Giuseppe Verdi | Two autograph letters signed to Francesco Florimo, 16 June 1871 and 22 June 1878

Giuseppe Verdi

Two autograph letters signed ("G Verdi") to Francesco Florimo

i) ABOUT DON CARLOS, responding to laudatory articles on the opera which Florimo has sent him, discussing its musical textures and stating that to follow the line of thinking pursued by Florimo, Pacini should rank higher than Beethoven 

"...Se il D.Carlos fosse stato d’un altro avrei detto al critico che, invece di fare osservazioni sulle modulazione di settime minori, che dovrebbero esser maggiori, era meglior estendersi lungamente ed esaminare se i diversi caratteri hanno fisionomie proprie, se vi è un colore, se il pezzo, è soltanto pezzo di musica, o se è opera l infine se l’opera è La melodia, l’armonia, l’istromentazione etc etc. son cosa belle e buone, ma non bastano. Ben povero chi si contenta, sia d’uno squarcio armonico, sia d’una frase melodica, bella quanto si voglia! Se una melodia, una cantilena popolare costituissero il genio, Pacini sarebbe più grande di Beethoven..." 

3 pages, 8vo (21 x 13.2cm), Sant'Agata, 16 June 1871, vertical and horizontal folds, minute tear to upper edge of first leaf 

ii) discussing a biography of Verdi, explaining that he received many copies of this book and was asked to comment on the contents and was surprised when his remarks were printed; he discusses the Stabat Mater by Traetta, compares and contrasts it with music by Alessandro Scarlatti and Pergolesi, composers he greatly admires; he criticizes a composition by a pupil of Florimo, explaining what he thinks good about it and what fails to work, revealing his views on what makes a good composition; he stresses that he and his wife would love to meet him and that he is invited to stay at Sant'Agata where “maccheroni napoletani” will await him 

"…Questo Stabat è ben fatto, ben scritto, con ottima disposizione di parti, armonizzato arditamente pei suoi tempi (sebbene ales: Scarlatti un secolo prima fosse armonista ancora più forte), malgrado queste qualità non vi è il soffio, l’originalità, e quelle scappate come per es.: una di quel sol  ribattuto sul Pertransivit gladius del Pergolesi!...l Preludio del Vostro Giovine è pure ben fatto, ma manca di carattere; e manca di carattere, perchè la scelta di quel motivo magro dell’ amen su cui Traetta non ha nemmeno sviluppato una fuga, non ha significato…" 

4 pages, 8vo (20.6 x 13.1cm), Sant'Agata, 22 June 1878, horizontal folds, splitting along hinge 

Verdi's correspondent was his good friend, the composer, historian, librarian of the Naples Conservatory, and former confidante of Bellini, Francesco Florimo (1800-1888). Verdi's opera Don Carlos, discussed in the first letter, was unsuccessfully performed in Naples in 1871; in a revised version it was given there again in November/December 1872.