Verdi's Letters in English

Verdi kept 'copialettere', copybooks into which he drafted or copied his business letters. In 1913, for the centenary of his birth, Gaetano Cesari and Alessandro Luzio published them, with many other letters, as I copialettere di Giuseppe Verdi. The book has never been translated into English as a whole: the English collections that exist are selections. We are translating it letter by letter, in order. The numbers in brackets are the pages of Verdi's copybook as given in the 1913 edition.

• Letters I–XI: Alzira, I due Foscari, and the doctor of Vesuvius (1844–1845)
  The 30-year-old Verdi negotiates his first contract with the San Carlo in Naples, turns down a gala cantata, plans I due Foscari for Rome, falls ill while writing Alzira, and answers an impresario who prescribes wormwood and the air of Vesuvius.

New letters are added regularly. Art song translations

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