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Le Villi

Le Villi

Dance-opera in one act and two scenes to a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana from Les Willis by Alphonse Karr. First performance: Milan, Teatro Dal Verme, 31 May 1884. Another version in two acts.

Puccini wrote his first theatrical play shortly after receiving his diploma in composition at the Milan Conservatory, the intention being to take part in the competition organized by the publisher Sonzogno for an opera in one act. Amilcare Ponchielli his teacher put him in touch with the poet Ferdinando Fontana in July 1883 and the libretto was presented in September. Puccini delivered the autograph score on 31 December, the last possible day. The competition commission, chaired by Amilcare Ponchielli, announced the results at the beginning of April 1884: the first prize was awarded jointly to La fata del Nord by Guglielmo Zuelli and Anna e Gualberto by Luigi Mapelli, the work of Puccini was not even deemed worthy of mention. A resounding misjudgment? Or, as had been argued in the past, the autograph score by Puccini was unreadable? The commission, chaired by Ponchielli, also included Franco Faccio, who had directed the world premiere of the Capriccio sinfonico (July 1883), and the autograph score was not unreadable, in particular for his own teacher.

More recently it has been suggested that Puccini’s failure to win was the result of a plot organised by the publisher Giulio Ricordi, with the complicity of Ponchielli and Faccio, to avert the danger that the young composer might become part of the team of the publisher Sonzogno. Immediately after hearing the negative outcome of the contest, Fontana took steps to ensure that Puccini could have his work heard: the audition took place in the parlour of the journalist Marco Sala, in the presence, among others, of Arrigo Boito, Giovannina Lucca and Alfredo Catalani. With a timely subscription, Le Villi was staged at the Teatro Dal Verme on 31 May, 1884, achieving great success. Critics hailed the theatrical debut of Puccini with enthusiasm.

Cover page by Nino Besta of the libretto and printing of Le Villi by Giacomo Puccini, Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 24 January 1885

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Edgar

Edgar

Opera in four acts to a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, from the dramatic poem La Coupe et les Lèvres by Alfred de Musset. First performance: Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 21 April, 1889. Other versions in three acts.

The success of Le Villi convinced the publisher Giulio Ricordi to welcome Puccini to his stable, give him a fixed monthly salary of 200 liras and commission him a second opera, Edgar.

This composition occupied Puccini for four years, years in which his work was intertwined with the beginning of his relationship with Elvira Bonturi and the birth of their son Antonio. The first performance was not the success that Puccini and Ricordi expected: it is significant that the premiere was followed by two further performances only.

Soon after, stimulated by Ricordi, Puccini began to revise the score in view of a possible revival, which was to take place only in September 1891 at the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, with great success. This representation in Lucca served Puccini in defining a new three-act structure, completely abolishing the fourth and greatly reducing the second: the second version was staged in 1892 in Ferrara, Turin, Madrid and Brescia. The third version was prepared for the “Puccini Festival” organized in 1905 in Buenos Aires, but the result was again disappointing.

Cover page of the libretto and printing of the opera Edgar by Giacomo Puccini, world premiere, Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 21 April 1889

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut

Opera in four acts to a libretto by an anonymous author (those actually collaborating were Marco Praga, Domenico Oliva, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Luigi Illica and Giulio Ricordi) from the novel “Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut” by Abbé Antoine-François Prévost. First performance: Turin, Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893.

It was Ferdinando Fontana, the librettist of the first two works, who suggested that Puccini should write an opera on this subject. But Casa Ricordi, in July, 1889, entrusted the task of writing the libretto to Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva. The composition was delayed by constant requests for changes in the libretto, so much so that Praga abandoned the enterprise. The librettist team was then joined by Ruggero Leoncavallo and finally Luigi Illica. Giulio Ricordi also contributed to defining the dramaturgy. During the course of preparation Puccini decided to completely eliminate the original Act II, the so-called “small house act”, which told the idyll of love between Manon and Des Grieux after escaping from Amiens. The premiere was greeted with enthusiasm: a public triumph with great appreciation from the critics. The work, which can be considered to be Puccini’s first masterpiece, after some time, began to tour Italy, Europe and South America.

Puccini nevertheless continued to work on the score, making small and large changes, at least until the representation organized at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1923, the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.

Manon Lescaut, Act I, drawing by Adolf Hohenstein for Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini, world premiere, Turin, Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
La bohème

La bohème

Four scenes to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, from the novel “Scènes de la vie de bohème” by Henri Murger. First performance: Turin, Teatro Regio, 1 February 1896.

