“I SHALL SAY, AS DOES RODRIGO IN THE OPERA OTHELLO,
‘AN AWAITED PLEASURE IS ALL THE MORE SO,
WHEN IT IS EAGERLY DESIRED.”
Autograph Letter Signed, Donizetti, Italian operatic composer, page, quarto, Monday, undated.
“Last night, Mr. Scribe set the rehearsal of the production of my opera for tomorrow night; you find me thus forced to refuse, in spite of my wishes, to accept your dinner invitation, and I shall say, as does Rodrigo in the opera Othello, ‘An awaited pleasure is all the more so, when it is eagerly desired.'”
In turning down a dinner invitation, Gaetano Donizetti has quoted Rodrigo in Othello, Gioacchino Rossini’s opera that premiered in Rome on December 4, 1816. Based on Shakespeare’s play, Othello held the stage until superseded by Verdi’s greater opera of the same name. Two years later, in November 1818, Donizetti scored his first success with Enrico di Borgogna at the Teatro San Luca in Venice, and during the next twelve years he composed at least thirty-one operas, most of them produced at Naples. Fine condition.
Price: $5,750
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- Musicians / Composers
