Giacomo Puccini (full name: Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele
Secondo Maria Puccini) (Italian: [ˈdʒaːkomo
putˈtʃiːni]; 22 December 1858 – 29 November 1924) was an
Italian composer whose
operas
are among the most frequently performed in the
standard repertoire.[n
1]
Puccini has been called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after
Verdi".[1]
While his early work was rooted in traditional late-19th century
romantic Italian opera, he successfully developed his work in the
'realistic'
verismo
style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.
Family and
education
Puccini's birthplace, seen in 1984
Statue of Puccini in front of his birthplace
Puccini was born in
Lucca in
Tuscany, in 1858. He was one of seven children of Michele Puccini
and Albina Magi. The Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local
musical dynasty by Puccini's great-great grandfather – also named
Giacomo (1712–1781).[2][3]
This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the
Catedrale di San Martino in Lucca.[4]
He was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini,[4]
and then by Antonio's son
Domenico, and Domenico's son Michele (father of the subject of this
article).[2]
Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some took additional
musical studies elsewhere.[2][4]
Domenico Puccini studied for a time under
Giovanni Paisiello.[2]
Each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed
several operas, and Michele composed one opera.[2]
Puccini's father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy,
and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the
then-famed composer
Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem.[5]
With the Puccini family having occupied the position of maestro di
cappella for 124 years (1740–1864) by the time of Michele's death,
it was anticipated that Michele's son Giacomo would occupy that position
as well when he was old enough.[3]
However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six
years old, and thus not capable of taking over his father's job.[2]
As a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the
Catredale di San Martino, as a member of the boys' choir and later as a
substitute organist.[3]
Puccini was given a general education at the seminary of San Michele
in Lucca, and then at the seminary of the cathedral.[2]
One of Puccini's uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical
education. Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in
Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later
with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed
Alfredo Catalani. A grant from the queen of Italy, and assistance
from another uncle, Nicholas Cerù, provided the funds necessary for
Puccini to continue his studies at the
Milan Conservatory,[2][5]
where he studied composition with
Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti,
Amilcare Ponchielli, and
Antonio Bazzini. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three
years. In 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his
Mass, which marks the culmination of his family's long
association with
church music in his native Lucca.[n
2]
Early
career and first operas
As something in the nature of a thesis composition for the Milan
Conservatory, Puccini wrote an orchestral piece called the Capriccio
sinfonica. Puccini's teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed
by the work. The Capriccio sinfonica was performed at a student
concert at the conservatory, and Puccini's work was favorably reviewed
in a Milanese publication Perseveranza.[2]
Thus Puccini began to build a reputation as a young composer of promise
in Milanese music circles.
Le villi
After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonica, Ponchielli and
Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccini's next work might be an
opera. Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini
was introduced to another young man named Fernando Fontana.[2]
Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana
would provide the
libretto. The work,
Le villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the
Sozogno music publishing company in 1883 (the same competition in which
Pietro Mascagni's
Cavalleria rusticana was the winner in 1889).[2]
Although it did not win, Le villi was later staged at the
Teatro Dal Verme, premiering on 31 May 1884.[2]
G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, assisted with the premier by
printing the libretto without charge.[2]
Fellow students from the Milan Conservatory formed a large part of the
orchestra.[2]
The performance was enough of a success that Casa Ricordi purchased the
opera.[2]
Revised to a two-act version with an intermezzo between the acts, Le
villi was performed at
La
Scala in Milan, on 24 January 1885. Ricordi did not publish the
score until 1887, however, hindering further performance of the work.[2]
Edgar
Giulio Ricordi, head of
G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, was sufficiently impressed with
Le villi and its young composer that he commissioned a second
opera, which turned out to be
Edgar. Work was begun in 1884, when Fontana began working out
the scenario for the libretto.[6]
Puccini finished primary composition in 1887, and orchestration in 1888.[6]
Edgar premiered at
La
Scala on 21 April 1889 to a lukewarm response.[6]
The work was withdrawn for revisions after its third performance.[6]
In a Milanese newspaper, Giulio Ricordi published a defense of Puccini's
skill as a composer, while criticizing Fontana's libretto. A revised
version met with success at the Teatro di Giglio in Puccini's native
Lucca on 5 September 1891.[6]
In 1892, further revisions reduced the length of the opera to three acts
from four, in a version that was well received in Ferrara and was
performed in Turin and in Spain.[6]
Puccini made further revisions in 1901 and 1905, but the work never
achieved popularity.[6]
But for the personal support of Ricordi, Edgar might have cost
Puccini his career. Puccini had eloped with his former piano student,
the married Elvira Gemignani, and Ricordi's associates were willing to
turn a blind eye to his life style as long as he was successful. When
Edgar failed, they suggested to Ricordi that he should drop Puccini,
but Ricordi said that he would stay with him and made him an allowance
from his own pocket until his next opera.
