Portrait of the composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

The entire Museum contains traces of the presence of Giuseppe Verdi. In Room 1 there is the bust by Vincenzo Gemito. In Room 8 however, there is the anastatic copy of his Requiem as well as other relics. In the vertical case just before the entrance to the room is his funeral mask, a lock of hair, a cast of the Maestro’s right hand, his writing desk with inkstand, pens, letter rack, a stack of papers and French-Italian dictionary. All these objects were found in his room at the Grand Hotel et de Milan when he died. In the final phase of his life, Verdi actually lived and died in the Grand Hotel et de Milan. After the première of the opera Otello, Verdi and Tamagno (the first to perform the lead role) went out onto the balcony of
the composer’s room where the singer gave a completely unscheduled performance of several of the opera’s arias. When the Maestro lay dying in pain, the street outside the Hotel, via Manzoni, was covered in straw to deaden the sound of passing carriages. Still today the room where Verdi lived and died contains the original furniture from the period, including the writing desk on which he composed his final operas.