May 05, 2016 - Sale 2413

Sale 2413 - Lot 251

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
"LA RONDINE [IS] MY MOST BEAUTIFUL OPERA--IN MILAN THEY'LL RUIN IT" PUCCINI, GIACCOMO. Autograph Letter Signed, to "Dear . . . Borromeo," in Italian, complaining of the irritating sea air, reporting that he has finished the libretto of Turandot, noting that [Giulio] Gatti-Casazza visited him, complaining of Tuscan food and women, worrying that his "most beautiful" opera La Rondine would be ruined in Milan, explaining that he would take their money so that Turandot could come out well. Possibly incomplete (verso begins with incomplete sentence). 2 pages, 4to, "Viareggio" stationery, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; remnants of prior mounting at corners verso, faint scattered staining, folds, closing written vertically in left margin recto. "San Giacomo" [Venice], 25 July 1922
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". . . I have a denatured spirit and Euterpe disgusts me. The sea air irritates me . . . --perhaps I'll go to the mountain without pity. Turandot is here that sleeps like winter snakes. I finally have the finished libretto--I'll do it, but with my Catrina. Milan won't see me for now. Perhaps in the winter . . . . We are old, but what can you do?
"Gatti-Casazza came . . . to visit me--it had been 6 years--I found him well.
". . . Are you afraid of the olives trees, the umbrella pines, the c[rap] eaten by Tuscans, the fragrance of the myrtle . . . . Or the women? I have put it aside--finished--and that's all. You know La Rondine? It's my most beautiful opera--In Milan they'll ruin it. . . . I bear it because they give me money to live well. La Rondine amuses me--and Turandot will be able to come out well . . . ."