Manon Lescaut
On commencing his next opera,
Manon Lescaut, Puccini announced that he would write his own
libretto so that "no fool of a librettist"[7]
could spoil it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept
Ruggero Leoncavallo as his librettist, but Puccini soon asked
Ricordi to remove him from the project. Four other librettists were then
involved with the opera, as Puccini constantly changed his mind about
the structure of the piece. It was almost by accident that the final
two,
Luigi Illica and
Giuseppe Giacosa, came together to complete the opera. They remained
with Puccini for his next three operas and probably his greatest
successes:
La
bohème,
Tosca
and
Madama Butterfly. Manon Lescaut was a great success and
established Puccini's reputation as the most promising rising composer
of his generation, and the most likely "successor" to Verdi as the
leading exponent of the Italian operatic tradition.[5]
Middle career
Original poster for Puccini's
Tosca
La bohème
Puccini's next work after Manon Lescaut was La bohème,
based on the 1851 book by
Henri Murger,
La Vie de Bohème.
La
bohème was premiered in
Turin in
1896, conducted by
Arturo Toscanini.[8]
The opera quickly became popular throughout Italy and productions were
soon mounted all over the world.[9]
The opera freely adapted Murger's episodic novel into a four-act
opera focusing on six young bohemians in Paris. The libretto of the
opera combines comic elements of the impoverished life of the young
protagonists of the opera with the tragic aspects, such as the death of
Mimí. The world premiere performance of La bohème was in Turin on
1 February 1896 at the
Teatro Regio and conducted by the young
Arturo Toscanini.
Puccini's own life as young man in Milan served as a source of
inspiration for elements of the libretto. During Puccini's years as a
conservatory student and in the years before Manon Lescaut,
Puccini experienced poverty similar to that of the bohemians in La
bohème, including chronic shortage of necessities like food,
clothing and money to pay rent. Although Puccini was granted a small
monthly stipend by the Congregation of Charity in Rome (Congregazione
di caritá), he frequently had to
pawn possessions in order to cover basic expenses.[2][10]
Indeed, early biographers of Puccini such as Wakeling Dry and Eugenio
Checchi, who were his contemporaries, drew express parallels between
these incidents and particular events in the opera La bohème.[2][10]
Checchi cited a diary kept by Puccini while he was still a student,
which the young man titled "Bohemian Life, 1881. Record of Expenses" (La
vie de boheme, Registro di spese), in which Puccini recorded the amounts
spent on meager supplies of basics like milk and bread.[2][10]
This diary recorded one occasion on which Puccini purchased a single
herring, which served as a dinner for four people: Puccini, his brother
Michele, their roommate (a cousin), and a friend.[2][10]
Commenting on this incident, Puccini stated: "Doesn't it seem to you
like the first scene of act four of my Bohème? I lived that
Bohème, when there wasn't yet any thought stirring in my brain of
seeking the theme of an opera. (Non ti pare la prima
scena del quarto atto della mia Bohème? Quella Bohème io l’ho vissuta,
quando ancora non mi mulinava nel cervello l’idea di cercarvi
l’argomento per un’opera in musica.)"[10]
In the first scene in act 4, the characters Schaunard and Colline bring
dinner to the garrett, consisting of "un piatto degno di Demostene: un
'aringa ... salata" (a dish worthy of Demosthenes: a salted herring),
which, with bread, serves as a meal for four. Dry and Checchi cite
several other examples of incidents from Puccini's impoverished
early-adult years that have direct parallels in the libretto of La
bohème.
