Edvige Lamperti's Letter

Mme. Francesco Lamperti, widow of the late widely known singing master of Milan, Italy, and therefore the stepmother of Francesco Lamperti’s son, Giovanni Battista Lamperti, who has just died at Berlin, sends the following communication to this office. The letter is herewith reproduced without further comment, as it explains itself:

Lamperti-Valda. Ecole de Chant, 160 Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris, France, March 31, 1910.

Mr. Dear Mr. Delma-Heide:—I shall be very glad if you can kindly in your letter to the well-down paper, The Musical Courier, of New York, rectify certain mistakes in the obituary paragraphs relating to the late Giovanni Battista Lamperti, son of my late husband. One of the German newspapers, the Dresdner Anzeiger, also Riemann’s Musical Lexicon, states he was not the son of the noted Francesco Lamperti. This is not true, for he was the youngest son of my husband, and he was a fine musician and a very good teacher, who assisted his father in his younger days. Other papers state that he taught in Paris. This was not so; he taught in Milano, in Dresden and in Berlin; never in Paris.

Still other papers said that he was a friend and associate of Rossini. This cannot be so, as he was too young. Rossini was an intimate friend of the father; so was Donizetti, and I hold in my possession the correspondence and manuscripts from them to my husband, which I have now decimated or donated to the Lamperti-Valda School in Paris.

There no remains only Madame Valda and myself to continue the method as it was taught by my husband, the celebrated Cav. Com’re, Francesco Lamperti. I taught with him for twenty years, and with Giulia Valda, the well-known prima donna, who was for years a favorite pupil of his, have founded in Paris a school of singing, which was opened in January, 1910. With thanks in advance, etc.

Edvige Lamperti

—Photo and text: clippings file, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York City.