Giacomo Puccini on Music Theory Print

Ch'ella mi creda

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

“Per lei, per lei soltanto .. Ch’ella mi creda”, piano–vocal score, William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University School of Music
Library catalog, Indiana University
List of noted arias from aria-database.com

Che gelida manina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dramatic context#

The scene takes place on Christmas Eve in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Rodolfo, a struggling poet, is in his room when he hears someone knocking at the door. He opens the door and sees Mimì, a neighbour who has come to his room because her candle has been extinguished and she needs light to go to her room. While in his room, she feels faint and he helps her to sit, and she accidentally drops her room key. Afterwards, with her candle lit, Mimì starts to leave, but finds her key missing. Both their candles then go out, and the two of them search for her room key together in darkness. Rodolfo finds her key but hides it. Rodolfo then touches her hand in the dark and feels the coldness of her hand, and he starts to sing the aria. The song begins in a recitative manner with “Che gelida manina, se la lasci riscaldar” (“What a frozen little hand, let me warm it for you”), which quickly turns into an aria. In the song Rodolfo tells Mimì that he is a poet – “Chi son? Sono un poeta” (“Who am I? I am a poet”), talks of his life as a poet living in carefree poverty, and about his hopes and dreams. He then admits that she has stolen his heart, and ends by asking her about her life. In reply, Mimì sings her aria “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì” (“Yes, they call me Mimì”), and the scene concludes in a duet “O soave fanciulla” where they realise that they have fallen for each other.

Crisantemi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Puccini had already composed the operas Le Villi in 1884 and Edgar in 1890. The opera Edgar was not a success (Puccini repeatedly revised it until the last performance in Buenos Aires, in 1905, before declaring the work irredeemable). A few months after the failed debut of Edgar, Puccini started writing his masterpiece Manon Lescaut. Suddenly in 1890 at just 44 years old, Amadeo I of Spain died due to lung disease. Deeply moved by Amadeo I of Spain’s death, Puccini wrote this work in a sudden burst of inspiration, just in a night. White chrysanthemums (in Italian crisantemi) are used in Italy only for funerals or on graves. Crisantemi was first played on 26 January 1890. After its successful performance, Puccini incorporated themes from Crisantemi into Manon Lescaut.

E lucevan le stelle

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plagiarism suit#

In 1920, the stage performer Al Jolson, together with Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose, wrote a popular song, “Avalon”, about the town of the same name on Santa Catalina island. The following year, G. Ricordi, the publisher of Puccini’s operas, sued all parties associated with the song, arguing that the melody was lifted from “”. Puccini and his publisher prevailed in the case and were awarded $25,000 in damages and all future royalties for the song.

Edgar (opera)

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Development and revisions#

Edgar, Puccini’s second opera, was composed on a commission from the publisher Ricordi after the successful reception of his first stage work, Le Villi. The plot indicates the influence of Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Both centre on medieval knights struggling between a life of sensual indulgence and ideal love. Edgar is “torn between the sacred love of Fidelia and the profane love of Tigrana”; Wagner’s hero indulges himself with Venus while pining for the love of Elizabeth. The gypsy-like figure of Tigrana (supposedly the child of “wandering Moors”) also parallels the anti-heroine of Bizet’s Carmen. The original version had four acts and was tepidly received. In January 1890, Ricordi published a revised version, including a different ending for act 2. In the autumn of 1891, Puccini revised the work again, cutting the last act and producing a three-act version which would again be revised in 1905. In this final form the opera had even less success than in its original four-act structure. Some of the music that was cut in 1891 was reused in Tosca and became the beautiful act 3 duet, “Amaro sol per te m’era il morire!”. The funeral march from act 3 was played at Puccini’s funeral, conducted by Arturo Toscanini and the aria “Addio, mio dolce amor” (“Farewell, My Sweet Love”) from the same act was sung. Puccini finally gave up on Edgar and in later years, bitterly repudiated the work. He wrote On a copy of the score that he sent to a friend, the English woman Sybil Seligman, he wrote scathing remarks against parts of the score and amended the title to read: E Dio ti GuARdi da quest’opera! (And may God protect you from this opera!) The autograph of Acts 1 and 3 of the original version is preserved in the Archivio Ricordi in Milan.

