THE MUSEUM IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED
Dear Visitor,
the Museo Nazionale Giuseppe Verdi is going through the most difficult moment in its history and is at risk of definitive closure.
In addition to the numerous closures due to the years of the pandemic, which have profoundly compromised the activities of the last few months (forcing us to still keep closed), the Museum is now unjustly called in a court case by the Municipality of Busseto for an absurd affair which, if not resolved in the next few weeks, it will sanction the definitive closure of the Museum!
We are therefore asking your support by signing the online petition opened on Change.org:
(The petition on Change.org is in Italian language only.
If you want to understand more before signing it you can read the English translation here)
The Exhibition Path
The 27 operas by the Great Composer are represented in an historic path with the original scenographies of Casa Ricordi and of the paintings of that time: the XVIII century valuable fabrics, the immortal music and the theatre lights convey unique emotions to the visitor and bring him/her to an intense romantic atmosphere, a path created by set designer and director Pier Luigi Pizzi, Maestro of international prestige. The music stands with the texts by Philippe Daverio, well-known art critic, give an historic version of the people and the facts of that age who influenced Giuseppe Verdi in his works.
Luciano Pavarotti, few months before his death, enthusiastically agreed to the proposal of becoming the Honorary President of the new Museum dedicated to the composer, whose operas he played many times in the most important theatres of the world, and so he still is.
Luciano Pavarotti
Pier Luigi Pizzi
Philippe Daverio
Ballo in Maschera Room
Rigoletto Room
Aida Room
Vespri Siciliani Room
Giovanna d'Arco Room
Additional Services
Ticket office, info-point, wardrobe
Museum reception, at the entrance of the exhibitions path, offers information services (about the visit, the events, the local tourism) and ticket services for museum’s visitors. A cloakroom is available for coats, bags and strollers.
Audioguides and Guided Tours
Philippe Daverio, a famous art critic, tells the episodes and the moods of the Maestro which has characterised the birth of each of the 27 operas represented in the exhibition path. They are available in four languages (Italian, English, German and French).. The Museum offers guided visits in Italian or other foreign languages for groups, schools or single visitors, on payment, subject to availability and on reservation.
Cafè
The coffee bar offers a complete bar service for coffees, aperitifs, drinks and sandwiches, accompanied by Verdi’s images and music coming from the TV LCD screen for a pleasant relax moment.
Bookshop
The bookshop is located in the “Boffalora”, the central body of the villa with the vault decorated by XVI-century frescos. It offers a vast selection of merchandising products (gadgets, games, posters, agendas…), music products (scores, CDs, DVDs) and didactic/scientific books (essays, studies…) concerning Verdi’s and other big composers’ life and works.
Each month, the museums acquires all the editorial news of the sector, representing then a very interesting sales point for musicologists, students, artists and enthusiasts, who can even book rare sector publications.
Music Room
The big music room is located in the central area con the first floor. It is furnished with beautiful XIX-century fabrics and chairs and has a capacity of 100 seats. It is provided with a piano and a public address system for live concerts, and with a video and sound system for the live or pre-recorded broadcast of operas, concerts, documentaries, movies and/or multimedia presentations for PC.
The music room represents the ideal and magic place for events, didactic, conferences, seminars, master classes with famous artists, critics, musicologists, journalists and producers.
On booking, it is also available for conservatories, schools, associations, companies and institutions that are willing to use this unique place for their special activities.
Verdi's Garden
The big garden surrounding Villa Pallavicino is hemmed in a water moat on the four sides with Renaissance balustrades. It is the perfect place for a little relaxing break under the beautiful trees, accompained by Verdi’s music which will be available even in the garden very soon.
It is also a magic place for music events, shows and open-air events organised by the museum itself or by others.
The Villa Pallavicino
Villa Pallavicino is a Renaissance building outside the city walls of Busseto.
It has been the seat of the National Museum Giuseppe Verdi since 10th October 2009.
You can reach it after a poplar avenue, through a XVII-century triumphal arch (probably a work by duke architect Domenico Valmagini); the arch is made up of three parts, decorated with mannerism ornaments and, in the centre, with a drapery opened onto a fake balustrade, as a theatre curtain.
Stuccoes and terracottas are by Domenico Dossa and Bernardo Barca. On the sides there are two niches with stone statues by Giuseppe Torretti: one represents Flora with a little angel, Spring allegory, while the other one represents Bacchus with a little faun, Autumn allegory.
Statue of Flora with a putto, allegory of Spring (by Giuseppe Torretti)
Triumphal arch (17th century)
Statue of Bacchus with a faun, allegory of autumn (by Giuseppe Torretti)
We are not sure about the project author of the Villa (maybe Bramante or Vignola) and Pallavicino family, who bought it in the 30s of the XVI century in order to have a summer residence, are not the ones who commissioned it. The Villa raised at the beginning on the XVI century for want of Matteo Marri. In 1533, before leaving Busseto (to which he gave the qualification of “town” thanks to its loyalty to the empire), emperor Charles V of Hapsburg went to the Villa, he liked it so much that he asked for a painting of it as souvenir.
The Villa, in fact, has a particular chessboard plan (which reminds of the coat of arms of Busseto’s lords, where the chessboard symbolizes an obtained victory, on the chest of imperial eagle), made up of five independent spaces, joined by a unique central section overarching a big entrance hall, open to the four winds, called Boffalora.
The vault is entirely decorated with frescos representing divinities and grotesques with little angels, sirens and fork-tailed newts, sneering monkeys and multiform birds.
Villa Pallavicino aerial view
Entrance Arch
Painting: meeting of Charles V with Pope Farnese in 1533 in Villa Pallavicino
Frescoes in the Boffalora
This work, whose author is maybe the same of Torrechiara castle’s coats of arms hall, dates back to the seventh-eighth decade of the XVI century. The building, though surrounded by a moat, was not created for defence purposes and the balustrade that encircled the Palace once had various statues.
At the end of the XVII century, Alessandro II Pallavicino ordered the renovation and the rise of the Villa, assigning the work direction probably to Antonio Maria Bettoli, who realised palace Santa Fiora in Parma. The façade, in classical style, is characterised by “rustication”, which gives rhythm and contributes to a vertical soaring line, by the horizontal cut of the “marcapiano” frames and by Carlo Bossi’s rococo stuccoes.
The inside rooms have vault ceilings with frescoes and stuccoes by various artists who worked for the Pallavicino Family during the XVIII century.
South of the Palace there is the stable building which has a horseshoe plan and the wings orientated to the Villa.
Contact us
Please contact us for any enquiry:
Museo Nazionale Giuseppe Verdi
Villa Pallavicino
Verdi Multimedia Srl
Viale Ziliani, 1 - angolo Via F.Provesi, 35
43011 BussetoParma
E info@museogiuseppeverdi.org