Verdi, Giuseppe. (1813–1901) [Sinigaglia, Leone. (1868 - 1944)]
Signed Photograph to Leone Sinigaglia
Superb signed photograph of the great Italian composer who takes a place among the most influential figures in the history of opera and whose works, including such classics as Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Aïda, are a cornerstone of the genre. Original cabinet photograph by Pagliano e Ricordi (Milano), signed and inscribed in ink to fellow composer Leone Sinigaglia "Al Sr. Leonino Sinigaglia...G. Verdi / Milano 9 Feb 1887."Born in Turin into an upper-middle-class family, Sinigaglia knew the leading figures of thought, arts and science that lived in the city at the time. In 1888 Sinigaglia began to travel: after spells in several European cities, from 1894 he lived in Vienna, where he associated with Johannes Brahms from whom he developed a taste for so-called absolute music, studying with Eusebius Mandyczewski. In these years he wrote several Lieder and the Concerto for violin and orchestra, opus 20. From 1900 he worked in Prague with Antonín Dvořák (whom he possibly met through his friendship with the Bohemian Quartet in Vienna). His productivity diminished progressively in the following decades, during which European music underwent far-reaching changes. He died during the Second World War, in tragic circumstances: his Jewish origins made him subject to the persecutions of the Nazi police who occupied Turin during 1944; despite his 75 years he was to be sent to Germany as slave labour, but suffered a fatal heart attack at the moment of his arrest. (12585)
Signed Photograph Opera