Dedication manuscript for the Queen of Sardinia

Sebastiani, Giovanni, composer (1818-1899). Autograph musical manuscript signed.

€ 6,500.00

A clean and well-executed fair copy of two cantatas and a romance: "Viva Cristina", "Nel mirare", and "Pria che autunno", splendidly bound for the Queen of Sardinia. Each piece signed at the end ("Originali di Giovanni Sebastiani") and dedicated to Maria Christina of Naples and Sicily (1779-1849), the daughter of Maria Carolina and King Ferdinand I of Naples and Sicily and wife (since 1807) of Charles Felix, who ruled Sardinia as king from 1821 to 1831. The first piece was performed in Rome by students of the Ospizio di San Michele; the second, the "Romanza", is also dedicated to the Duchess of Berry, Maria Christina's niece, who had spent her holidays with the royal family. Like the second piece, the third (bound separately) was penned during Maria Christina's holiday in the Villa Rufinella (also known as Villa Tuscolana) in Frascati.

The composer Sebastiani, a native of Frascati, had studied at the Ospizio di San Michele in Rome and passed away in 1899, aged eighty years (as his obituary in "Le Ménestrel" of 2 April 1899 informs us).