Giovanni Bottesini : Virtuoso del contrabbasso e compositore (Facsimile ed)

One hundred years after the death of Giovanni Bottesini, here is the first book on the Cremasque musician written in a scientific and strictly musicological way. The essays by Sergio Martinotti, Ettore Borri and Fabrizio Dorsi are based on original documents and therefore represent unpublished essays of inescapable historical and musicological objectivity on the work of the prestigious double-bass player from Cremasque, orchestra conductor and composer of various kinds of music, both operatic-vocal and instrumental-cameral. In addition to the Catalogue of Bottesini's complete works with the sources for each individual work, so as to satisfy the needs of all those who wish to approach Bottesini's music directly, there are chapters on his life, his correspondence, the Cairo Opera, his relations with Casa Ricordi, which are filled with unpublished documents of great interest not only for the knowledge of his work but also for the understanding of his music. interest not only for the knowledge of Bot tesini's work and activities, but for the history of music in general. While the correspondence has the flavour of a detective story for the presence of the Bottesini family, the chapter on the Cairo Opera House reveals for the first time why Emanuele Muzio did not conduct Aida in Cairo, a reason always concealed by all Giuseppe Verdi's biographers. This discovery was made possible thanks to the knowledge of the correspondence from the archives of the Cairo Opera House, which was destroyed in 1971, but transcribed by the editor of this volume before the fateful fire. This correspondence has never been published in its entirety, not even by the Istituto di Studi Verdiani of Parma in the small volume entitled Genesi dell'Aida of 1971. Reading the life of Bottesini published here, one learns for the first time the exact date of the first performance of Bottesini's first opera, Colon en Cuba, in 1848 and not 1847as has always been believed. In order to write this essay on Bottesini's life, I have taken into account the 258 letters published here, 197 of which are unpublished, and I have also helped myself to articles that appeared in the press at the time and were collected in libraries all over the world. This volume will certainly not solve all the problems concerning the life and work of the great Cremasque double bass player, but it is certainly a light, a guide for those who want to know and deepen their knowledge of the exceptional musical and human experience of the "Paganini of the double bass".