Gianni Schicchi

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Historical background#

Gianni Schicchi de’ Cavalcanti was a 13th-century Italian knight, a Florentine historical figure mentioned by Dante in the Inferno, Canto XXX. In that canto, Dante visits the Circle of Impersonators and sees a man savagely attacking another: he is told that the attacker is Schicchi, condemned to Hell for impersonating Buoso Donati and making Donati’s will highly favorable to Schicchi. Both Schicchi and Buoso Donati were historical characters. Dante’s verses, and the opera, are based on an actual incident that took place in 13th century Florence. Dante had several reasons for his harsh treatment of Schicchi: Dante’s wife, Gemma, was of the Donati family; the poet himself was of pure Florentine descent. He despised members of the peasant class such as Schicchi. Dante’s class prejudice displays itself in several episodes in the Inferno: in one, three noble Florentines, who have died and gone to Hell, ask Dante for news of their home city. A disgusted Dante tells them that the city is now dominated by the nouveau riche. According to Burton Fisher, Puccini and Forzano borrowed heavily from the tradition in . Schicchi himself recalls the roguish Harlequin, while his daughter Lauretta, whose romance is nearly foiled by Buoso’s relatives, resembles Columbina. Simone is drawn from Pantaloon, while the poverty-stricken Betto recalls the buffoonish valet Zanni. The Moor whose death momentarily scares the relatives, and his captain, are stock characters from .

Il tabarro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

:Place: A barge on the Seine in Paris. :Time: 1910. It is close to sunset in Paris, and the stevedores work unloading Michele’s barge. Giorgetta, Michele’s wife, asks her husband if she can bring wine to the workers. He agrees but does not join them because she refuses his kiss. The stevedores start dancing to the music of a nearby organ grinder and one of them steps on Giorgetta’s foot. Luigi, a stevedore, dances with her, and it is evident that there is something between them. Upon hearing of Michele’s return the stevedores’ gathering breaks up. Work is getting scarce and Giorgetta and Michele discuss which of the stevedores should be dismissed; she prefers that it be anyone other than Luigi despite him being Michele’s first choice. Soon the conversation turns into a fight. La Frugola enters, looking for Talpa, her husband and one of the stevedores. She shows everyone the fruits of her scavenging in Paris and scolds the men for their drinking. Luigi laments his lot in life, and La Frugola sings of her wish to one day buy a house in the country where she and her husband can retire. Giorgetta and Luigi sing a duet about the town where they were both born. The stevedores depart except for Luigi, who asks Michele to dismiss him and let him off in Rouen, but Michele convinces him against this, saying there is not enough work in Rouen. When they are alone, Giorgetta asks Luigi why he requested to be dismissed; the pair acknowledge their love. They plan to meet later that evening upon the signal of a match being lit on board. By now Luigi seems determined to kill Michele and flee with Giorgetta. Michele later reminisces with Giorgetta of the days before their child died and how he could cover the two of them under his cloak. He is distressed about being twice her age; she comforts him but she still will not kiss him, and goes off. Michele wonders aloud if Giorgetta is still faithful to him and ponders who might have changed her so much. He reviews the list of men who have shared in their lives but dismisses each of them as improbable. Michele lights his pipe and Luigi, seeing it from afar, thinks that it is Giorgetta’s signal. He returns to the barge and is confronted by Michele. In the ensuing fight, Michele disarms Luigi and forces him to confess his affair with Giorgetta before strangling him to death and hiding Luigi’s body under his cloak. Giorgetta returns to the barge, approaching him remorsefully after their fight earlier, and when she is close enough Michele opens his cloak to reveal her dead lover, Luigi’s lifeless body falling on Giorgetta.

Il trittico

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Background#

Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, largely because of the success of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. Originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dante’s Divine Comedy. However, he eventually based only Gianni Schicchi on Dante’s epic poem. The link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death. Puccini also intended that the three should be performed as a set, and wrote to Casa Ricordi to complain about their giving permission in 1920 to The Royal Opera, London, “for Tabarro and Schicchi without Angelica”. He reluctantly agreed that the two operas could be given in a programme with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, but when he heard that Il tabarro had also been dropped, he wrote to his friend Sybil Seligman to say “I very much dislike Trittico being given in bits – I gave permission for two operas, and not one, in conjunction with the Russian Ballet.” Today, it is quite common to see only one or two of the trittico operas performed in an evening, and sometimes one of them may be paired with another one-act opera by a different composer.

