Boito (Arrigo) Autograph letter signed ('Arrigo Boito') to...
Boito (Arrigo)
Autograph letter signed ('Arrigo Boito') to Italian soprano Carlotta Berini, in Italian, reading "I have thought a lot about the changes that it would be convenient to make in the part of Marguerite and Helen in order to render it suitable for your voice and have found nothing that is at all possible. The phrases that would have to change are among the more indispensable of the opera. In being cagey about making alterations - I have stuck closely to the unchangeability of my work - I beg you to pardon this whim of a novice. As for the other part, Signora Reboux, restored to health completely, has some right, so I have entrusted to her my score, which Signora Reboux knows already and which I had taken away owing to her illness. Many reasons and considerations prompt me to give back the score of my work to Signora Reboux. Therefore I ask you, Signora Berini, as kindly as I can, to give to the bearer of the present letter (who is a person interested in Mefistofele) the part of Marguerite and Helen that will be on your piano and which - on account of me - has had to pass from your hands with nothing to show for it.
I ask you to forgive me in this matter for which no one is to blame, since, although guiltless, I am already much punished for not having the very talented and most amiable Signora Berini to collaborate to my work", two pages, integral blank, folding marks, scattered toning and soiling, 8vo, n.p., n.d. [1868?]
***Melanie Reboux was a French soprano who sang Marguerite in the first performance of Mefistofele at La Scala in Milan in 1868.
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Boito (Arrigo)
Autograph letter signed ('Arrigo Boito') to Italian soprano Carlotta Berini, in Italian, reading "I have thought a lot about the changes that it would be convenient to make in the part of Marguerite and Helen in order to render it suitable for your voice and have found nothing that is at all possible. The phrases that would have to change are among the more indispensable of the opera. In being cagey about making alterations - I have stuck closely to the unchangeability of my work - I beg you to pardon this whim of a novice. As for the other part, Signora Reboux, restored to health completely, has some right, so I have entrusted to her my score, which Signora Reboux knows already and which I had taken away owing to her illness. Many reasons and considerations prompt me to give back the score of my work to Signora Reboux. Therefore I ask you, Signora Berini, as kindly as I can, to give to the bearer of the present letter (who is a person interested in Mefistofele) the part of Marguerite and Helen that will be on your piano and which - on account of me - has had to pass from your hands with nothing to show for it.
I ask you to forgive me in this matter for which no one is to blame, since, although guiltless, I am already much punished for not having the very talented and most amiable Signora Berini to collaborate to my work", two pages, integral blank, folding marks, scattered toning and soiling, 8vo, n.p., n.d. [1868?]
***Melanie Reboux was a French soprano who sang Marguerite in the first performance of Mefistofele at La Scala in Milan in 1868.
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