanne la folle and Le duc d’Albe, saying dealing with the former had been a “nightmare”, describing another subject, which appeared initially attractive, but which in fact contained everything that he has always abhorred in opera, complaining that he was continually asked by Pillet to wait (“aspettate, aspettate”) for Le duc d’Albe to be produced (when the Scribe could easily have made any necessary adjustments), so that he came to feel he was merely a backup in case Meyerbeer failed to compose an opera, and so eventually he decided to leave Paris for Vienna; Donizetti discusses a piece he has written for Barroilhet, asking if he wants him to change the middle section so that it ends in D major or B-flat major, reports the state of the Vienna Opera, saying it is going from bad to worse and that only the soprano Fanny Persiani saves it, and even the ballerina Fanny Elssler is not good as she was, so he does not attend much, concluding by assuring him that he living a contented life in Vienna without working 



"...Poi sorsero fra’ loro i puntigli, poi Scribe non dovea più far poema, da questo, processo pel Duca D’alba, ed io poveretto, che parti sì contento, mi trovo balzato di quà, e di là, da’ que’ stessi, che tutto mi han promesso. Ora Mr Pillet mi dice ancora 'Aspettate, vediamo se Meyerbeer dà, o non dà la sua Opera!'’...”



3 pages, 4to (c.27.5 x 22cm), integral autograph address-panel, annotation by Ricordi's [Giacomo] Pedroni at the end, postmarked, Vienna 24 April 1845, the leaves separated, splitting and small tears at folds, some perforation from the oxidation of Donizetti’s ink

A Unique and Extremely Important Collection of Autograph Letters and Manuscripts of the World's Greatest Composers (ex- Meyer Cohn Collection), London: J. Pearson Ltd, [c.1905], item no.23; Parke-Bernet, NY, 1969, lot 131 (Estate of Ogden L. Mills)

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Donizetti was already very ill by the time of this letter, but his handwriting is neat and clear. He and Scribe received fifteen thousand francs for Pillet's delays in producing Le duc d’Albe and Scribe later re-used his libretto for Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes.