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VERDI: MAN AND MUSICIAN
* * * * * *
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
"THE STORY OF BRITISH MUSIC."
"THE GREAT TONE POETS."
"CHERUBINI" ("GREAT MUSICIANS" SERIES).
"PHASES OF MUSICAL ENGLAND."
"ADVICE TO SINGERS." (12th Thousand.)
ETC. ETC.
* * * * * *
[Illustration: A signed photograph of Giuseppe Verdi.
The inscription reads "_Genova 18 feb[braio]. 1897. G Verdi_"]
VERDI:
Man and Musician
His Biography with Especial Reference to his English Experiences
by
FREDERICK J. CROWEST_
_Author of "The Great Tone Poets," etc._
John Milne
12 Norfolk Street, Strand
London
MDCCCXCVII
[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
_To_
_MADAME ADELINA PATTI NICOLINI_
_EMPRESS OF SONG_
_Whose Transcendent Vocal and Histrionic Powers_
_HAVE_
_Contributed so largely to an adequate appreciation
of the genius of_
_VERDI_
_This Monograph of the Master is
by Expressed Permission_
_DEDICATED_
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND CHILD-LIFE
Verdi's birth and birth-place--Dispute as to his township--Baptismal
certificate--His parentage--The parents' circumstances--The _osteria_
kept by them--A regular market-man--A mixed business--Verdi's early
surroundings and influences--Verdi not a musical wonder or
show-child--His natural child-life--Enchanted with street
organ--Quiet manner as a child--Acolyte at Roncole Church--Enraptured
with the organ music--Is bought a spinet--Practises
incessantly--Gratuitous spinet repairs--To school at Busseto--Slender
board and curriculum--First musical instruction--An apt pupil 1
CHAPTER II
CLERK, STUDENT, AND PROFESSOR
Verdi goes into the world--Office-boy in Barezzi's
establishment--Congenial surroundings--An exceptional employer--Verdi
becomes a pupil of Provesi--A painstaking copyist--Verdi wanted for a
priest--Latin elements--Appointed organist of Roncole--A record
salary--Barezzi's encouragement of Verdi's tastes--Father Seletti and
Verdi's organ-playing--Provesi's status and friendship towards
Verdi--Milan training for Verdi--Refused at the
_Conservatoire_--Experience and training needed--Study under Vincenzo
Lavigna of La Scala--Death of Provesi, and assumption of his Busseto
duties by Verdi 16
CHAPTER III
COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND FIRST OPERATIC SUCCESS
Verdi is engaged to Margarita Barezzi--His marriage--Seeks a wider field
in Milan--An emergency conductor--Conductor of the Milan Philharmonic
Society--His first opera, _Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio_--Terms for
production--Its success--A triple commission--A woman's
sacrifice--Clouds--Death of his wife and children--_Un Giorno di
Regno_ produced--A failure--Verdi disgusted with music--Destroys
Merelli contract--The _Nabucco_ libretto forced on Verdi--Induced to
set the book--Production of _Nabucco_ with success--Opposition from
the critics--Mr. Lumley gives _Nabucco_ in London--Its performance
and reception 27
CHAPTER IV
SUCCESS, AND INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND
Verdi's position assured--Selected to compose an _opera d'obbligo_--The
terms--_I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata_--Its _dramatis personæ_ and
argument--Reception at La Scala--A new triumph for Verdi--_I
Lombardi_ in London, 1846--_Ernani_--Political effect of
_Ernani_--Official interference--Verdi first introduced into
England--Mr. Lumley's production of _Ernani_ at Her Majesty's
Theatre--The reception of the opera--Criticism on
_Ernani_--_Athenæum_ and _Ernani_ 49
CHAPTER V
FIRST PERIOD WORKS
_I Due Foscari_--Its argument--Failure of the opera in Rome, Paris, and
London--_Giovanna d'Arco_--A moderate
success--_Alzira_--_Attila_--More political enthusiasm--_Attila_
given at Her Majesty's Theatre by Mr. Lumley--Its cool
reception--_The Times_ and _Athenæum_ critics on
_Attila_--Exceptional activity of Verdi--_Macbeth_--_Jerusalem_ in
Paris--_I Masnadieri_ first given at Her Majesty's Theatre--Jenny
Lind in its cast--Plot of the opera--The work a failure
everywhere--The critics on _I Masnadieri_--Mr. Lumley offers Verdi
the conductorship at Her Majesty's Theatre--_Il Corsaro_--_La
Battaglia di Legnano_--_Luisa Miller_--Mr. Chorley on _Luisa
Miller_--Its libretto--Reception of the work in Naples, London, and
Paris 70
CHAPTER VI
_RIGOLETTO_ TO _AÏDA_--SECOND PERIOD OPERAS
Turning-point in Verdi's career--The libretto of _Rigoletto_--Production
of _Rigoletto_ in Venice, London, and Paris--Great success of the
opera--_Athenæum_ and _The Times_ on _Rigoletto_--"_La Donna è
mobile_"--A second period style--_Il Trovatore_ written for Rome--The
libretto--Its reception at the Apollo Theatre--The work produced at
the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden--Its cast, and Graziani's
singing therein--Lightning study of the _Azucena rôle_--_Athenæum_
and _The Times_ on _Il Trovatore_--_La Traviata_--The libretto and
argument--The first performance at Venice a _fiasco_--Judgment
reversed--Brilliant success of the opera in London--Piccolomini's
impersonation of Violetta--Mr. Lumley's testimony--The Press and _La
Traviata_--_Athenæum_ and _The Times_ criticism of _La
Traviata_--_Les Vêpres Siciliennes_--_Prima donna_ runs
away--Reception of the opera in Paris and London--Verdi in
Germany--_The Times_ criticism--_Simon Boccanegra_ a failure--_Un
Ballo in Maschera_--Trouble with the authorities--Production and
success of _Un Ballo in Maschera_--Its reception in London--_The
Times_ on the opera--_La Forza del Destino_ unsuccessful 104
CHAPTER VII
_REQUIEM_ MASS AND OTHER COMPOSITIONS
Verdi as a sacred music composer--Share in the "Rossini" mass--Failure
of a patch-work effort--_Missa de Requiem_ produced--Splendid
reception--Performed at the Royal Albert Hall--Structure of the
work--Von Bülow's opinion--Divided opinions on its style and
merit--Its character--Modern Italian Church style--Northern _versus_
Southern Church music--Verdi's early compositions--E minor Quartet
for strings--_L'Inno delle Nazioni_--Its performance at Her Majesty's
Theatre--Verdi's slender share in orchestral music--National
temperament involved--Thematic method inconsistent with Italian
national life 150
CHAPTER VIII
THIRD PERIOD OPERAS
A matured style--Methuselah of opera--The last link--_Aïda_--A higher
art plane--Ismail Pacha commissions _Aïda_--Its libretto--Production
at Cairo--The argument--Patti as _Aïda_--_Athenæum_ criticism of
_Aïda_--_Otello_--Scene in Milan--The initial cast--Its production
and reception in London and Paris--_Athenæum_ review of _Otello_--Its
story--Vocal and instrumental qualities--_Falstaff_--A surprise
defeated--Boito--_Falstaff_ produced at La Scala--In
France--_Falstaff_ at Covent Garden--The comedy and its
music--_Athenæum_ opinion of _Falstaff_--A crowning triumph 167
CHAPTER IX
POLITICIAN AND CITIZEN
A born politician--Attempt to draw Verdi--The revolutionary ring of
Verdi's music--Signor Basevi on this feature--National and political
honours and distinctions--An inactive senator--England's neglect--The
composer's nature and character--Bluntness of speech--A dissatisfied
auditor--Verdi's alleged parsimony--Verdi and the curate--The gossips
and his fortune--Life at St. Agata villa--An "eighty-two"
word-portrait--Verdi's old-age vigour--Love of flowers--His hobby at
the Genoa _palazzo_--Independence of character 203
CHAPTER X
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF STYLE
Verdi's popularity--An important personality in music--Most successful
composer of the nineteenth century--Verdi's opportuneness--Keynote of
future struck in _Nabucco_--Its characteristics--Distinguishing
features of Verdi's music--Stereotyped pattern operas--Change of
style imminent in _Luisa Miller_--Altered second period style of
_Rigoletto_--This maintained in _Il Trovatore_--_La Traviata_
forebodings--Basevi's charge of an altered style therein--_La
Traviata_ and _débutantes_--True Verdi style in _Les Vêpres
Siciliennes_--_Simon Boccanegra_ and _Un Ballo in Maschera_--Third
period works--_Aïda_--Alleged Wagner influence--Mistaken
criticism--Orchestration of _Otello_--Its style and _technique_
compared with _Aïda_--_Falstaff_--Its position as an opera--A saviour
of Italian art--The _Illustrated London News_ defends Verdi from
early critics--Later critics silenced--Verdi vindicated 223
CHAPTER XI
EFFECT UPON AND PLACE IN OPERA
Origin of opera--Melody in music--The first opera, _Dafne_--Monteverde's
advances--Early opera orchestration--Gluck's reformed style in
_Orfeo_ and _Alceste_--A complete structure--Verdi's
starting-point--Wagner's methods--Verdi's early operas--_Don Carlos_
and an altered style--Its reception--A third or matured period
method--Its characteristics--_Aïda_, _Otello_, and
_Falstaff_--Verdi's disciples--Opera as a social need, past and
present--Its reasonable decline--Verdi's ultimate position--His
lasting works 273
CHAPTER XII
VERDI LITERATURE
Its scantiness--Restricted scope for the writer and historian--English
ideas of Italian opera--English books on Verdi--German historian's
measure--Recent English press notices--Foreign journalistic
criticism--Italian writings 293
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Giuseppe Verdi _Frontispiece_
Antonio Barezzi 14
Margherita Barezzi 40
Giovanni Provesi 160
Giulio Ricordi 216
PREFACE
This work is an attempt to tell, in a popular key, the story of Verdi's
remarkable career. A connected chronological account of this composer's
life is needed; and a plain unvarnished narrative will best coincide
with the temperament and habit of one who, throughout a long life, has
been singularly abhorrent of pomp and vanity.
In the literature concerning Verdi, the great man's English experiences
have been studiously neglected. We learn about Verdi in Italy, also
in France; but scarcely anything is recorded respecting Verdi in
England--the land which, more than any other country, served to make
and enrich Verdi. It is to show more of the English side of the famous
_maestro's_ career that the present book is written. It may, probably
will be, long years ere Italy will have another such son to worship.
A tone-worker like Verdi is rare. Then, few great composers who have
appealed to the English public have lived to see their works received
and appreciated to the extent that Verdi has; and it is unparalleled in
the history of musical art, to find a musician, when a septuagenarian
and octogenarian, giving to the world compositions which, for
conception and freshness, far surpass the scores written by him in the
vigour of middle age.
It would be ungracious indeed were I to neglect to express the very
deep obligation which I am under to the illustrious _maestro_ for the
handsome and specially signed portrait which adorns this volume. Not
less am I indebted to the Messrs. Ricordi for all the kind assistance
and encouragement which they have afforded me during the preparation of
this work.
F.J.C.
LONDON, _June 1897_.
CHAPTER I
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND CHILD-LIFE
Verdi's birth and birth-place--Dispute as to his township--Baptismal
certificate--His parentage--The parents' circumstances--The _osteria_
kept by them--A regular market-man--A mixed business--Verdi's early
surroundings and influences--Verdi not a musical wonder or
show-child--His natural child-life--Enchanted with street
organ--Quiet manner as a child--Acolyte at Roncole Church--Enraptured
with the organ music--Is bought a spinet--Practises
incessantly--Gratuitous spinet repairs--To school at Busseto--Slender
board and curriculum--First musical instruction--An apt pupil.
Verdi was born at Roncole, an unpretentious settlement, sparsely
inhabited, hard by Busseto, which, in its turn, is at the foot of
the Appenine range, and some seventeen miles north-west of Parma, in
Italy. The red-letter day, since such it deservedly is, on which this
universal melodist first saw the light was the 10th October 1813.
Terrible events shadowed his infancy. In 1814 the village was sacked
by the invading allies. Then the frightened women took refuge in the
church--safe, as they believed, near the image of the Virgin--until the
soldiers forced the doors, and slew women and children till the floor
reeked with blood. One woman, with infant at breast, flew to the belfry
and hid there, thus saving herself and her child. The child was the
infant Verdi!
Whenever a son of man is born into the world who, in the mysterious
course of events, turns out to be what mankind calls "great,"
there is inevitably a community jealous to claim ownership of the
illustrious one, alive or dead. The subject may have lingered through
troublous long seasons, craving vainly for the stimulus of even scanty
recognition. He has only to become "great" to find hosts of persevering
friends. Verdi having risen to great eminence, more than one locality
has claimed him. He has been styled "_il cigno di Busseto_,"[1] and
"_il maestro Parmigiano_"; but he was neither the swan of Busseto
nor the master of the town of cheeses. Roncole alone is entitled to
the sonship of Verdi; and as both Parma and her smaller sister town,
Busseto, have disputed his parentage, the point of interest has been
very properly investigated. The result is that the question has been
decided once and for all. A certificate written in Latin has been
traced, which establishes beyond dispute both the time and place of
Verdi's birth. The following is the text of the original document:--
"Anno Dom. 1813 die 11 Octobris--Ego Carolus Montanari Praepositus
Runcularum baptizavi Infantem hodie vespere hora sexta natum ex Carolo
Verdi q^m Josepho et ex Aloisia Utini filia Caroli, hujus parocciae
jugalibus, cui nomina imposui--Fortuninus Joseph, Franciscus--Patrini
fuere Dominus Petrus Casali q^d Felicis et Barbara Bersani filia
Angioli, ambo hujus parocciae."
This dog Latin, translated into English, runs as follows:--"In the year
of our Lord 1813, on the 11th day of October, I, Charles Montanari,
placed in charge of Roncole, did at the sixth hour of this evening
baptize the infant son of Charles Verdi and Louisa Utini, daughter of
Charles, married in this parish, under the name of Fortuninus Joseph
Franciscus. The sponsors were Father Peter Casali q^d Felicis and
Barbara Bersani, daughter of Angiolus, both of this parish."[2]
The abode in which the infant Verdi first opened his eyes was one
of the best known and most frequented among a cluster of cottages
inhabited by labouring folk who found work and small wage in the
immediate neighbourhood of Roncole, a three miles' stretch from
Busseto. It was a tumble-down stone-and-mortar-mixture building of low
pitch.
_Padre_ Carlo Verdi and his good wife Luigia Utini were the licensed
keepers of this small _osteria_, whereat wine, spirits, and malt, with
their close relations pipes and tobacco, were matters of trade between
Boniface or _la signora_ and the frugal _contadini_ who lived in and
about Roncole. Wine and music! Another illustration of the curious
union between harmony and alcohol--a connection which harmless as it
really is, has been discouraged and taken fearfully to heart by a
sensitive sort of people, but which has never yet been satisfactorily
disproved or accounted for by all the Good Templar philosophy.
Bacchanalian aids were not the only commodities dealt in by the honest,
though illiterate Carlo Verdi and his brave wife. The inn stood also
as the local _dépôt_ for such unromantic necessaries of existence as
sugar, coffee, matches, oil, cheese, and sausage--all indispensable
items in housekeeping, even in Italy.
The business air pervading the home of Verdi's childhood seems not
to have affected his young mind, and, pecuniarily profitable as such
an establishment for the sale of the liquids and solids of life may
have been, the future musician does not appear to have shown any
disposition towards becoming a vendor of unromantic necessaries or
alcoholic unnecessaries of life. Happily, the fire of genius--the _feu
sacré_--was in Verdi.
Verdi _maggiore_ was distinctly a retail trader, running, with great
good-nature, what are vulgarly known as "ticks" with the Roncolese.
He went to market once a week, to buy in wholesale quantities
grocery of one Antonio Barezzi, storekeeper, distiller, etc., who,
as circumstances proved, was to figure prominently in the Verdi
_dénouement_.
It is a sorry reflection that several of our greatest musicians have
had poverty and untoward circumstances as a "set off," as it would
seem to be, for their bounteous musical gifts. A study of the lives
of the great tone poets will reveal the saddening but not astonishing
truth that, while the world's fairest minstrels have been shaping
melodies and harmonies to gladden hearts and brighten homes for all
ages, they themselves have frequently been enduring lives of misery,
and sometimes want. Verdi at no part of his career has ever been in
abject poverty, but his was by no means a luxurious early life, nor
was his home particularly predisposed towards music. At first, there
was not a pianoforte in it, nor can it be said that Verdi passed his
childhood amongst surroundings to favour the muse, such as the paint
pots, canvases, and stage lights upon which Weber's young imagination
fed. The social and physical conditions in and around Busseto were
ill calculated to inspire the mind with anything approaching the
sublime or the ideal, the poetic or the beautiful; and there seemed to
be insuperable difficulties in the way of the son of the chandler's
shopkeeper ever becoming a musician of any importance. But many most
surprising episodes were to unfold themselves. This unpretentious
spot of Italian soil was to prove the cradle of the revolutioniser of
Italy's national music-drama. To-day it is incontrovertible that in
Verdi's music, especially in his later writings, there is far more
than could ever have been expected of any Italian master. His melody
is the pure chastened current of the sunny South, and no one of his
countrymen has written loftier operatic music than that in _Aïda_ and
_Falstaff_. Much of the flow and beauty throughout his compositions
must, of course, be accounted for by the inability of any Italian son
of art to compose else but luscious melody, while the life and gaiety,
together with that irresistible "go" which so distinguish Verdi's tunes
and colourings, may have borrowed their genesis out of the lively times
and good humour that prevailed at that earliest home--the inn.
The unsophisticated Italian loves music much as a lark loves liberty,
and it is not in Italy, as it used to be here, regarded as degrading
to aspire to being a _virtuoso_. No other occupation is so natural to
the son of the South as music, and although Italians are keen business
people when they once taste commercial success--even if it be of
ice-cream born--yet they make better musicians. Verdi senior did not
press his son into the service of Orpheus, and no steps appear to have
been taken towards forcing the offspring into becoming a manipulator
of chords and cadences. Young Verdi enjoyed a perfectly natural
child-life, playing with children indoors and out of doors until he was
old enough to be sent to school. He was no forced exotic.
There is a feature sometimes attaching to the lives of great
musicians which, happily, in the case of Verdi does not require to
be put forward. He proved no wonder-child or prodigy who--adroitly
boomed--made the round of Europe with advantage financially and
corresponding disadvantage musically. From the outset his career
has been perfectly legitimate, and free from episodes or situations
partaking of the supernatural--no circumstances presenting themselves
to impede his quiet progress along the artistic way which he seems to
have been content to travel.
What will he become? This is the question, pregnant with blissful
uncertainty, which nearly every decent parent has to ask himself of
a young hopeful. Doubtless Verdi senior applied the interrogatory to
himself respecting Giuseppe, but it has not transpired that the subject
of the inquiry furnished much solution to the problem, beyond the
fact that he was always overcome when he heard street-organ music. No
sooner did an organ-grinder appear in Roncole, with his instrument,
than young Verdi became an attentive auditor, following the itinerant
musician from door to door until fetched away. This was the first
hint he gave of musical aptitude, and probably no one would have
predicted that he would one day furnish melodies, almost without end,
for these instruments of torture in each quarter of the globe. One
particular favourite with little Verdi was a tottering violinist known
as Bagasset, who used to play the fiddle much to the little fellow's
delight. This obscure musician urged the _osteria_-keeper to make a
musician of his son, and is said to have received many favours from
the son since he became famous. The old itinerant, very grateful, used
to exclaim, "Ah! maestro, I saw you when you were very little; but
now----!"
The Verdi who was to create such streams of sparkling melody, and need
an Act of Parliament[3] to stop them, was a quiet thoughtful little
fellow as a child, possessing none of that boisterous element common to
boys. That serious expression seen in the composer's face, the first
impression that a glance at any of his present-day portraits would
convey, was there when a child. Intelligent, reserved, and quiet,
everybody loved him.
Perhaps it was this good and melancholy temperament that attracted the
attention of the parish priest, and which led to Verdi's receiving the
appointment of acolyte at the village church of Le Roncole. He was now
seven years old, and it was in connection with his office as "server"
that we are introduced to the first episode, a really dramatic one,
in his career. One day the ecclesiastic was celebrating the Mass with
young Verdi as his assistant, but the boy, instead of following the
service attentively with the priest, which no acolyte ever does, got
so carried away by the music that flowed from the organ that he forgot
all else. "Water," whispered the priest to the acolyte, who did not
respond; and, concluding that his request was not heard, the celebrant
repeated the word "water." Still there was no response, when, turning
round, he found the server gazing in wonderment at the organ! "Water,"
demanded the priest for the third time, at the same moment accompanying
the order with such a violent and well-directed movement of the foot,
that little Verdi was pitched headlong down the altar steps. In falling
he struck his head, and had to be carried in an unconscious state to
the vestry. A somewhat forcible music lesson!
Possibly it was this incident, and the child's unbounded delight at
the organ music which he heard in the street, that set the father
thinking of his son's musical possibilities, for at about this time,
1820, the innkeeper of Roncole added a spinet or pianoforte to his
worldly possessions. This indispensable item of household belongings
was purchased for the especial benefit of the boy-child, thus pointing
to some indications of budding musical aptness on his part. More
soon followed! Young Verdi went to the instrument at all hours,
early and late, playing scales and discovering chords and harmonious
combinations. Sometimes he would forget or lose one of his favourite
chords, and then there was an outburst of genuine native passion
that stood in strange contrast to his usual quiet demeanour. A story
goes that once, when he was labouring under one of these fits of
temper, he seized a hammer and commenced belabouring the keyboard. The
noise attracted the attention of his father, who stemmed his son's
impetuosity with a sound box on the ears, which stopped the craze for
pianoforte butchering. On the whole, however, every one was pleased
with the little fellow's devotion to the instrument, and one friend
went so far even as to repair it for him gratuitously, when it wanted
new jacks, leathers, and pedals, which it soon did, owing to the boy's
phenomenal wear and tear of the instrument. This spinet remained one
of Verdi's most treasured possessions. It was stored at the villa
at St. Agata, and no doubt has often recalled to the veteran's mind
moments and feelings of his childhood. Inside it is an inscription,
a testimonial creditable alike to the application of the little
musician as also to the goodness of the generous local tradesman, who,
conscious, perhaps, of a future greatness for the child, had become
one of his admirers. It runs: "I, Stephen Cavaletti, added these
hammers (or jacks) anew, supplied them with leather, and fitted the
pedals. These, together with the hammers, I give as a present for the
industry which the boy Giuseppe Verdi evinces for learning to play the
instrument; this is of itself reward enough to me for my trouble. Anno
Domini 1821."
It was when he was about eight years of age that little Verdi's
education became a subject for active consideration. His parents'
deliberations ended in the resolve to send him to a school in Busseto.
By virtue of an acquaintance with one Pugnatta, a cobbler, the future
composer of the _Trovatore_ and _Falstaff_ was boarded, lodged, and
tutored at the principal academical institution in Busseto, all at the
not extravagant charge of threepence _per diem_! How this was managed
history relateth not. Young Verdi's receptive faculties did not need to
be severely extended, therefore, to spell "quits" to _padre_ Verdi's
generosity in the matter of letters and "keep" for Giuseppe. After
events abundantly prove that the little harmonist was not slothful in
grappling the mysteries of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Whether,
added to a fair knowledge of the three Rs, he, like most boys, made an
acquaintance with another R, of pliable and impressive properties, is
not known.
Concurrently with the scholastic training, Verdi's father provided
some regular musical instruction for his son. The local organist of,
and the greatest authority upon music in, Roncole was one Baistrocchi,
and to him young Verdi was entrusted for the first training in music
that he received. The terms for the music lessons were not extravagant,
and were requited by a system of Dr. and Cr. account at the inn.
Nevertheless, the instruction imparted was sound and solid, young
Verdi proving smart at music. The measure of the musical merits of
Baistrocchi has not transpired, and the world is uninformed as to
whether he knew much, or little, musically; but whatever store of
harmonious erudition was possessed by him he poured into his young
charge. At the end of twelve months Baistrocchi felt bound to confess
that Verdi knew all that he had to teach him. Thus, either the teacher
had an unusually small store of information to impart, or the student
possessed an abnormal appetite for musical learning.
[Footnote 1: Rossini used to be styled the "Swan of Pesaro," but in his
old age he laughed at this compliment, and endorsed a Mass which he had
composed as the work of "the old Ape of Pesaro," thus parodying the
"swan" or _cigno_ sobriquet which had been given him.]
[Footnote 2: There is in existence another Certificate of this
musician's birth. This is in the Registry of the _État Civile_ of the
Commune of Busseto for the year 1813, and is written in French, Italy
being at the time under French rule.]
[Footnote 3: Mr. Michael T. Bass, M.P., "Bill for the Better Regulation
of Street Music in the Metropolitan Police District."]
[Illustration: Antonio Barezzi]