REST HOME FOR MUSICIANS

«Of all my works, the one I love the most is the Home I built in Milan to shelter elderly opera singers who were not blessed by fortune, or who, in their youth, lacked the virtue of thrift. Dear, poor companions of my life!»
With these words, Giuseppe Verdi described what he considered his greatest human achievement: the Rest Home for Musicians, today affectionately known as Casa Verdi.

Desired by the Maestro between 1896 and 1899 and designed by architect Camillo Boito, Casa Verdi is a neo-Gothic style building that rises in Milan, bearing witness to a profound and generous vision: to offer hospitality to elderly musicians who, after a lifetime on stage, found themselves alone or in financial difficulty.

The building, unique in its kind, is at once a residence, museum, and mausoleum. Among its rooms one can admire Verdi’s personal furnishings, objects with the monogram “GV”, letters, musical scores, as well as extraordinary works of art such as the busts by Vincenzo Gemito, the famous portrait of Verdi by Giovanni Boldini, and plaster casts of the Maestro’s face and hand.

After his death, which occurred on January 27, 1901 at the Grand Hotel de Milan, Verdi was given solemn funerals and was temporarily buried in the Monumental Cemetery. Shortly after, he was transferred, together with his wife Giuseppina Strepponi, to the crypt of Casa Verdi, decorated by Murano artists with mosaics by Lodovico Pogliaghi.

The first guests entered the facility in 1902. Since then, Casa Verdi has welcomed more than a thousand musicians, conductors, orchestral players, choristers, singers, dancers, and music teachers, supported by the proceeds of Verdi’s works, which the Maestro, in his will, devoted to the maintenance of the house.

Even today, Casa Verdi maintains its charitable spirit: it remains an extraordinary opportunity that guarantees access even to less affluent musicians, since it does not require a fixed fee, but rather a contribution toward hospitality − periodically determined by the Board of Directors − in proportion to the declared annual income.