It is said that Puccini decided to write this opera during the train journey which took him back to Milan after the triumphal performances of Manon Lescaut in Turin. Two travelling companions proposed themselves as librettists, a lawyer and a music critic. Shortly after a bitter dispute broke out – amplified by Milan periodicals – with Ruggero Leoncavallo: both were at work on the same subject and Leoncavallo claimed priority. Puccini gave to the “Corriere della Sera” the famous phrase: “Let him set it to music, then I will. The public will judge”. Puccini’s La bohème uses that pair of librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which will accompany him up to Madama Butterfly. It certainly was not easy to achieve a good libretto starting from the novel by Murger, and Puccini continued to request and / or impose modifications (the most striking involved deleting an entire act, the courtyard act in Rue Labruyère), so that Giacosa threatened to abandon the enterprise. Puccini was also distracted from his work by frequent trips to attend performances of Manon Lescaut and, above all, the interest in another subject, “La Lupa” by Giovanni Verga. It was not until the Summer of 1894 that Puccini, after a journey to Sicily to meet Verga and also to collect material for the composition, permanently shelved the project and devoted himself with conviction to La bohème. Somewhat earlier, in June, 1893, he had begun to draft the music. 1895 is the year in which the work was accomplished, amid bitter discussions with the librettists, and attempts at peace-making by Ricordi, when composition and orchestration proceeded at a fast pace. In the Summer Puccini stayed at the Villa del Castellaccio, near Pescia, and worked hard. Carlo Carignani was also there, preparing the reduction for voice and piano of the songs that Puccini gradually completed. The work was then finished in Torre del Lago, at the end of November. One of the earliest biographers, Ferruccio Pagni, referred that Puccini, at the piano, called for silence from friends who were playing cards in the same room and then exclaimed: “I’ve finished”! Puccini then even summoned friends from Lucca for a costume party: the work had been completed in the environment that had provided its initial inspiration.

The debut was debatable: the audience applauded, but critics were divided between lukewarm praise and harsh slating. One review was famous, but certainly not prophetic: “La bohème, just as it does not leave a great impression on the mind of the audience, will not leave a big mark in the history of opera”. Instead it is well known that La bohème is one of the most frequently performed operas. Puccini did not make major changes to the score, conscious of the completeness of his work.

Cover page by Adolf Hohenstein for voice and piano reduction, English text, of La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, 1896

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Tosca

Tosca

Melodrama in three acts to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, from the drama La Tosca by Victorien Sardou. First performance: Rome, Teatro Costanzi, 14 January 1900.

On 14 February, 1889 (a few months before the debut of Edgar), Puccini, together with the librettist Ferdinando Fontana, attended a performance of La Tosca by Victorien Sardou in Milan, starring Sarah Bernhardt in the title role: he was amazed, so much so that, once again with Fontana, he went to Turin to see her a second time (17 March). Shortly after he wrote to Giulio Ricordi, begging him to acquire the rights from Sardou to prepare a libretto. The Tosca project then overlapped with others which in the meantime Puccini was developing. Ricordi, at the beginning of 1891, commissioned Luigi Illica to write the libretto. Puccini however abandoned the project, perhaps because he understood that Sardou was not persuaded to entrust his drama to a young composer, not yet established. In the meantime Alberto Franchetti had come forward and Ricordi formally assigned him the composition of Tosca, to a libretto by Illica, in September 1894. But in May 1895 Franchetti gave up, owing to difficulties encountered in the composition of the “lyrical part”. At that moment Puccini was set on the completion of La bohème, but did not miss the opportunity to regain a project that had aroused him a few years before. On 9 August he wrote: “I will do Tosca, an extraordinary libretto by Illica in 3 acts, Sardou excited about the libretto”. Illica was soon to be joined by Giuseppe Giacosa, evidently with the intention of “adding lyrical tone” to the libretto already written by Illica.

Work thereafter proceeded according to the usual script: Puccini put pressure on the librettists, especially on Giacosa, insisting on the delivery of the libretto and discussed it with them, even harshly, to impose solutions; the librettists, especially Giacosa, threatening to abandon the enterprise; Ricordi mediates. The musical work, even in the form of drafts and sketches, does not begin until the Autumn of 1896 and proceeds in a very fragmentary manner, for the attention that Puccini reserved for work on the libretto, and his usual commitment to accompany his works in Italian and European theatres. Since the beginning of 1898 Puccini devoted greater continuity to composition and orchestration. Particularly fruitful is the living room in Monsagrati, in the Summer of that year, in the villa of his friend Raffaello Mansi. The Summer of 1899 saw Puccini in Torre del Lago and then Boscolungo, frantically working on the score and again on the dramaturgy and poetry. The work was completed in the Autumn of the following year.

The first performance was a success with the public. Critics on the other hand expressed concern. The work soon became repertory and was staged in all the major theatres of the world.