Within a few years, La bohème had been performed throughout
many of the leading opera houses of Europe, including Britain, as well
as in the United States.[11]
It was a popular success, and remains one of the most frequently
performed operas ever written.
Tosca
Puccini's next work after La bohème was
Tosca
(1900), arguably Puccini's first foray into
verismo,
the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence.
Puccini had been considering an opera on this theme since he saw the
play Tosca by
Victorien Sardou in 1889, when he wrote to his publisher,
Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work
to be made into an opera: "I see in this Tosca the opera I need,
with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call
for the usual excessive amount of music."[12]
Puccini photographed in 1908
The music of Tosca employs musical signatures for particular
characters and emotions, which have been compared to Wagnerian
leitmotivs, and some contemporaries saw Puccini as thereby adopting a
new musical style influenced by Wagner. Others viewed the work
differently. Rejecting the allegation that Tosca displayed
Wagnerian influences, a critic reporting on the Feb. 20, 1900 Torino
premiere wrote: "I don't think you could find a more Puccinian score
than this."[13]
Automobile accident and near death
On 25 February 1903, Puccini was seriously injured in a car accident
during a nighttime journey on the road from Lucca to Torre del Lago. The
car was driven by Puccini's chauffeur and was carrying Puccini, his wife
Elvira, and their son Antonio. It went off the road, fell several
meters, and flipped over. Elvira and Antonio were flung from the car and
escaped with minor injuries. Puccini's chauffeur, also thrown from the
car, suffered a serious fracture of his femur. Puccini was pinned under
the vehicle, with a severe fracture of his right leg and with a portion
of the car pressing down on his chest. A doctor living near the scene of
the accident, together with another person who came to investigate,
saved Puccini from the wreckage.[14]
The injury did not heal well, and Puccini remained under treatment for
months. The accident and its consequences slowed Puccini's completion of
his next work, Madama Butterfly.
Madama Butterfly
The original version of
Madama Butterfly, premiered at
La
Scala on 17 February 1904, was initially greeted with great
hostility (probably largely owing to inadequate rehearsals). This
version[15]
was in two acts; after its disastrous premiere, Puccini withdrew the
opera, revising it for performances in the USA and Paris. In 1907,
Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version,[16]
which has become known as the "standard version". Today, the standard
version of the opera is the version most often performed around the
world. However, the original 1904 version is occasionally performed as
well, and has been recorded.[17]
Later works
After 1904, Puccini's compositions were less frequent. In 1906
Giacosa died and, in 1909, there was scandal after Puccini's wife,
Elvira, falsely accused their maid Doria Manfredi of having an affair
with Puccini. Finally, in 1912, the death of Giulio Ricordi, Puccini's
editor and publisher, ended a productive period of his career.
La fanciulla
del West
Puccini completed
La fanciulla del West, based on a play by
David Belasco, in 1910. This was commissioned by, and first
performed at, the
Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910 with Met stars
Enrico Caruso and
Emmy Destinn for whom Puccini created the leading roles of Dick
Johnson and Minnie. Toscanini, then the musical director of the Met,
conducted.[18]
This was the first world premiere of an opera at the Met.[19]
The premiere was a great success.[20]
However, the compositional style employed in the opera, with few
stand-alone arias, was criticized at the time[21]
and remains a barrier to the opera's complete acceptance into the
standard repertoire. Some contemporaries also criticized the opera for
failing to achieve an "American" tone.[22][23]
However, the opera has been acclaimed for its incorporation of advanced
harmonic language and rhythmic complexity into the Italian operatic
form.[24]
In addition, one aria from the opera,
Ch'ella mi creda, has become a staple of compilation albums by
operatic tenors. It is said that during
World War I, Italian soldiers sang this aria to maintain their
spirits.[25][26]
La rondine
Puccini completed the score of
La
rondine, to a libretto by
Giuseppe Adami in 1916 after two years of work, and it was premiered
at the
Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo on 27 March 1917. The opera had been
originally commissioned by Vienna's
Carltheater; however the outbreak of
World War I prevented the premiere being given there. Moreover, the
firm of Ricordi had declined the score of the opera, which had been
taken up by their rival, Lorenzo Sonzogno, who arranged the first
performance in neutral
Monaco.[27]
The least known of Puccini's mature operas, the composer continued to
work at revising it until his death.
