Beschreibung:

Verdi, Giuseppe AUTOGRAPH WORKING NOTES ABOUT FALSTAFF, ADDRESSED TO THE LIBRETTIST OF THE OPERA, ARRIGO BOITO, UNSIGNED comprising notes on the stage directions, text and costume designs for the fairy scene in Act III, Part 2, namely for the pantomime intended to bamboozle Falstaff in the final scene; Verdi makes suggestions for the dress of each character, their stage movements and includes lines from the libretto sung by Alice ("Evita il tuo periglio"), by Nanetta ("Troviamo un nascondiglio"), and by Mistress Quickly (" Vieni, Ti coprirò col velo bianco"), including draft stage directions. ...Nanet[ta] regina delle Fate Meg ninfe verde Alice colla maschera Quickly Befana Bardolfo in cappa rossa Pistola da satiro Cajo in cappa grigia Fenton in cappa nera Ford in maschera... 1 page, 8vo, integral autograph address leaf ("Arrigo Boito Villa Rostan Pegli/ se potete venire qui"), [Genoa, c.1891] Unpublished: not in Busch, Verdi's Falstaff in Letters and Contemporary Reviews (1997), nor M. Conati & M. Medici, The Verdi-Boito correspondence. (1994). This vivid manuscript is one of Verdi's working papers for his final opera, Falstaff. Such working memoranda are of the utmost rarity, and indeed we have little knowledge of the genesis of this opera, simply because of the dearth of surviving sketches. Verdi appears to have designed this list of characters, their costumes and movements, originally for his own use, but the leaf was then folded and a supplication to Boito to come over and assist is written on the outside. Presumably both composer and librettist were staying at Genoa at the time.