Cover page by Adolf Hohenstein for voice and piano reduction, Spanish text, of Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, 1911

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly

Japanese tragedy in two acts to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, from the drama by David Belasco. First performance: Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 17 February 1904. Other versions in three acts and two acts and two scenes.

Madama Butterfly also found its origins in the representation of the play Madame Butterfly by David Belasco which Puccini attended in London on 21 June, 1900 (the composer was in London for the British premiere of Tosca). After a few months Puccini asked Ricordi to secure the rights of the drama. Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa were once again entrusted with writing the libretto. The same method of work was repeated for Madama Butterfly and the same interpersonal exchanges that had occurred for La bohème and Tosca also took place. Again with Madama Butterfly Puccini decided to eliminate an entire act of the libretto, the so-called “act of the consulate”, and the first musical drafts were put to paper in November 1901. It is noteworthy that Puccini expressed in several letters his desire to know Japanese music, apparently to create an appropriate musical setting for his first exotic work. His musical composition, which had been considerable in 1902, suffered a serious interruption: the consequences of a serious car accident (25 February 1903) forced Puccini to remain immobile for several months and the inconvenience of hospitalization and convalescence were further burdened by a delicate family situation. For these reasons, it became necessary to postpone the date of the debut.

The world premiere was one of the most memorable fiascos in the history of opera: Puccini, the librettists and Ricordi immediately withdrew the work. Thus began a long and complex history of successive changes, cuts, additions and reconsiderations of the changes. However, the work returned again a few months after the premiere in Brescia (28 May 1904) and its triumphal march throughout the world then begins.

Cover page by Leopoldo Metlicovitz for voice and piano reduction, English text, of Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, 1906

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
La fanciulla del West

La fanciulla del West

Opera in three acts to a libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, from the play The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco. First performance: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 10 December, 1910.

Puccini, in New York to attend a kind of Puccini Festival at the Metropolitan Opera House, in January 1907 saw the performance of the play by Belasco “The Girl of the Golden West” and remained very impressed. Back in Italy, he began to think about writing a work on that subject. Casa Ricordi, having acquired the rights, appointed Carlo Zangarini to write the libretto (he was later to be joined by Guelfo Civinini). Puccini, as well as actively defining the dramaturgy and writing the poetry, trying to get original American music, began to compose at the end of 1907. Then from Autumn 1908 the composition underwent a long break, due to the tragic suicide of Doria Manfredi, maid in Puccini’s house, and the consequent impact on the family life of the composer. The work was completed in July 1910.

La fanciulla del West opens a new practice: the world premiere takes place abroad, in the country consistent with the subject of the play, and also far from the Teatro alla Scala, which had so badly welcomed his previous work, Madama Butterfly. It was a great success, certainly helped by the impressive promotional strategy implemented by the Metropolitan Opera House and by Ricordi of New York. Criticism was somewhat divided, and basically the important new elements in the score were not appreciated. La fanciulla del West will be very rarely performed as a result, also considering the inherent difficulties that staging requires.

Cover page of the voice and piano reduction of La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini, 1910

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
La rondine

La rondine

Opera in three acts to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami, Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert. First performance: Monte Carlo, Théâtre de l’Opéra, 27 March, 1917. Two more versions.

In the Autumn of 1913, in Vienna to follow the preparation of La fanciulla del West, Puccini met the directors of the Carl-Theater, one of the most famous operetta theatres. The two, who had recently also founded a publishing house, made him a proposition, for a considerable fee, of writing an operetta. Puccini made the signing of the contract dependant on the approval of the libretto, which was submitted to him more than once. Unsatisfied, he decided that Rondine had to be a genuine work and relied on Giuseppe Adami for the Italian text. The musical composition began in the Spring of 1914 and ended in 1915. The premiere was postponed several times due to the outbreak of the war.

The world premiere, in a neutral country, was greeted with enthusiasm, and so also the first Italian premiere, on 2 June, 1917. Puccini continued to work even afterwards on the score, especially trying to find the right conclusion for the plot.

The author always showed a predilection for La rondine. The work has been lacking from the scene for many years, only recently seeing a deserved revival.

Playbill of the first Italian performance of La rondine. Bologna, Teatro Comunale, 2 June 1917
Courtesy of Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Bologna
www.tcbo.it
Il tabarro

Il tabarro

Opera in one act to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami, from the drama La houppelande by Didier Gold, the first panel of The triptych. First performance: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December 1918.