La rondine was initially conceived as an operetta, but Puccini
eliminated spoken dialogue, rendering the work closer in form to an
opera. A modern reviewer described La rondine as "a continuous
fabric of lilting waltz tunes, catchy pop-styled melodies, and nostalgic
love music," while characterizing the plot as recycling characters and
incidents from works like 'La traviata' and 'Die fledermaus'.[28]
Il trittico: Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi
In 1918,
Il trittico premiered in New York. This work is composed of
three one-act operas: a horrific episode (Il
tabarro), in the style of the Parisian
Grand Guignol, a sentimental tragedy (Suor
Angelica), and a comedy (Gianni
Schicchi). Of the three, Gianni Schicchi, containing the
popular aria "O
mio babbino caro", has remained popular.
Turandot
Turandot, Puccini's final opera, was left unfinished, and the
last two scenes were completed by
Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches. The libretto for
Turandot was based on a play by
Carlo Gozzi, also called Turandot.[29]
The music of the opera is heavily inflected with
pentatonic motifs, intended to produce an Asiatic flavor to the
music. Unlike La fanciulla, Turandot contains a number of
memorable stand-alone arias, among them
Nessun dorma.
Puccini
and his librettists
The libretto of Edgar was a significant factor in the failure
of that opera. Thereafter, especially throughout his middle and late
career, Puccini was extremely selective, and at times indecisive, in his
choice of subject matter for new works.[6]
Puccini was deeply involved in the process of writing the libretto
itself, requiring many iterative revisions of his libretti in terms of
both structure and text. Puccini's relationships with his librettists
were at times very difficult. His publisher, Casa Ricordi, was
frequently required to mediate disputes and impasses between them.[30]
Puccini explored many possible subjects that he ultimately rejected
only after a significant amount of effort—such as the creation of a
libretto—had been put into them.[31]
Among the subjects that Puccini seriously considered, but abandoned,
were: Cristoforo Sly, Anima Allegra (based on the play
El genio alegre by Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero), Two
Little Wooden Shoes (I due zoccoletti) (a short story by
Maria Louise Ramé, aka
Ouida),
the life of
Marie Antoinette, Margherita da Cortona, and Conchita (based
on the novel La Femme et le pantin --The Woman and the Puppet,
by Pierre Loüys).[30]
Some of these abandoned subjects were taken up and turned into operas by
other composers. For example,
Franco Vittadini made an opera of Anima Allegra, Mascagni's
opera Lodoletta is derived from Two Little Wooden Shoes,
and
Riccardo Zandonai eventually wrote
Conchita.[30]
Puccini at
Torre del Lago
From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time, when not traveling
on business, at
Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca
situated between the Ligurian Sea and
Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of
Viareggio. Torre del Lago was the primary place for Puccini to
indulge his love of hunting. "I love hunting, I love cars: and for these
things, in the isolation of Torre del Lago, I keep the faith." ("Amo la
caccia, adoro l’automobile: e a questo e a quella nelle solitudini di
Torre del Lago serbo intera la mia fede.")[32]
By 1900, he had acquired land and built a villa on the lake, now
known as the "Villa Museo Puccini." He lived there until 1921, when
pollution produced by peat works on the lake forced him to move to
Viareggio, a few kilometres north. After his death, a
mausoleum was created in the Villa Puccini and the composer is
buried there in the
chapel,
along with his wife and son who died later.
The Villa Museo is presently owned by his granddaughter, Simonetta
Puccini, and is open to the public. An annual
Festival Puccini is held at Torre del Lago.
