Prospero Bertani, a dissatisfied member of the audience at Aïda, in 1872, asked for reimbursement of his ticket prices, train fare and cost of his "revoltingly bad" dinner at Parma railway station. In return for a written agreement that Bertani would never again attend one of his operas, Verdi paid for the tickets and the travel expenses. He refused to cover the dinner on the grounds that the man could easily have eaten at home.
