 Piave set to work revising the libretto, eventually pulling from it another opera, "Il Duca di Vendome", in which the sovereign was a duke and both the hunchback and the curse disappeared.Verdi was completely against this proposed solution, preferring to negotiate directly with the censors over each and every point of the work.Brenna, La Fenice's sympathetic secretary, mediated the dispute by showing the Austrians some letters and articles depicting the bad character, but great value, of the artist.