Marriage and
affairs
In the autumn of 1884, Puccini began a relationship with a married
woman named Elvira Gemignani (née Bonturi) in Lucca. Elvira's husband,
Narisco Gemignani, was an "unrepentant womanizer", and Elvira's marriage
was not a happy one.[6]
Elvira became pregnant by Puccini, and their son, Antonio, was born in
1886. Elvira left Lucca when the pregnancy began to show, and gave birth
elsewhere to avoid gossip.[6]
Elvira, Antonio and Elvira's daughter by Narisco, Fosca, began to live
with Puccini shortly afterwards. Narisco was killed by the husband of a
woman that Narisco had an affair with, dying on 26 February 1903.[6]
Only then were Puccini and Elvira able to marry, and to legitimize
Antonio.
The marriage between Puccini and Elvira was also troubled by
infidelity, as Puccini had frequent affairs himself, including with
well-known singers such as
Maria Jeritza,
Emmy Destinn,
Cesira Ferrani, and
Hariclea Darclée.[6]
In 1909, Puccini's wife Elvira publicly accused Doria Manfredi, a
maid working for the Puccini family, of having an affair with the
composer. After being publicly accused of adultery, Doria Manfredi
committed suicide. An autopsy determined, however, that Doria had died a
virgin, refuting the allegations made against her. Elvira Puccini was
prosecuted for slander, and was sentenced to more than five months in
prison. Because of a payment to the Manfredi family by Puccini, Elvira
was spared having to serve the sentence.[33]
According to documents found in the possession of a descendant of the
Manfredi family, Nadia Manfredi, in 2007, Puccini was actually having an
affair with Giulia Manfredi, Doria's cousin. Press reports at the time
when these documents were discovered alleged that Nadia Manfredi was
Puccini's granddaughter, by a son, Antonio Manfredi, born to Giulia.[33][34]
Some music critics and interpreters of Puccini's work have speculated
that the psychological effects of this incident on Puccini interfered
with his ability to complete compositions later in his career, and also
influenced the development of Puccinian characters such as Liu (from
Turandot), a slave girl who dies tragically by suicide.[35][36][37]
Politics
Unlike
Verdi, Puccini was not active in the politics of his day. Puccini
biographer
Mary Jane Phillips-Matz wrote: "Puccini's interest in politics was
close to zero .. all his life. He seemed indifferent to everything from
mayoral elections in Viareggio to cabinet appointments in Rome."[30]
Another biographer speculates that Puccini may have been—if he had a
political philosophy—a monarchist.[38]
Puccini's indifference to politics caused him personal and
professional problems during
World War I. Puccini's long-standing and close friendship with
Toscanini was interrupted for nearly a decade because of an argument in
the summer of 1914 (in the opening months of the war) during which
Puccini remarked that Italy could benefit from German organization.[30]
Puccini was also criticized during the war for his work on La rondine
under a 1913 commission contract with an Austrian theater after Italy
and Austria-Hungary became opponents in the war in 1914 (although the
contract was ultimately cancelled). Puccini did not participate in the
public war effort, but privately rendered assistance to individuals and
families affected by the war.[30]
In 1919, Puccini was commissioned to write music to an ode by
Fausto Salvatori honoring Italy's victories in World War I. The
work, Inno a Roma (Hymn to Rome), was to premiere on 21 April
1919, during a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of Rome.
The premiere was delayed to 1 June 1919, when it was played at the
opening of a gymnastics competition.[39]
Although not written for the fascists, the Inno a Roma was widely
played during Fascist street parades and public ceremonies.[40]
Puccini had some contact with
Benito Mussolini and the Italian fascist party in the year preceding
his death. Unsolicited, in 1923 the fascist party in Viareggio made
Puccini an honorary member and sent him a membership card.[30]
However, evidence that Puccini was actually a member of the
Fascist party is equivocal.[41]
The Italian Senate has traditionally included a small number of members
appointed in recognition of their cultural contributions to the nation.
