Verdi’s heirs to sell his villa at auction

The property is located near Busseto and is one of several houses linked to the composer’s life

Villa Sant’Agata is the countryside manor where Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi spent the second half of the 19^th century and a large part of his life. It is also the place where he reportedly composed some of his famous and still much-enjoyed operas. That villa will likely go up for sale soon after the heirs have reached an agreement to that effect.

The property is located in the hamlet of Sant’Agata di Villanova, near Verdi’s birth town – Busseto, a locality in the region of Emilia Romagna. That region is also where he spent most of his life - a fact that has now given a chance for a small cottage tourism industry built around the composer’s life to develop. The places attract many opera enthusiasts from around the world.

The villa was part residence, part museum

Four siblings from the Carrara Verdi family now share the rights to the villa, which Giuseppe Verdi inhabited between 1851 and 1901. The problem is none of them is wealthy enough to buy off the shares of the other three, which had led to squabbles for the past two decades.

Villa Verdi, as the property is also known, was basically used as a retreat for the family members but also part of it had been converted into a museum, which people could visit. The Carrara Verdi family members have reached an agreement to put the house up for auction, with the Italian state having the right of first refusal. The villa also contains many items, such as books, paintings and furniture which belonged to the musical genius. Reportedly, it even contains the Milano hotel bed where he died.

Angiolo Carrara Verdi, who manages the museum, and speaking to the local newspaper Libertà, said the composer had wished for the home to remain lively and inhabited. “I respected the wishes of the maestro,” he explained. “I hope that whoever (buys it) in the future treats it in the same way, as a home. It can’t just become a cold museum.”

Whatever happens to the house, Verdi fans should not despair since there are more properties linked to his life in that area, which can be visited. These are his birthplace in Roncole, which hosts a multimedia tour with tablets and headphones, video projections and binaural sounds in three dimensions.

Then there is Casa Barezzi, owned by the homonymous patron who gave hospitality to the young Verdi and allowed him to undertake his studies in Milan. In this house, he played for the first time in public in the hall, and also met his future wife Margherita, daughter of Barezzi.

Finally, in Busseto, there is also the house that caused a scandal for the right-thinking people of the time: Palazzo Orlandi, which cannot be visited today. In this place, Verdi lived with Giuseppina Strepponi (his second wife) between 1848 and 1851, whom he had not yet married. He wrote the operas Luisa Miller, Stiffelio and Rigoletto there.

And of course, there is the Giuseppe Verdi National Museum housed in the fascinating Villa Pallavicino.