|
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini emerged into the twentieth century music
world as the "King of Verismo," not through the conducting background of
Mascagni or through the skilled compositional ability of Giordano, but as a
master of theater. Puccini wrote solely for the operatic stage and he understood
the dramatic intensity and melodic poignancy of real life subject matter.
Critics have sometimes dismissed his work as overly impassioned, melodramatic,
and sentimental. The composer himself proclaimed, "The only music I can make is
that of small things," although he admired the grander stylistic abilities of
Verdi and Wagner.
Despite that admiration, Puccini chose to concentrate on life's familiar
bittersweet passions and intense emotional storms. Puccini was born in Lucca,
Italy and descended from a long line of musicians, conductors, and composers. It
was assumed he would inherit the talent and interest to continue in his family's
chosen craft. At the tender age of six years, upon his father's premature death,
he fell heir to the position of choir master and organist at San Martino Church
and professor of music at Collegio Ponziano. However, plans to preserve these
posts for the young Puccini may as well have been canceled the day he hiked
thirteen miles to the city of Pisa to witness a production of Giuseppe Verdi's
latest work, Aida. He determined his own future at that moment, falling
completely under the spell of opera, never to recover.
A stipend from a wealthy great-uncle and a scholarship from Queen Margherita
herself supported Puccini in his education at the music conservatory in Milan.
The great composers Antonio Bazzini and Amilcare Ponchielli taught the young
musician; Ponchielli eventually encouraging Puccini's participation in a one-act
opera competition sponsored by the publishing house of Sonzogno. Friends of
Ponchielli even provided the libretto. Unfortunately, Puccini's first opera, La
Villi, didn't take the prize. However, the powerful critic/librettist, Arrigo
Boito, raised funds for its performance before appreciative audiences at La
Scala and Ricordi published the score. The modest success bolstered Puccini's
confidence, but provided little compensation. A second opera, Edgar, failed as
the result of a poor libretto.
Puccini's persistence was rewarded with the production of Manon Lescaut.
Premiered in February 1893 in Turin, the opera proved a resounding triumph.
Puccini was suddenly established as a wealthy composer and artistic successor to
Maestro Giuseppi Verdi. The two operas that followed, La Bohème and Tosca,
achieved success gradually with Bohème peaking after three productions and
Tosca, after five years of presentations throughout Europe.
As Puccini acquired substantial wealth, he took on the persona which
accompanied him throughout the rest of his life as the "grand seigneur." He
built a reputation as a dedicated game hunter, collector of cars and motor
boats, and a great romantic figure. "I am almost always in love!, " he declared,
and defined himself as "a mighty hunter of wild fowl, operatic librettos and
attractive women." His appreciation and compassion for women abounds in the
substance of his operatic heroines, their valiant struggles and, most often,
melancholy demise. He created these elegant, three-dimensional characters with
the material of sweet and haunting melody. The innocent Mimi, embattled Tosca,
abandoned Butterfly, embittered Turandot - each one a fascinating study in
feminine psychology, each the perfect counterpart to an equally interesting
tenor role. Puccini's own stormy relationship with Elvira Gemignani evoked a
certain horror in fans and attracted something of a lurid interest from the
general public. A married woman, she eloped with the composer and they were not
married until some time after her husband's death. Seemingly an uninteresting
and strangely unchallenging partner, she is said to have limited Puccini
intellectually and emotionally, inexplicably cutting him off from most personal
relationships with friends and other artists.
Eventually, she embroiled the household in scandal, hounding a young maid
unmercifully with accusations of a liaison with her husband. The girl committed
suicide and Elvira was jailed for five months. The Puccinis separated, then
reconciled, but their relationship was forever damaged. Puccini fought hard to
keep his difficult private life private, against impossible odds. "What a
subject for an opera!," one social columnist exclaimed. During this tragic
episode, despite his obvious emotional turmoil, the composer completed the opera
La Fanciulla del West , which met with immediate acclaim.
In general, Puccini seems to have lived in artistic isolation. Even a
productive relationship with Arturo Toscanini blew hot and cold. In one comic
exchange, Puccini forgot he and Toscanini were currently estranged and sent a
Christmas panettone. Realizing the error, Puccini wired Toscanini with an
explanation:
PANETTONE SENT BY MISTAKE, PUCCINI.
Toscanini immediately replied:
PANETTONE EATEN BY MISTAKE, TOSCANINI.
It was Toscanini who conducted the famous opening night of Madama Butterfly ,
which ran in its original form for that one performance only. After serious
reworking, including changing the basic framework from two acts to three and
replacing some objectionable arias with more melodic ones, Butterfly triumphed
in a new opening under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.
In the single decade before his death, Puccini completed La Rondine , and the
trilogy of Il Tabarro , Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi . He was in the
process of finishing Turandot , the opera he considered his crowning
achievement, when a persistent throat ailment was diagnosed as cancer. He died a
few days after surgery and completion of the work was left to colleague, Franco
Alfano. Shortly before his death, Puccini wrote that the music audience had lost
its taste for melody and tolerated music devoid of logic and sensibility. He
predicted "the end of opera" and, in fact, Turandot, was the last opera to rank
as an internationally accepted standard repertory piece. No one since Puccini
has enjoyed such a following.
|