Puccini hoped to attain this honor, which had been granted to Verdi, and
undertook to use his connections to bring about the appointment. While
honorary senators could vote, there is no indication that Puccini sought
the appointment for this purpose. Puccini also wished to establish a
national theater in Viareggio, a project which would require government
support. Puccini met with Mussolini twice, in November and December
1923, seeking support for the theater project. While the theater project
never came to fruition, Puccini was named Senator (senatore a vita)
a few months before his death.[30]
At the time Puccini met with Mussolini, Mussolini had been prime
minister for approximately a year, but his party had not yet taken full
control of the Italian Parliament through the violence and
irregularities of the
Italian general election, 1924. Puccini was no longer alive when
Mussolini announced the end of representative government, and the
beginning of a fascist dictatorship, in his speech before the Chamber of
Deputies on 3 January 1925.[42]
Death
Plaque at Puccini's last residence in Brussels
A chain smoker of Toscano cigars and cigarettes, Puccini began to
complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923. A diagnosis of
throat cancer led his doctors to recommend a new and experimental
radiation therapy treatment, which was being offered in
Brussels. Puccini and his wife never knew how serious the cancer
was, as the news was only revealed to his son.
Puccini died in Brussels on 29 November 1924, from complications
after the treatment; uncontrolled bleeding led to a
heart attack the day after surgery. News of his death reached Rome
during a performance of La bohème. The opera was immediately
stopped, and the orchestra played
Chopin's
Funeral March for the stunned audience.[citation
needed] He was buried in
Milan, in
Toscanini's family tomb, but that was always intended as a temporary
measure. In 1926 his son arranged for the transfer of his father's
remains to a specially created chapel inside the Puccini villa at Torre
del Lago.
Puccini, his contemporaries, and the verismo style
Today, Puccini is by far the most-performed composer among his
Italian contemporaries, and the same was true during his lifetime. One
contemporary English author, writing in 1897 wrote "[Puccini] is
undoubtedly the most fully equipped of the younger Italian composers,
and his future career will be watched with some interest."[5]
Italian opera composers of the generation with whom Puccini was compared
included Pietro Mascagni (7 Dec. 1863 – 2 Aug. 1945), Ruggero
Leoncavallo (b. Naples, 8 Mar. 1857; d. 9 Aug. 1919), Umberto Giordano
(28 Aug. 1867 – 12 Nov. 1948),
Francesco Cilea (23 July 1866 – 20 November 1950), Baron
Pierantonio Tasca (1858-1934), Gaetano Coronaro (b. Vicenza, 18 Dec.
1852; d. Milan, 5 5 Apr. 1908).[5]
By the time of his death in 1924, Puccini had earned $4 million from his
works.[43]
Eleven of Puccini's operas numbered among the 200 most-performed
operas between August 2008 and December 2011 (worldwide, by composers of
any nationality, as surveyed by Operabase).[44]
Only three composers, and three works, by Italian contemporaries of
Puccini appear on this list: Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni,
Pagliacci by
Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Andrea Chenier by
Umberto Giordano).
Puccini is frequently referred to as a "verismo"
composer. Verismo is a style of Italian opera that began in 1890
with the first performance of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana,
peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s.[45]
The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent –
depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary
lower classes. It by and large rejects the historical or mythical
subjects associated with
Romanticism. Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and
Andrea Chenier are uniformly considered to be verismo
operas—they represent the primary verismo works in performance
today other than those written by Puccini.
Puccini's career as a composer is almost entirely coincident in time
with the verismo movement. Only his Le villi and Edgar
preceded Cavalleria rusticana. At least two of Puccini's operas,
Tosca and Il tabarro, are generally considered to be
verismo operas.[46]
While some view Puccini as essentially a verismo composer,[47]
others, although acknowledging that he took part in the movement to some
degree, do not view him as a "pure" verismo composer.[48]
In addition, critics differ as to the degree to which particular operas
by Puccini are, or are not, properly described as verismo operas.