In questa reggia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The riddles challenge#

In the aria, Turandot explains that she conceived the three riddles as a test for any prince who might want to marry her. She explains that in the same palace, countless generations ago (thousands of years ago), a reigning Princess Lou-Ling was conquered by the King of the Tartars, raped and murdered. In particular, she dwells upon the Princess’ final crying out and her moment of death at the hands of a man. Based on the memory and the concept of that crying out having been carried down through the many generations to Turandot herself, she resolves to avenge that death by imposing it on all men who fail in the attempt to marry her. She warns the prince that if he fails to answer any one of the three riddles, he will die. The climax of the aria occurs with the word “grido” (“outcry” or “crying out”) and clearly Turandot is reliving and personifying the last moments of her ancestor, its outrage and its long awaited vengeance. The orchestra emphasises her ominous final couplet: Straniero! Non tentar la fortuna! Gli enigmi sono tre, la morte una! Stranger! Do not tempt Fortune! The riddles are three, Death is one! But Calaf returns this to her as No, no… gli enigmi sono tre, una è la vita! No, no… the riddles are three, Life is one! Puccini developed the Chinese folk song “Mo Li Hua” (Jasmine Flower) into the leitmotif for Turandot’s splendour. Some of the very distinctive music which ends this aria reappears briefly in the act 3 duet “Principessa di morte” (as completed by Alfano), as Calaf finally embraces a still-reluctant Turandot.

La bohème

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origin of the story#

As credited on its title page, the libretto of La bohème is based on Henri Murger’s 1851 novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème, a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in Paris in the 1840s. Although often called a novel, the book has no unified plot. Like the 1849 play drawn from the book by Murger and Théodore Barrière, the opera’s libretto focuses on the relationship between Rodolfo and Mimì, ending with her death. Also like the play, the libretto combines two characters from the novel, Mimì and Francine, into the single character of Mimì. Early in the composition stage Puccini was in dispute with the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo, who said that he had offered Puccini a completed libretto and felt that Puccini should defer to him. Puccini responded that he had had no idea of Leoncavallo’s interest and that having been working on his own version for some time, he felt that he could not oblige him by abandoning the opera. Leoncavallo completed his own version in which Marcello was sung by a tenor and Rodolfo by a baritone. It was not as successful as Puccini’s and is now rarely performed. Much of the libretto is original. Major sections of acts two and three are the librettists’ invention, with only a few passing references to incidents and characters in Murger. Most of acts one and four follow the book, piecing together episodes from various chapters. The final scenes in acts one and four—the scenes with Rodolfo and Mimì—resemble both the play and the book. The story of their meeting closely follows chapter 18 of the book, in which the two lovers living in the garret are not Rodolphe and Mimì at all, but rather Jacques and Francine. The story of Mimì’s death in the opera draws from two different chapters in the book, one relating Francine’s death and the other relating Mimì’s. The published libretto includes a note from the librettists briefly discussing their adaptation. Without mentioning the play directly, they defend their conflation of Francine and Mimì into a single character: “Chi può non confondere nel delicato profilo di una sola donna quelli di Mimì e di Francine?” (“Who cannot confuse in the delicate profile of one woman the personality both of Mimì and of Francine?”). At the time, the book was in the public domain, Murger having died without heirs, but rights to the play were still controlled by Barrière’s heirs.

La fanciulla del West

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Early performance history and critical assessment#

