A two bar musical quotation in C Major written and signed by Giuseppe Verdi, is to be auctioned at Bonhams Printed Books and Manuscripts sale in London on 7 June. It is estimated at between £2,000-3,000.
It is dated June 1862 and bears a resemblance to the theme of the chorus’s line from the famous aria, ‘Rataplan, Rataplan, della Gloria’, in the third act of ‘La Forza del destino’, the opera on which Verdi was working at the time. It is possible that it was from an early draft of the work but, equally, it may be that Verdi simply made up this martial air on the spot.
The threat of war was very much in evidence in June 1862 with Garibaldi gathering his forces in Sicily for an, (ultimately abortive), assault on Rome– the very month in which Verdi, who had been elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the newly created Kingdom of Italy in 1861, scribbled this little refrain.
For further sale information please go to www.bonhams.com/books
