The news ends the long-standing feud between the heirs of the Italian composer
The house where composer Giuseppe Verdi lived for 50 years is for sale. The news ends the long-standing feud between the Italian composer’s heirs, the Guardian newspaper reports.
The creator lived in Villa Verdi, near the Italian city of Busseto, for half a century. While the owners disputed the heritage, it was run as a museum.
The composer of the operas “La Traviata”, “Aida” and “Otello”, built the Villa Verdi on a property near his hometown of Busseto in 1848.
Before Giuseppe Verdi (1813 -1901) moved into the house with his second wife Giuseppina Strepponi in 1851, it was home to his parents.
Verdi and Giuseppina stayed in the villa until the composer’s death in 1901.
The home is now owned by the four heirs of Maria Filomena Verdi, the composer’s younger cousin, who was raised by him and Strepponi as their daughter.
For the past 20 years, the Carrara Verdi family has been fighting for the right of each of the heirs to the house. However, none of them can afford to buy out the shares of the others.
The heirs decide to sell the villa, which also houses some of Verdi’s works, books, paintings and other belongings.
The apartment will probably be put up for auction.
Since 2010, Villa Verdi has been managed by Angiolo Carrara Verdi and is partly managed as a museum. Visitors can explore the rooms, including the one containing the bed and other furniture from the Milan hotel room where Verdi died.
“We are very sorry. It was only a matter of time,” Angiolo Carrara Verdi told the newspaper Liberta.
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Verdi had two children with his first wife, Margherita Barezzi, but they also died a few years after their birth. Baretsi herself has been deceased since 1840.
Carrara Verdi adds that the composer wanted the home to remain lively and inhabited. “I respected the maestro’s wishes. I hope whoever buys it will treat it the same way as a home. It can’t just turn into a museum.”
Photo: The entry to the garden of Villa Saint Agata, last Verdi’s home in Busseto, Italy in November 2010. (Photo by Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
