We last saw each other on the Corso di Porta Nuova [in Verona], but I have not had time to come and see you because of the inevitable irritations for husbands – of prima donnas!
I can tell you now that I got Ricordi to read I Mori di Valenza which he liked very much (I think I can hear you give the three laughs of yours!). Like me he felt the second finale might spoil the effect as it was too unemotional. He made some other comments on the character of the tenor and his indifference in going to the altar with Carmine without showing any emotion at having to leave Aixa behind forever – he would like to change this name, which is not difficult. He would also like there to be something new in the last finale while the woman dies so that the other actors do not have to stand around stiff and silent. That was all he said and I think he has already told you in a letter, which I expect you have not answered. Whatever you will not do for Giulio [Ricordi], I hope you will do for me, since I permit myself the illusion that you will not tell me go to hell if I ask you for two or three changes, which will not seem very important to you.
I expect you are back to your mountains by now, and you say why in your paper. Indeed, for a man of independent character and considerable talent, the fresh air is good because sometimes the best company is with oneself and in solitude. It is difficult to find people whom one likes; there is always someone who, as you say, b…s it all up.
There is little new from the Apollo Theatre here. Aida went well, and gave the season a good start, even though the singers are not particularly distinguished (except Mariani) but in many parts of this opera all the need is voice. Then they did Maria di Rohan, in which my wife was well received, but the baritone did not have a good voice and could not act. I had better keep quiet about the tenor. Now rehearsals are going on for Gioconda, which will start on Tuesday or Wednesday. I am not very pleased with the singer’s performances. Parboni enunciates very badly and is very forced; then Miller, the bass, could have a good voice but he does not know the music so he is always singing out of time, and you end up not knowing what on earth he is trying to do. The contralto is cold, but has a good voice. Laura Edelsberg is not too bad. Barbacini is all right, and Mariani, if she is not too tired, will be excellent. She is the only singer in whom I place any faith because she has true talent. The chorus does not have good voices and is old, and I can see that some of their pieces will not be liked because they will not be well done. The orchestra is good as is Maestro Mancinelli. I am very disappointed, and I should not be surprised if it was a failure. When things are not done properly it can mean that.
Teresina [his wife] is pregnant. Affectionately…
I am sorry to hear about the death of Heisher. Poor fellow! It is no good! Do we all really have to die!”
Amilcare Ponchielli
Ponchielli began his musical studies at the Milan Conservatory at age nine, wrote his first symphony a year later and penned his first opera, I promessi sposi [The Betrothed], at age 22. However, it was another 16 years before Ponchielli found success, which came with a revised version of I promessi sposi with soprano Teresa “Teresina” Brambilla (1845-1921) creating the lead role and which premiered at the inaugural performance at Milan’s Teatro Dal Verme on December 5, 1872. Ponchielli married Brambilla two years later and she would be the main interpreter of Ponchielli’s work over the course of her 25-year career. Her appearance in his popular Grande opera La Gioconda, remembered for the aria “Voce de donna o d’angelo” and which premiered at La Scala in April 1876, brought her particular praise. The success of I promessi sposi also marked a professional turning point for Ponchielli, earning him a contract with music publisher Giulio Ricordi (1840-1912).
Ponchielli comments on a performance of Verdi’s opera Aida under the baton of Italian conductor Angelo Mariani (1821-1873) and discusses other operas produced at Rome’s Apollo Theater during the 1877 season including Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Maria di Rohan, starring Brambilla, and La Gioconda, which the performers and conductor Luigi Mancinelli (1848-1921) persuaded him to revise for a third time, and which opened there five days after our letter’s date, on January 23, 1877. That production featured German mezzo-soprano Philippine of Edelsberg (1838-1917) in the role of Laura Adorno, with bass Ladislaus Miller, baritone Augustus Parboni, Italian tenor Enrico Barbacini (1834-1905), and Italian soprano Magdalene Mariani Masi (1850-1916), whose performances Ponchielli criticizes in our letter.
Ponchielli began work on his opera I Mori di Valenza (The Moors of Valencia), also discussed here, in 1874 but it remained incomplete at the time of his death in 1886.
Our letter’s recipient led a colorful life, being expelled from seminary, studying medicine, beginning a career as a baritone, and founding several republican newspapers in 1848, which led to a brief exile. Eventually, Ghislanzoni became a music journalist as director of Italia musicale and editor of the Gazzetta musicale di Milano and founded the magazine Rivista minima with Arrigo Boito. Beginning in 1869, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, penning short stories and novels and, most notably, 85 libretti including Verdi’s La forza del destino, Aida and contributed to his Don Carlos. His collaboration with Ponchielli, I Lituani (The Lithuanians), the idea for which came from Ricordi, premiered at La Scala in 1874. In our letter Ponchielli mentions Ghislanzoni’s new publication, Giornale–Capriccio.
On all four leaves of a folded sheet. Folded and in very good condition.
