Puccini

views updated

Puccini

Puccini , family of Italian musicians:

(1) Giacomo Puccini , composer; b. Celle di Val di Roggia, Lucca (baptized), Jan. 26, 1712; d. Lucca, May 16, 1781. He studied with Caretti in Bologna, then pursued his career in Lucca, where he was organist at S. Martino (1739–72) and director of the Cappella Palatina (1739–81). He became a member of Bologna’s Accademia Filarmonica (1743). He was a talented composer of vocal music; also wrote a number of dramatic pieces for the Lucca municipal elections.

(2) Antonio (Benedetto Maria) Puccini , composer, son of the preceding; b. Lucca, July 30, 1747; d. there, Feb. 10, 1832. He received financial assistance from the Lucca authorities to study in Bologna with Caretti and Zanardi; while there, he married the organist Caterina Tesei, then returned to Lucca, where he was substitute organist for his father at S. Martino (from 1772). He was his father’s successor as director of the Cappella Palatina (1781–1805); became a member of Bologna’s Accademia Filarmonica (1771). His output reveals a composer of solid technique and expressivity in vocal writing.

(3) Domenico (Vencenzo Maria) Puccini , composer, son of the preceding; b. 1772; d. Lucca, May 25, 1815. After musical training with his parents, he studied with Mattei in Bologna and Paisiello in Naples. He then returned to Lucca as director of the Cappella di Camera (1806–09) and of the municipal chapel (1811–15). He was notably successful as a composer of comic operas.

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera: Le frecce d’amore, opera pastorale (c. 1800); L’Ortolanella, o La Moglie capricciosa, farsa buffa (Lucca, 1800); II Quinto Fabio, opera seria (Livorno, 1810); La scuola dei tutori, farsa (Lucca, 1813); II Ciarlatano, ossia I finti savoiardi, atto buffo (Lucca, 1815).

(4) Michele Puccini , teacher and composer, son of the preceding; b. Lucca, Nov. 27, 1813; d. there, Jan. 23, 1864. He studied with his grandfather Antonio Puccini and others in Lucca, and completed his training with Pillotti in Bologna and Donizetti and Mercadante in Naples. He then returned to Lucca as a teacher at the Istituto Musicale Pacini, serving as its director (from 1862); was also organist at S. Martino. He became well known as a teacher. Among his works are 2 operas, Antonio Foscarini (n.d.) and Giambattista Cattani, o La rivoluzione degli Straccioni (Lucca, 1844).

(5) Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) Puccini , celebrated composer, son of the preceding; b. Lucca, Dec. 22, 1858; d. Brussels, Nov. 29, 1924. He was the 5^th of 7 children of Michele Puccini, who died when Giacomo was only 5; his musical training was thus entrusted to his uncle, Fortunato Magi, a pupil of his father; however, Giacomo showed neither inclination nor talent for music. His mother, determined to continue the family tradition, sent him to the local Istituto Musicale Pacini, where Carlo Angeloni —its director, who had also studied with Michele Puccini —became his teacher. After Angeloni’s untiring patience had aroused interest, and then enthusiasm, in his pupil, progress was rapid and he soon became a proficient pianist and organist. He began serving as a church organist in Lucca and environs when he was 14, and began composing when he was 17. After hearing Aida in Pisa in 1876, he resolved to win laurels as a dramatic composer. Having written mainly sacred music, it was self-evident that he needed further training after graduating from the Istituto (1880). With financial support from his granduncle, Dr. Nicolao Ceru, and a stipend from Queen Margherita, he pursued his studies with Antonio Bazzini and Amilcare Ponchielli at the Milan Cons. (1880–83). For his graduation, he wrote a Capriccio sinfonico, which was conducted by Faccio at a Cons. concert, eliciting unstinting praise from the critics. In the same year, Ponchielli introduced Puccini to the librettist Fontana, who furnished him the text of a 1-act opera; in a few weeks the score was finished and sent to the Sonzongo competition. It did not win the prize, but on May 31, 1884, Le villi was produced at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan, with gratifying success. Ricordi, who was present, considered the work sufficiently meritorious to commission the young composer to write a new opera for him; but 5 years elapsed before this work, Edgar (3 acts; text by Fontana), was produced at La Scala in Milan (April 21, 1889), scoring only a moderate success. By this time Puccini had become convinced that, in order to write a really effective opera, he needed a better libretto than Fontana had provided. Accordingly, he commissioned Domenico Oliva to write the text of Manon Lescaut; during the composition, however, Puccini and Ricordi practically rewrote the entire book, and in the publ. score Oliva’s name is not mentioned. With Manon Lescaut (4 acts), first produced at the Teatro Regio in Turin on Feb. 1, 1893, Puccini won a veritable triumph, which was even surpassed by his next work, La Bohème (4 acts; text by Illica and Giacosa), produced at the same theater on Feb. 1, 1896. These 2 works not only carried their composer’s name throughout the world, but also have found and maintained their place in the repertoire of every opera house. With fame came wealth, and in 1900 he built at Torre del Lago, where he had been living since 1891, a magnificent villa. His next opera, Tosca (3 acts; text by Illica and Giacosa), produced at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on Jan. 14, 1900, is Puccini’s most dramatic work; it has become a fixture of the standard repertoire, and contains some of his best-known arias. At its premiere at La Scala on Feb. 17, 1904, Madama Butterfly (2 acts; text by Illica and Giacosa) was hissed. Puccini thereupon withdrew the score and made some slight changes (division into 3 acts, and addition of the tenor aria in the last scene). This revised version was greeted with frenzied applause in Brescia on May 28 of the same year. Puccini was now the acknowledged ruler of the Italian operatic stage, his works rivaling those of Verdi in the number of performances. The first performance of Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. (Feb. 11, 1907) took place in the presence of the composer, whom the management had invited especially for the occasion. It was then suggested that he write an opera on an American subject, the premiere to take place at the Metropolitan. He found his subject when he witnessed a performance of Belasco’s The Girl of the Golden West; he commissioned C. Zangarini and G. Civinini to write the libretto, and in the presence of the composer the world premiere of La Fanciulla del West occurred, amid much enthusiasm, at the Metropolitan on Dec. 10, 1910; while it never equaled the success of his Tosca or Madama Butterfly, it had various revivals over the years. Puccini then brought out La Rondine (3 acts; Monte Carlo, March 27, 1917) and the 3 1-act operas II Tabarro (after Didier Gold’s La Houppelande), Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi (all 1^stperf . at the Metropolitan Opera, Dec. 14, 1918). His last opera, Turandot (after Gozzi), was left unfinished; the final scene was completed by Franco Alfano and performed at La Scala on April 25, 1926.

