“In the sense that there are numerous personalities who have dedicated their lives to music, who need to enter into a retirement home as they no longer have the economic means to sustain themselves, or who have complicated family lives.” “The motives for which Giuseppe Verdi chose to build this house are still valid,” said Roberto Ruozi, president of the Giuseppe Verdi Foundation.

Today most of the costs are covered by investments made by the Giuseppe Verdi Foundation, with residents paying according to their means. For the next few decades, royalties from Verdi’s 27 works paid for the residents’ keep, including medical costs, and the building’s maintenance.

The composer died in 1901, and the first nine guests moved into Casa Verdi a year later. He did not want to be thanked for his generosity, and so stipulated that the home be opened after his death. Verdi, famous for compositions including La Traviata, Aida and Otello, was in his 80s when he conceived the idea of a refuge for musicians who, he said, “are not favoured by fortune, or who, when they were young, did not possess the virtue of saving”. The pair are among the 60 retired opera stars playing out their days in an elegant mansion in Milan founded by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.

Verdi opera life and death