For a long time Puccini thought about composing a composite work consisting of three one-act plays. Various possibilities were gradually discarded, from resuming the three canticles of the Divine Comedy to using the three short stories by Maxim Gorky. The ultimate realization was eventually tackled in precise stages. It is likely that Puccini had seen in Paris, in May 1912, the drama La houppelande by Didier Gold, from which he drew up the first panel of The triptych. The composition takes place in two distinct phases: in the Autumn of 1913 and then, after a period of work dedicated to La rondine, between October 1915 and November 1916. For the libretto Puccini initially sought the collaboration of Giovacchino Forzano, then Ferdinando Martini, and finally Giuseppe Adami. Once the work had been completed, it was necessary to find a completion to fill the evening and at first Puccini considered associating it with Le Villi. It was the meeting with Giovacchino Forzano, author of the libretti of the other two panels, that allowed Puccini to finally accomplish his original project.

For the premiere of The triptych the choice fell once again on the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and this was the first time that Puccini did not attend the debut of one of his works, because of the danger of a transoceanic voyage in a time of war. The reception by public and critics was lukewarm, especially for Il tabarro. The presence of the three works in the repertoire of The triptych has since been rather sporadic, the preference mostly being to represent them separately. Today, the prevailing attitude is to stage them together, in a single evening, as Puccini had originally intended.

Michele, drawing by Caramba (alias Luigi Sapelli) for Il tabarro by Giacomo Puccini, world premiere, New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December 1918

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Suor Angelica

Suor Angelica

Opera in one act to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, the second panel of The triptych.

First performance: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December, 1918.

It is the only opera by Puccini composed to a libretto that is not based on a previous theatrical or literary work. Forzano said that he had developed the idea, without knowing that Puccini had a sister who was a nun and lived in a cloistered convent. The composition was very rapid, considering Puccini’s timing: a few months from March to July 1917 for the composition, then about a month for the orchestration. It seems that Puccini, once the work was finished, had his sister and the other nuns listen to it, causing a lot of commotion.

Suor Angelica is the less fortunate of the three works of The triptych, while it was Puccini’s favourite.

Suor Angelica, drawing by Caramba (alias Luigi Sapelli) for Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini, world premiere, New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December 1918

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Gianni Schicchi

Gianni Schicchi

Opera in one act to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, third panel of The triptych. Premiere: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December, 1918.

For the comic panel of The triptych Forzano takes his inspiration from the XXX canto of the Inferno. One of the characters encountered is Gianni Schicchi, damned for having replaced Buoso Donati il Vecchio, whose legacy, as he was extremely rich, dying without direct heirs and without drawing up a will, would have been forfeited by the city of Florence. Gianni Schicchi, a friend of one of the relatives of the old man, hiding in the bed with the clothes of the dead body and in the presence of a notary, pretending to be Buoso, dictates his will in favour of the relative and himself.

The work was composed in a relatively short space of time, from October 1917 to April 1918.

Gianni Schicchi, of the works of The triptych, is the one most liked by audiences, for its popular and comical accents.

Gianni Schicchi, drawing by Caramba (alias Luigi Sapelli) for Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini, world premiere, New York, Metropolitan Opera House, 14 December 1918

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com
Turandot

Turandot

Opera in three acts to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, from the theatrical fable of the same name by Carlo Gozzi. Because of the death of Giacomo Puccini (1924), the work was completed by Franco Alfano. First performance: Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 26 April, 1926. Subsequently completed also by Luciano Berio.

It was Renato Simoni, during a meeting with Puccini and Giuseppe Adami in Milan in March 1920, who suggested the subject for his last opera. Puccini was immediately taken, and thus began an adventure that was to occupy the rest of his life, with a succession of enthusiasms, discouragements, accusations of the librettists, subsequent reconciliations and interventions by the composer on dramaturgical, poetic and scenographic aspects as well as costume design. An important stage in its development was marked by the encounter, in August 1920 in Bagni di Lucca, between Puccini and the librettists who presented him with the complete plan of the work (and Puccini surprised them by having them listen to the carillon of the Baron Edoardo Fassini-Camossi, which reproduced Chinese themes that would later be used in the work). He soon began to make sketches. When he interrupted his work in the Spring of 1924, he had by then completed the orchestration of the first two acts, and the third up to the air of Liu, “Tu che di gel sei cinta”. Puccini, when leaving for Brussels, took with him a set of sheets with sketches for the final duet.

Many scholars think that the work should be performed without that final duet finished by others (such as Toscanini did in the premiere) and believe that Puccini could in no way have found a solution for the last scene, in which the protagonist is transformed into a woman in love after the sudden kiss of Calaf.

Turandot, Act II, drawing by Umberto Brunelleschi for Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, Rome, Teatro Costanzi, 29 April 1926

Archivio Storico Ricordi © Ricordi & C. S.r.l. Milano www.ricordicompany.com

For a complete catalogue of his works, visit the Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini website http://www.puccini.it/ on page Catalogue

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