Bibliography

A. Bruggemann, Madama Butterfly e l’arte di G. P. (Milan, 1904); W. Dry, G. P. (London, 1906); F. Torrefranca, G. P. e l’opera internazionale (Turin, 1912); A. Weismann, G. P. (Munich, 1922); A. Bonaventura, G. P.: L’Uomo, l’artista (Livorno, 1924); A. Coeuroy, la Tosca (Paris, 1924); A. Fraccaroli, La vita di G. P. (Milan, 1925); G. Marotti and F. Pagni, G. P. intimo (Florence, 1926); G. Adami, Epistolario di G. P. (Milan, 1928; Eng. tr., London, 1931); A. Neisser, P. (Leipzig, 1928); F. Salerno, Le Donne pucciniane (Palermo, 1928); R. Merlin, P. (Milan, 1930); R. Specht, P. (Berlin, 1931; Eng. tr., N.Y., 1933); W. Maisch, P.s musikalische Formgebung (Neustadt, 1934); G. Adami, P. (Milan, 1935; Ger. tr., 1943); K. Feilerer, G. P. (Potsdam, 1937); V. Seligman, P. among Friends (correspondence; N.Y., 1938); F. Thiess, P.: Versuch einer Psychologie seiner Musik (Berlin, 1947); A. Bonaccorsi, G. P. e i suoi antenati musicali (Milan, 1950); G. Marek, P.; A Biography (N.Y., 1951); D. del Fiorentino, Immortal Bohemian: An Intimate Memoir of G. P. (N.Y., 1952); A. Machard, Une Vie d’amour: P. (Paris, 1954); L. Ricci, P. interprete di se stesso (Milan, 1954); V. Terenzio, Ritratto di P. (Bergamo, 1954); M. Carner, P. (London, 1958; 2^nd ed., rev., 1974); E. Greenfield, P.: Keeper of the Seal (London, 1958); C. Sartori, P. (Milan, 1958); C. Paladini, G. P. (Florence, 1961); W. Ashbrook, The Operas of P. (N.Y., 1968; 2^nd ed., rev., 1985); D. Amy, G. P. (Paris, 1970); A. Monnosi, P. a tu per tu (Pisa, 1970); G. Tarozzi, P.: La fine del bel canto (Milan, 1972); N. Galli, P. e la sua terra (Lucca, 1974); G. Magri, P. e le sue rime (Milan, 1974); I. Lombardi, P., ancora da scoprire (Lucca, 1976); E. Siciliani, P. (Milan, 1976); W. Weaver, P.: The Man and His Music (N.Y., 1977); C. Casini, G. P. (Turin, 1978); L. Pinzauti, P. (Milan, 1978); H. Greenfield, P. (N.Y., 1980); C. Osborne, The Complete Operas of P. (London, 1981); A. Bottero, Le Donne di P. (Lucca, 1984); M. Carner, Tosca (Cambridge, 1985); E. Krause, P. (Leipzig, 1985); D. Martino, Metamorfosi del femminino nei libretti per P. (Turin, 1985); A. Groos and R. Parker, G. P.: ”La Bohème” (Cambridge, 1986); J. DiGaetani, P. the Thinker: The Composer’s Intellectual and Dramatic Development (Bern and N.Y., 1987); M. Kaye, The Unknown P.: A Historical Perspective on the Songs, including Little-Known Music from “Edgar” and ’La Rondine,” with Complete Music for Violin and Piano (Oxford, 1987); G. Musco, Musica e teatro in G. P. (vol. I, Cortona, 1989); K. Berg, G. P.s Opern: Music and Dramaturgie (Kassel, 1991); R. Giazotto, P. in Casa P. (Lucca, 1992); G. Magri, L’uomo P. (Milan, 1992); P. Korfmacher, Exotismus in G. P.s Turandot (Cologne, 1993); W. Volpers, G. P.s “Turandot:” Untersuchungen zum Text und zur musikalischen Dramaturgie (Laaber, 1994); W. Weaver and S. Puccini, eds., The P. Companion (N.Y., 1994); M. Girardi, G. P.: Varie internazionale di un musicista italiano (Venice, 1995); G. Ravenni and C. Gianturco, eds., Convegno internazionale di studi su G. P. nel 70 anniversari della morte (It. and Eng., Lucca, 1997); C. Wilson, G. P. (London, 1997); L. Fairtile, G. P.: A Guide to Research (Levittown, N.Y., 1998).