M. Battistini. Series of 22 autograph letters signed, mainly 1924-1927

BATTISTINI, MATTIA (1856-1928, ITALIAN OPERA SINGER).

Series of twenty-three autograph letters, signed ("Mattia Battistini" and "Mattia")

written in French, to an unidentified lady ("Chère adore amie", "Ma cherissime amie de Coeur", etc), giving extensive details of his travels to Prague, Madrid, Munich, Warsaw and his plans for Russia, whilst aged around seventy, mentioning Weingartner, Ernani, Rigoletto, La traviata, La favorita, Guillaume Tell, and Un ballo in maschera and discussing possible meetings with his correspondent ("...Je suis ravi ravi, d'entendre que j'aurais le plaisir de vous revoir bientot a Dresde..."), and sending his regards to her daughters Molly and Erna, including one letter in Italian to Clausetti of the publishers Ricordi

74 pages, 4to and 8vo, some printed stationery, 3 typed translations of newspaper reviews, Contigliano and Colle Baccaro (near Rieti), Rome, Warsaw, Berlin, Essen, Dortmund, Dresden, Leipzig, Madrid, London and Paris, 19 June 1905 (to Clausetti) and 24 September 1924 to 24 April 1927 where dated, 3 letters incomplete at end (one lacking signature)

The addressee of these ardent, though respectful, letters remains mysterious: Mattia Battistini's very religious wife Dolores had died in 1922. In 1900 Battistini had a son, Petya, with a young Russian aristocrat, Varvara Kovalensky (1878-1946).  They remained on good terms after her marriage and he brought Petya to Rome for his education, but these letters could well be to a later unrecorded mistress.