I Carteggi di Bellini. Nuove acquisizioni III

Bollettino di Studi Belliniani > I Carteggi di Bellini. Nuove acquisizioni III I Carteggi di Bellini. Nuove acquisizioni IThis article presents the transcription with a critical comment of five autograph letters by Bellini auctioned at Sotheby’s in December 2019 and purchased by Fabrizio Della Seta. The letters were sent between 17 February 1834 and 7 April 1835 to Countess Virginia Martini in Milan and concerned Bellini’s relationship with Giuditta Turina and the end of their love affair. In them, the musician reproached the Countess for her siding against him in this matter and urged her and their friends in Milan to dissuade Giuditta from following him to Paris. This correspondence reveals how confidently Bellini related to people of a higher social status and shows his dark and melancholy mood in the first period of his stay in Paris. Moreover, the letters style is interesting for rhetorical procedures adopted to persuade the countess and for use of different, cultured and popular, quotes.