Volume 18, Number 4 · March 9, 1972
A Genius and a Gentleman
By W.H. Auden
Letters of Giuseppe Verdi
selected, translated, and edited by Charles Osborne
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 280 pp., $7.95
A few years before his death Verdi wrote: 'Never, never shall I write my memoirs! It's good enough that the musical world has put up with my notes for so long a time. I shall never condemn it to read my prose.' I don't think, however, that he would have any objection to our reading this selection of his letters, admirably translated and edited by Charles Osborne. It contains no embarrassing 'human' documents, no love letters, for instance. Whether this is because Verdi never wrote any or because Mr. Osborne has had the good taste to omit them, I don't know. Anyway, I am very glad. There is only one letter that could possibly be called 'private and confidential,' Verdi's reply to his old benefactor, Antonio Barezzi, who had taken him to task for not regularizing his relationship with Giuseppina Strepponi by marrying her.
Review, 1786 words
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