Giuseppe Verdi and Gioachino Rossini | Two autograph album-leaves, 1844 and 1850

Giuseppe Verdi and Gioachino Rossini.

Two autograph album-leaves

Giuseppe Verdi. Autograph album-leaf, from Luisa Miller, signed and inscribed by the composer ("Luisa ... G. Verdi Bologna, 10 Nov. 1850")

comprising a nine-bar musical quotation from Luisa's duet with her father in Act 3, "La tomba è un letto sparso di fiori in cui del giusto la spoglia dorme", notated for soprano voice and piano, on two systems of three staves, 1 page, oblong 4to (c.22 x 29cm), 10-stave paper, Bologna, 10 November 1850, with, on the verso, an autograph musical quotation by Matteo Salvi, from his opera Caterina Howard, Bologna, 1850

Gioachino Rossini. Autograph album-leaf comprising a short work for piano in G minor, signed and inscribed ("G. Rossini, Bologna, 5 Sette 1844")

notated in black ink on three systems, each of two staves, containing eleven bars in all, marked "Andante", 1 page, c.6.5 x 22.5 cm, 8-stave paper, Bologna, 5 September 1844

Julian Budden judges Act 3 of Luisa Miller to be "Verdi's greatest achievement so far in combining large-scale structure with depth and intimacy of feeling". As a result of the intrigue of Count Walter and his steward Wurm, Luisa has denied her love for the Count's son Rodolfo, and has just written him a letter proposing a suicide pact. Luisa now explains to her anguished father that the grave has terrors only for the guilty; for an innocent like her it is a bed strewn with flowers. Verdi went to Bologna to stage both Macbeth and Luisa Miller.

Rossini wrote his piano piece again, with a variation in the sixth bar, on another album-leaf, in Bologna two days later (sold in these rooms, 21 November 1990, lot 234, and 15 May 2008, lot 110).