VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901) - photo 1
VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901) - photo 2
VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901) - photo 3

VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901)

Lot 85
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 260
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 870893
Lot 85 | VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901)
Estimate value
£ 1 500 – 2 200
VERDI, Giuseppe (1813-1901)

Autograph letter signed ('G. Verdi') to Ferdinand Hiller, Genoa, 24 January 1882.

In Italian. Four pages, 209 x 134mm, bifolium.



A flat denial that he is doing any musical work. Verdi is in his flat at the Palazzo Doria, Genoa, ‘… and do not imagine that I am getting any musical work done, or that I have done so for the past few months. It is many, many months since I last did any musical work’; instead he has spent the summer and autumn occupied with his estate, including building houses ‘so that the poor peasants will have somewhere bearable and healthy to live’. He felicitates Hiller on his renewed activity – ‘How lucky you are to be able to renew the feats with which, as a child, you started your career!’ – and records his pleasure at reading a recent small book by him (‘Visits to the other world’). He goes on ‘I do not wish to talk of politics either! … Nobody is happy at the moment! But we … we … we are even worse off than most’. The letter closes with a happy reminiscence of the Verdis’ visit to Hiller in Cologne.



Verdi had conducted his Requiem in Cologne in 1876. His denial of composing activity is characteristic of the period after 1871 and the success of Aida, when he officially ‘retired’: in fact, he was already planning Otello, for which had received a libretto from Arrigo Boito in 1881. The composer and conductor Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) was the founding director of the Cologne Conservatory in 1850, from which he retired only in 1884.





Special notice


This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Artist:Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
10.12.2022 – 13.12.2022
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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