Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘Agnesi’, about his difficulties finding a female singer for the concert at Spa, despite the offer of large sums, the impossibility of performing with three men only (”we shall look like three Anabaptists” [trans.]), the complications of his own travels, etc. 3 pp. 8 x 5 inches, fine. Kissingen, 16 July 1864. A good letter by Luigi Agnesi (1833 –1875), Belgian operatic bass-baritone, conductor and composer. He made his professional opera debut in 1864 as Assur in Gioachino Rossini’s Semiramide at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. In 1865 he made his London debut at Her Majesty’s Theatre, and thereafter his career was mainly centered in that city. He was highly active at the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane up until his death in 1875 at the age of 41. He was particularly admired in England as King Henry VIII in Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Alfonso in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.