La fanciulla del West was premièred on 10 December 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, who commissioned the work. Puccini created the leading roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie for Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn, the company’s two leading singers. Also in the cast was Pasquale Amato as Jack Rance. The Met’s music director Arturo Toscanini, who called the opera a " great symphonic poem", conducted. This was the first world première of an opera at the Met, and was extremely well-received by audiences in this initial production. Puccini himself was incredibly thrilled with the work and both he and his publisher, Ricordi, assumed that the opera’s enthusiastic response from New York audiences would translate into another popular success on the international stage. Critical reaction to the opera, however, never matched Puccini’s own favorable view of his opera, and the work struggled to a find a place in the regularly performed opera repertoire after this initial flurry of performances. largely criticizing the work for failing to successfully incorporate American idioms into its musical score. In analyzing the disparity between audience response and American critical reaction, musicologist Kathryn Fenton asserts that American critics were trying to wrestle with their conceptions of American identity stating, Marked by ambivalence, the reviews expose the New York City critics’ struggle to reconcile the opera they expected to see with the one they actually saw. Their view of the opera’s place in Puccini’s repertoire and in the early 20th-century opera canon differed—in some cases drastically—with the composer’s own assessment. One of the strongest objections made concerned its local color, its attempt to portray a Californian mining camp during the 1849 Gold Rush through characters, dialect, body language, clothing, buildings, landscape, customs, situation, and—most importantly—music considered stereotypical of the region. Critics found the manner in which Puccini attempted to musically depict the American locale problematic. Immediately following its première, La fanciulla del West was programed by several American opera companies. The American Carolina White, who had previously established herself as a leading soprano in opera houses in Italy and Switzerland, made her United States opera debut as Minnie in the Chicago première of the opera on December 27, 1910, at the Chicago Auditorium by the Chicago Grand Opera Company. White performed the role again for the opera’s first stagings in Milwaukee (1910) Henry Wilson Savage staged the opera’s first English-language production for its Connecticut premiere at the Poll’s Theater in Bridgeport on October 27, 1911, with Luisa Villani as Minnie. While American critics were lukewarm in their reviews of La fanciulla del West, English critics were even more harsh in their initial assessment of the opera. However, while praised by both Italian critics and the monarchy, the opera did not achieve popularity with the public and failed to gain a place among the regularly programmed local operatic repertoire. It was first staged at La Scala on December 12, 1912, with Tina Poli Randaccio as Minnie and Tullio Serafin conducting where it ran thirteen performances. The German première of La fanciulla del West, as in the United States, enjoyed positive audience responses, but received negatively by critics when staged at the Deutsches Opernhaus in Berlin (now known as the Deutsche Oper) on March 28, 1913, under the direction of Ignatz Waghalter. Other premières took place at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires on July 25, 1911; and in Melbourne on June 11, 1912 at Her Majesty’s Theatre. The French world première in French took place in the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on April 12, 1912 in an adaptation by . The Zimin Opera presented the work’s Russian première on October 2, 1913, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow. In spite of criticism, Puccini insisted that La fanciulla del West was his greatest composition up to that point in his career. Only late in the 20th century was the opera re-assessed as a work of quality, and Puccini scholars have acknowledged that the opera was an important departure in Puccini’s body of work from a predominant quality of feminine softness in his other works towards a decidedly masculine aesthetic. without being in any way imitative. Similarities between the libretto and the work of Richard Wagner have also been found, though some attribute this more to the original plot of the play, For example, music critic Robert Levine stated the following in his review of a 2004 production at the Glimmerglass Opera: “The entire concept of an Italian opera taking place during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s is a mite silly.” Smith College musicology professor Ruth A. Solie has written about the hypocrisy of such criticisms, noting that Americans often have no trouble accepting Italian operas set in foreign locales like Egypt (Aida) and China (Turandot). Despite the plot being a source of significant criticism, the majority of academics and musicians today agree in calling it a magnum opus, particularly lauding its musical craftsmanship.

La rondine

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

In autumn 1913, the directors of Vienna’s Carltheater commissioned Puccini to compose a Viennese operetta. After confirming that it could take the form of a comic opera with no spoken dialogue in the style of Der Rosenkavalier, “only more entertaining and more organic,” he agreed. The work proceeded for two years, sometimes intensely, sometimes with great difficulty, and in spring 1916 the opera was finished. The originally intended Viennese première was impeded by the outbreak of World War I and the entrance of Italy in the Alliance against Austria-Hungary, hence the Opéra de Monte-Carlo was chosen as the location to present it, with Gilda dalla Rizza and Tito Schipa in the leading roles. A feature of the music is Puccini’s use of modern dance rhythms, such as the tango, to denote the various characters. In Italy, Puccini offered the work to his editor Tito Ricordi, who declined to buy it, dismissing it as “Bad Lehár”; thus Ricordi’s rival, Lorenzo , obtained the right to give the first performance outside Austria-Hungary and moved the premiere to Monégasque neutral territory. At the premiere in Monte Carlo in 1917 the initial reception by the public and press was warm. However, despite the artistic value of the score, La rondine has been one of Puccini’s less successful works; “In box office terms, it was the poor cousin to the other great hits.” There is no established final version of it, Puccini being dissatisfied, as often, with the result of his work; he revised it many times to the point of making three versions (1917, 1920, 1921), with two completely different endings, but died before clearly deciding on a final version.

Le Villi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Compositional history#

Le Villi is Puccini’s first stage work. It was written for ’s first of four musical competitions, advertised in April 1883, for a new, unperformed opera “inspired by the best traditions of Italian opera”, which could be “idyllic, serious, or comic”, to be judged by a panel including Amintore Galli and Amilcare Ponchielli. Puccini’s submission was disqualified because its manuscript was illegible. Puccini’s supporters, who included Arrigo Boito, funded the first production, whose favorable reception led to publication by Giulio Ricordi. Puccini’s mother received the following telegram on the night of premiere at the Teatro dal Verme on 31 May 1884: “Theatre packed, immense success; anticipations exceeded; eighteen calls; finale of first act encored thrice”’. Ricordi urged the composer to expand the work, and Puccini did, producing a new version later that year, which was followed by modifications in 1885, and the final version in 1889.

