Italy pledges to restore Verdi’s last home
OperaThe Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has announced fund-raising plans to restore the house near Piacenza where Giuseppe Verdi lived and worked in the last years of his life.
“Giuseppe Verdi was a key figure in national Risorgimento, a figure of significance together with Garibaldi, Mazzini and Cavour,” said the Minister in presenting the Viva Verdi programme. “It is a duty of the Republic to honour his memory”.
Villa Verdi is at Sant’Agata di Villanova sull’Arda, not far from the composer’s long-time home at Busseto and his birthplace in the tiny village of Le Roncole. Following a disagreement between the heirs, the villa is currently up for auction, and the Minister announced that the Italian State will exercise its right of pre-emption as it is entitled to for assets of significant historical or artistic interest. The Ministry has already earmarked a fund for the purchase of the Villa in the 2023 budget; however, it is an unprecedented sign of participation that all Italian opera foundations are joining together to contribute to the purchase but also to the communication of the historical importance of the mansion where Verdi wrote many of his operas.
Photo by Francesco Maria Colombo
Bravi tutti.
Is this the home Verdi created for retired musicians upon his death?
No. That’s the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti in Milan. Verdi’s buried there too and well worth a visit if you’re in Milan.
Casa Verdi’s in Milano. G.Verdi and his 2nd wife burried there. I was in Piacenza and nobody tald me about GV last home.
No, that’s Casa Verdi in Milan. I’ve visited Sant Agata. Shakespeare was on his bed table.
We know all about Italian pledges.
Like when they pledged to fight WWI with Austria.
Or when they pledged to send arms to Ukraine.
Verdi is overrated anyway.
“cockney bobby”: che stronzata.
Seriously, did you really write this is as an honest belief or are you that devoid of life and knowledge to criticize an individual who was an artist, knew his craft, experienced a sad personal life, was active as a national activist to unite Italy—were Italy to have more like him today—and left a legacy which will endure to the end of humanity. You are aware of the arts to post a comment like that will generate ire so you must like seeing seeing your name.
Not wishing you any harm, but if you were on fire, I doubt if anyone would piss on you to put it out. I will trust that Italy will honor Verdi even if you don’t (and Austria didn’t need help in WWI; they had Germany!)
Very classy, Mr. Pickford.
Dude, you have some anger issues. Just because someone does not like Verdi, does not mean that he should be peed on … right? What are you, the Taliban of opera?
Last time I checked the Austrians squarely got their asses kicked in WW1 … so they could have used the extra help.
More precisely, the last 50 years of his life.
There’s something wrong here: the Villa Sant”Agata, 3 km from Busseto, was Verdi’s longtime home – for fifty years.