signed
1866 · Passy de Paris
by ROSSINI, Gioachino 1792-1868
Passy de Paris, 1866. Quarto (179 x 218 mm). 3 pp. in black ink on two leaves of a bifolium, final page blank. Signed "Rossini" and dated Passy de Paris, 12 Giugno 1866."
Slightly worn, browned, and soiled; three blank corners with very small chips; creased at folds with short splits and small holes just touching text, some with early unobtrusive repairs.
Together with a small 19th century carte-de-visite photograph of Rossini published by E. Desmaisons in Paris, 98 x 64 mm. mounted on publisher's card stock. Mount slightly trimmed, just affecting Desmaisons imprint, with corners slightly cropped, not affecting photograph. This highly interesting letter relative to the overture of the work is discussed at length by Weinstock in his noted biography of the composer:
"Chroniclers doubting that Rossini could have composed so much music of such quality in so short a working period have pointed out that some of this apparent swiftness can be explained by his having made use of an already existing overture and having interpolated music from earlier operas into the new score. But the surviving 600-page manuscript score in the Conservatorio G. B. Martini at Bologna includes no overture: as is well-known, the overture now played before 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' had been used for Aureliano in Palmira in 1813; with very slight alterations for 'Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, in 1815 - and possibly for 'L'Equivico Stravagante' in 1811. The assumption has been that an overture that Rossini composed expressly for 'Almaviva' ['Il Barbiere di Siviglia'] on Spanish melodies given him by Manuel Garcia has been lost. That Rossini composed or adapted for that opera an overture other than the one used with it now is certain.
Rossini gave the autograph score of the opera to a Professor Baietti, when Léon Escudier wanted to publish it in Paris, Rossini wrote from there to his friend Domenico Liverani [referred to in the letter as "Minghino"], asking him to try to locate the missing overture and Lesson Scene in Bologna. On June 12, 1866, having heard from Liverani that the missing pieces could not be found, Rossini wrote to him: 'Here am I to thank you for the trouble you went to in trying to locate (in my so-called autograph of Il Barbiere) the original of my overture and of the concerted pieces for the Lesson. Who could be the possessor of them now? Patience - Escudier wanted, as a pendant to the Don Giovanni, to do a complete edition of Il Barbiere according to my original, and I was hopeful that I could help him by obtaining the replaced pieces. But it will have to be less because Fate wants it that way." Weinstock: Rossini, p. 56.
Rossini goes on to request Liverani's assistance in looking into some banking matters and correspondence on his behalf and reports that is wife Olympe is distraught over the illness of her little pet dog. The identity of the dog in question is not certain, but it may be Nini, to which Rossini dedicated his piano piece "Les Noisettes" in Vol. IV of his Péchés de vieillesse (1857-68).
At the time that Weinstock studied the letter it was in the possession of music bibliographer Cecil Hopkinson. Op. cit, p. 415.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a comic opera in two acts to a libretto by Cesare Sterbini after Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais's play Le barbier de Séville (1775) and Giuseppe Petrosellini's libretto for Giovanni Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia (1782), Rossini's work was first performed in Rome at the Teatro Argentina on 20 February 1816.
Called "perhaps the greatest of all comic operas. Beethoven thought well of it; Verdi wrote to Camille Bellaigue in 1898: 'I cannot help thinking that Il barbiere di Siviglia, for the abundance of true musical ideas, for its comic verve and the accuracy of its declamation, is the most beautiful opera buffa there is.'" Philip Gossett in Grove Music Online
A highly significant letter relative to the fate of Rossini's now-lost overture to "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" and, in addition, touching on the composer's financial affairs and domestic life. (Inventory #: 39874)
Slightly worn, browned, and soiled; three blank corners with very small chips; creased at folds with short splits and small holes just touching text, some with early unobtrusive repairs.
Together with a small 19th century carte-de-visite photograph of Rossini published by E. Desmaisons in Paris, 98 x 64 mm. mounted on publisher's card stock. Mount slightly trimmed, just affecting Desmaisons imprint, with corners slightly cropped, not affecting photograph. This highly interesting letter relative to the overture of the work is discussed at length by Weinstock in his noted biography of the composer:
"Chroniclers doubting that Rossini could have composed so much music of such quality in so short a working period have pointed out that some of this apparent swiftness can be explained by his having made use of an already existing overture and having interpolated music from earlier operas into the new score. But the surviving 600-page manuscript score in the Conservatorio G. B. Martini at Bologna includes no overture: as is well-known, the overture now played before 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' had been used for Aureliano in Palmira in 1813; with very slight alterations for 'Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, in 1815 - and possibly for 'L'Equivico Stravagante' in 1811. The assumption has been that an overture that Rossini composed expressly for 'Almaviva' ['Il Barbiere di Siviglia'] on Spanish melodies given him by Manuel Garcia has been lost. That Rossini composed or adapted for that opera an overture other than the one used with it now is certain.
Rossini gave the autograph score of the opera to a Professor Baietti, when Léon Escudier wanted to publish it in Paris, Rossini wrote from there to his friend Domenico Liverani [referred to in the letter as "Minghino"], asking him to try to locate the missing overture and Lesson Scene in Bologna. On June 12, 1866, having heard from Liverani that the missing pieces could not be found, Rossini wrote to him: 'Here am I to thank you for the trouble you went to in trying to locate (in my so-called autograph of Il Barbiere) the original of my overture and of the concerted pieces for the Lesson. Who could be the possessor of them now? Patience - Escudier wanted, as a pendant to the Don Giovanni, to do a complete edition of Il Barbiere according to my original, and I was hopeful that I could help him by obtaining the replaced pieces. But it will have to be less because Fate wants it that way." Weinstock: Rossini, p. 56.
Rossini goes on to request Liverani's assistance in looking into some banking matters and correspondence on his behalf and reports that is wife Olympe is distraught over the illness of her little pet dog. The identity of the dog in question is not certain, but it may be Nini, to which Rossini dedicated his piano piece "Les Noisettes" in Vol. IV of his Péchés de vieillesse (1857-68).
At the time that Weinstock studied the letter it was in the possession of music bibliographer Cecil Hopkinson. Op. cit, p. 415.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a comic opera in two acts to a libretto by Cesare Sterbini after Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais's play Le barbier de Séville (1775) and Giuseppe Petrosellini's libretto for Giovanni Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia (1782), Rossini's work was first performed in Rome at the Teatro Argentina on 20 February 1816.
Called "perhaps the greatest of all comic operas. Beethoven thought well of it; Verdi wrote to Camille Bellaigue in 1898: 'I cannot help thinking that Il barbiere di Siviglia, for the abundance of true musical ideas, for its comic verve and the accuracy of its declamation, is the most beautiful opera buffa there is.'" Philip Gossett in Grove Music Online
A highly significant letter relative to the fate of Rossini's now-lost overture to "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" and, in addition, touching on the composer's financial affairs and domestic life. (Inventory #: 39874)
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