For example, Puccini scholar Mosco Carner places only two of Puccini's
operas other than Tosca and Il tabarro within the
verismo school: Madama Butterfly, and La fanciulla del
West.[49]
Style
and critical reception
Grove Music Online comments that
Puccini succeeded in mastering the orchestra as no other Italian
had done before him, creating new forms by manipulating structures
inherited from the great Italian tradition, loading them with bold
harmonic progressions which had little or nothing to do with what
was happening then in Italy, though they were in step with the work
of French, Austrian and German colleagues.[50]
In his work on Puccini,
Julian Budden describes Puccini as a gifted and original composer,
noting the vibrant innovation hidden in the popularity of works such as
"Che gelida manina". He describes the aria in musical terms (the
signature embedded in the harmony for example), and points out that its
structure was rather unheard of at the time, having three distinct
musical paragraphs that nonetheless form a complete and coherent whole.
This gumption in musical experimentation was the essence of Puccini's
style, as evidenced in his diverse settings and use of the
motif to express ideas beyond those in the story and text.[citation
needed]
While Puccini's music has remained extremely popular with opera
audiences, Puccini has consistently been the target of condescension by
some music critics who find his music insufficiently sophisticated or
difficult. Some have explicitly condemned his efforts to please his
audience, such as this contemporary Italian critic:
- He willingly stops himself at minor genius, stroking the taste
of the public ... obstinately shunning too-daring innovation ... A
little heroism, but not taken to great heights; a little bit of
veristic comedy, but brief; a lot of sentiment and romantic idyll:
this is the recipe in which he finds happiness. ([E]gli si arresta
volentieri alla piccola genialità, accarezzando il gusto del
pubblico ... rifuggendo ostinato dalle troppo ardite innovazioni.
... Un po' di eroismo, ma non spinto a grandi altezze, un po' di
commedia verista, ma breve; molto idillio sentimentale e romantico:
ecco la ricetta in cui egli compiace.)[51]
Works
Puccini also wrote orchestral pieces, sacred music, chamber music and
songs for voice and piano, most notably his 1880 mass
Messa di gloria and his 1890 string quartet Crisantemi.
However, he is primarily known for his operas:
-
Le
Villi, libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (in one act –
premiered at the
Teatro Dal Verme, 31 May 1884)
-
Edgar, libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (in four acts –
premiered at La Scala, 21 April 1889)
-
Manon Lescaut, libretto by
Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva (premiered at the
Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893)
-
La bohème, libretto by Luigi Illica and
Giuseppe Giacosa (premiered at the Teatro Regio of Torino, 1
February 1896)
-
Tosca, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
(premiered at the Teatro Costanzi, 14 January 1900)
-
Madama Butterfly, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe
Giacosa (in two acts – premiered at La Scala, 17 February 1904)
-
La fanciulla del West, libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo
Zangarini (premiered at the
Metropolitan Opera, 10 December 1910)
-
La rondine, libretto by
Giuseppe Adami (premiered at the Opéra of Monte Carlo, 27 March
1917)
-
Il trittico (premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, 14
December 1918)
-
Turandot, libretto by
Renato Simoni and
Giuseppe Adami (incomplete at the time of Puccini's death,
completed by
Franco Alfano: premiered at La Scala, 25 April 1926
Centres
for Puccini Studies
Founded in 1996 in Lucca, the Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini embraces a
wide range of approaches to the study of Puccini's work. In the USA, the
American Center for Puccini Studies specializes in the presentation of
unusual performing editions of composer's works and introduces neglected
or unknown Puccini pieces. It was founded in 2004 by the singer and
director Harry Dunstan.
References
Notes
-
^
The website Operabase.com in its
section on opera statistics 2007–2012 ranks Puccini, with
2294 performances of 13 operas, in third place behind Verdi
(3020 performances of 29 operas) and
Mozart (2410 performances of 22 operas). Three of Puccini's
operas were in the top 10 performed:
La bohème (2nd place),
Tosca
(5th place) and
Madama Butterfly (7th place).
-
^
Although Puccini himself correctly
titled the work a Messa, referring to a setting of the
Ordinary of the
Catholic Mass, today the work is popularly known as his
Messa di Gloria, a name that technically refers to a setting
of only the first two prayers of the Ordinary, the
Kyrie
and the
Gloria, while omitting the
Credo,
the
Sanctus, and the
Agnus Dei.