Il maestro e la cantante. Lettere di Giuseppe Verdi a Maria Waldmann (1873-1900), Bologna, Conservatorio G.B. Martini 2001, 96 pp, on the occasion of the Symposium "Tu che le vanità. Bologna per Giuseppe Verdi"

On 23 March 1973, the Admistration Board of  “Giovanni Battista Martini” State Conservatoire deliberated to purchase the letters addressed by Giuseppe Verdi to Maria Waldmann (Vienna 1845-Ferrara 1920) from the Massari heirs. Maria Waldmann was the famous mezzosoprano whom Verdi had called to take the role of Amneris in Aida on the stage of the Scala  in Milan on 8 February 1872, on the occasion of the Italian première of such work after performing it in Cairo on 24 December 1871: from that time Waldmann had become Verdi’s most favourite interpreter and he would require her for the Requiem Mass performed in Milan on 22 may 1874.
Waldmann retired from the scenes very early, when she was slightly older than thirty, in order to marry Count Galeazzo Massari from Ferrara; yet, she continued her close friendship with Verdi, with whom she held a written correspondence up to the days immediately preceding the Maestro’s death. The correspondence covered about thirty years, from 1873 to 1900, and testifies Verdi’s affection and friendship to his most favourite interpreter of Aida and Requiem Mass. The letters sent from Giuseppe Verdi to Maria Waldmann were object of study by the famous historician Alessandro Luzio, who had received them from Duchess Rita Massari in a version transcribed by Dr. Caretti, the Duchess’ personal physician. After Carlo Zaghi had copied them, the letters were published by Alessandro Luzio in the Second volume of Verdian Correspondence, Rome, Reale Accademia d’Italia, Studies and Documents, 1935-XIII. A small portion of the correspondence (27 letters) had already been published by Andrea della Corte in the review Il Pianoforte in February 1926.
In 1937 the correspondence was mentioned again, when Adriano Cavicchi from Ferrara, musicologist , professor of  History of Music at the Conservatoire in Bologna and authoritative musical critic of Il Resto del Carlino, coming to knowledge that the Massari family intended to sell the autograph letters sent by Giuseppe Verdi to Maria Waldmann, informed the Conservatoire Director Adone Zecchi. Thanks also to Oscar Mischiati, librarian at the same Bolognese institution, and to Pierluigi Pietrobelli, great Verdian researcher, the Conservatoire Chairman Federico Masé Dari arranged for the purchase of the correspondence; the purchase could take place thanks to the financial contributions given by the Ispettorato Istruzione Artistica in Rome, and in particular to Bruno Boccia’s effort, on 4 May 1973.
On 25 May 1973, Il Resto del Carlino dedicated an article by Adriano Cavicchi to the event. Cavicchi himself, together with Roberto Verti, edited the publication of the booklet “Maria Waldmann a Voghiera” realized on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to Waldmann in the summer 1996,

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