Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Autograph letter signed ('G. Verdi') to Francesco Maria Piave, Sant'Agata, 17 August 1852
In Italian. One page, 219 x 136mm, integral address leaf. Provenance: Sotheby's, 11 June 2019, lot 87.

The search for a libretto. Having rejected Piave's suggestion that their opera should be based on Théophile Gautier’s play La Juive de Constantine, Verdi scornfully quotes back at the librettist his own despairing words that 'if this too were to be dismissed, I wouldn't know where to turn'. In hectoring tones, Verdi goes on:

'Allons donc! You should not utter such words, even in jest. You must not refuse to write this libretto. You have to do it, the world may crumble but it has to be done. You certainly started the task a little late but it doesn't matter ... If I had no other occupations I am sure that I would find a beautiful subject, a great subject. In the mass of French dramas it is difficult to find because everyone knows the best ones. It has to be done, I repeat for the 20th time: if you can't find it in others, search in your head, but... it has to be done'.

Francesco Maria Piave (1810-1876) wrote the librettos for ten of Verdi's operas, most famously for Rigoletto and La traviata: the bullying tone of Verdi's letter is entirely characteristic, but Piave was nevertheless a devoted and highly productive collaborator. The present letter is in the midst of the desperate search for a subject to fulfill a commission for La Fenice in Venice, a search which culminated in the composition of La traviata. Published in F. Abbiati (1959), II, 174.