G. Meyerbeer, Fine early autograph letter to Giovanni Ricordi about "Romilda e Costanza", 24 April 1818

MEYERBEER, GIACOMO

Fine and important autograph letter signed ("Giacomo Meyerbeer"), to the publisher Giovanni Ricordi, 24 April 1818

in idiosyncratic Italian, about his early opera Romilda e Costanza, asking him to publish the music in full or vocal score, since, on his last visit to Italy, he has noticed a large number of pirated manuscript copies of a cavatina and a terzetto, in which the vocal parts, harmony and orchestration have been badly mangled, after they had been popularized by the contralto Benedetta Pisaroni (for whom he had written the opera), introducing them into other operas she sang; Meyerbeer agrees to send him 24 lire for a copy of Winter's Il sacrifizio interrotto, that not been accounted for, and asking if he can get hold of a copy of Mayr's Medea in Corinto 

"...E' incredibile quanto siano sparse e quanto siano mutilate questi dui [sic] pezzi, Nell'armonia, nella Istromendazione, nella parte cantante, da per tutto si trovano sbaglie immensi...Bramo che la stampa ristabilisce questi dui pezzi nella lora forma primaria; se lei dunque avrebbe voglia di stampare (sia in partitura, sia ridotto per Cembalo) ve le darò con piacere..."

1 page, 4to (c.24.5 x 19cm), watermarked paper ("Al Masso"), integral autograph address leaf, Venice, 24 April 1818

UNPUBLISHED. Not in the Briefwechsel und Tagebücher, volume 1, ed. H. Becker (1960). This is an important early letter about the music publisher Ricordi of Milan, dating from before the firm began issuing complete operas. 

Before embarking on a spectacular career writing grand operas for Paris--Robert le diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836) etc--Meyerbeer spent a decade in Italy, composing six opere serie, beginning with Romilda e Costanza in Padua (1817). Operas in Italy at that time circulated in manuscript, with only the more popular excerpts being printed, and that only in vocal score. Giovanni Ricordi was the first Italian publisher to issue "complete" operas in this way, but he did not begin to do so until the mid-1820s. All Rossini's operas were therefore first published in France, Austria and Germany.  Meyerbeer, recently arrived from Germany, is indeed asking a lot for this his first Italian opera. In the event, Ricordi published only the cavatina "Se il fato barbaro" and the terzetto "Tu sai qual oggetto" from Romilda e Costanza, later that year.

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