Giacomo Puccini

"Puccini" redirects here. For other uses, see Puccini (disambiguation).

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini (full name:Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini) (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒaːkomo putˈtʃiːni]; Lucca 22 December 1858 – Brussels 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire.

Puccini was "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". Whilst 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.

Early career

Puccini's birthplace, seen in 1984

File:Puccini statue lucca.JPG

Statue of Puccini in front of his birthplace

Puccini was born in Lucca in Tuscany, into a family with five generations of musical history behind them, including the composer Domenico Puccini. His father Michele was a music teacher and an unsuccessful opera composer, who died when Giacomo was five years old. Giacomo began to study music at the age of 16 after completing his standard education.

In 1880, with the help of a relative and a grant, Puccini enrolled in the Milan Conservatory to study composition with Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Antonio Bazzini. In the same year, at the age of 21, he composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca.

While studying at the Conservatory, Puccini obtained a libretto from Ferdinando Fontana and entered a competition for a one-act opera in 1882. Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged in 1884 at the Teatro Dal Verme and it caught the attention of Giulio Ricordi, head of G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, who commissioned a second opera, Edgar, in 1889. Edgar failed: it was a bad story and Fontana's libretto was poor. In fact Edgar nearly 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.

On commencing his next opera, Manon Lescaut, Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist" 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 laid the foundations for Puccini's career and reputation.

Puccini at Torre del Lago

From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time at Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca situated between the Ligurian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of Viareggio. While renting a house there, he spent time hunting, but regularly visited Lucca.

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.

Middle career

Original poster for Puccini's Tosca

La bohème was premiered in Turin in 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The opera quickly became popular throughout Italy and productions were soon mounted all over the world.

It was followed by 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."

Puccini photographed in 1908

The original version of Madama Butterfly, premiered at La Scala on February 17, 1904, was initially greeted with great hostility (probably largely owing to inadequate rehearsals). This version 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, 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.

After 1904, Puccini's compositions were less frequent. Following his passion for driving fast cars, Puccini was nearly killed in a major accident in 1903. 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.

Doria Manfredi incident

In 1909, Puccini's wife Elvira publicly accused Doria Manfredi, a maid working for the Puccini family, of having an affair with the composer. 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. 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. 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.

Later works

Giacomo Puccini with conductor Arturo Toscanini

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. This was the first world premiere of an opera at the Met. The premiere was a great success. However, the compositional style employed in the opera, with few stand-alone arias, was criticized at the time 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. However, the opera has been acclaimed for its incorporation of advanced harmonic language and rhythmic complexity into the Italian operatic form. 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.

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. The least known of Puccini's mature operas, the composer continued to work at revising it until his death.

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, 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 Turdanot was based on a play by Carlo Gozzi, also called Turandot. 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.

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 there 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. 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.

Politics

Unlike Verdi, Puccini did not appear to be active in the politics of his day. He wrote to a friend that he supported Benito Mussolini at first; Mussolini also made Puccini a senator shortly before the latter's death. Puccini's 1919 Inno a Roma (Hymn to Rome), although not written for the Fascists, was widely played during Fascist street parades and public ceremonies. However, evidence that Puccini was actually a member of the Fascist party is equivocal.

Style

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.

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.

Works

Main article: List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini

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)
  • Il tabarro, libretto by Giuseppe Adami
  • Suor Angelica, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
  • Gianni Schicchi, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
• 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

References

Sources

• Ashbrook W. & Powers H. Puccini's Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition, Princeton Univ. Press, 1991
• Budden, Julian, Puccini: His Life and Works, Oxford University Press, 2002 ISBN 978-0-19-816468-5
• Carner, Mosco, Puccini: A Critical Biography, Alfred Knopf, 1959
• Keolker, James, "Last Acts, The Operas of Puccini and His Italian Contemporaries", 2001.
• Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (2002). Puccini: A Biography. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-530-5.
• Randall, Annie J. and David, Rosalind G., Puccini & the Girl, Chicago: University of Chicago Press ISDN 0226703894
• Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi and Michele Girardi, Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) Puccini (ii) in Grove Music Online, accessed 9 August 2012
• Smith, Peter Fox. A Passion for Opera. Trafalgar Square Books, 2004. ISBN 1-57076-280-5.
• Weaver, William, and Simonetta Puccini, eds. The Puccini Companion, W.W. Norton & Co., 1994 ISBN 0-393-029-30
• Wilson, Alexandra, The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism, and Modernity, Cambridge University Press (2007)

External links

• "Puccini Vocal and Instrumental Music". Centro Studi di Giacomo Puccini. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
• "Puccini Operas". Centro Studi di Giacomo Puccini. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
• Centro Studi di Giacomo Puccini
• American Center for Puccini Studies
• Puccini-Research-Center
• Festival Puccini e la sua Lucca
• Encyclopædia Britannica, Giacomo Puccini
• Puccini cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Puccini's music in movies
• Template:Worldcat id
• Free scores by Giacomo Puccini at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Free scores by Giacomo Puccini in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)