Madama Butterfly

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Versions#

Puccini wrote five versions of the opera. Each version is designated with the Schickling catalog number SC 74 with a letter suffix. The original two-act version (SC 74.A), which was presented at the world premiere at La Scala on 17 February 1904, was withdrawn after a disastrous premiere. Puccini then substantially rewrote it, this time splitting off the second half of the very long second act into a third act. This second version (SC 74.B) was performed on 28 May 1904 in Brescia, where it was a great success, with Solomiya Krushelnytska as Cio-Cio-San. It was the second version (SC 74.B) that premiered in the United States in 1906, first in Washington, D.C., in October, and then in New York in November, performed by Henry Savage’s New English Opera Company (so named because it performed in English-language translations). In 1906, Puccini wrote a third version (SC 74.C), which was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 11 February 1907. Later in 1907, Puccini made several changes in the orchestral and vocal scores, and this became the fourth version (SC 74.D). Again in 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version (SC 74.E), which has become known as the “Standard Version” and is the one that is most often performed today. The original 1904 version (SC 74.A) is still occasionally performed, however, such as for the opening of La Scala’s 2016–17 season, on 7 December 2016, with Riccardo Chailly conducting. The intent was to recapture and present Puccini’s original intended vision for the opera.

Manon Lescaut (Puccini)

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Composition history#

The libretto is in Italian, and was cobbled together by five librettists whom Puccini employed: Ruggero Leoncavallo, Marco Praga, , Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. The publisher, Giulio Ricordi, and the composer himself also contributed to the libretto. So confused was the authorship of the libretto that no one was credited on the title page of the original score. However, it was Illica and Giacosa who completed the libretto and went on to contribute the libretti to Puccini’s next three – and most successful – works, La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Puccini took some musical elements in Manon Lescaut from earlier works he had written. For example, the madrigal Sulla vetta tu del monte from act 2 echoes the Agnus Dei from his 1880 Messa a quattro voci. Other elements of Manon Lescaut come from his compositions for strings: the quartet Crisantemi (January 1890), three Menuets (probably 1884) and a Scherzo (1883?). The love theme comes from the aria Mentia l’avviso (1883). Puccini wrote some parts in Vacallo in Switzerland.

Messa (Puccini)

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History#

Puccini composed the Mass as his graduation exercise from the Istituto Musicale Pacini. It had its first performance in Lucca on July 12, 1880. However, the Credo had already been written and performed in 1878 and was initially conceived by Puccini as a self-contained work. Puccini never published the full manuscript of the Messa, and although well received at the time, it was not performed again until 1952 (first in Chicago and then in Naples). However, he re-used some of its themes in other works, such as the Agnus Dei in his opera Manon Lescaut and the Kyrie in Edgar. At the end of World War II, Fr. Dante Del Fiorentino purchased an old copy of the manuscript of the Messa from the Vandini family in Lucca, imagining it was the original score. However, the autograph, in the possession of the Puccini family, was given by his daughter-in-law to Ricordi, Puccini’s publishing firm. The ensuing legal battle was finally resolved by dividing the rights to the work between Ricordi and Mills Music (the publishers of Fiorentino’s manuscript).

Nessun dorma

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Context and analysis#

In the act before this aria, Calaf has correctly answered the three riddles put to all of Princess Turandot’s prospective suitors. Nonetheless, she recoils at the thought of marriage to him. Calaf offers her another chance by challenging her to guess his name by dawn. As he kneels before her, the “Nessun dorma” theme makes a first appearance, to his words, "" (My name you do not know!). She can execute him if she correctly guesses his name; but if she does not, she must marry him. The cruel and emotionally cold princess then decrees that none of her subjects shall sleep that night until his name is discovered. If they fail, all will be killed. As the final act opens, it is now night. Calaf is alone in the moonlit palace gardens. In the distance, he hears Turandot’s heralds proclaiming her command. His aria begins with an echo of their cry and a reflection on Princess Turandot: : Just before the climactic end of the aria, a chorus of women is heard singing in the distance: : Calaf, now certain of victory, sings: : In typical performance style, the final “Vincerò!” features a sustained B, followed by the final note, an A sustained even longer—although Puccini’s score did not explicitly specify that either note be sustained. In the original score, the B is written as a sixteenth note (semiquaver) while the A is written as a whole note (semibreve). Both are high notes in the tenor range. In Alfano’s completion of act 3, the “Nessun dorma” theme makes a final triumphal appearance at the end of the opera. The theme also makes a concluding reappearance in Luciano Berio’s later completion (this having been an expressed intention of Puccini), but in a more subdued orchestration.

O mio babbino caro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

\new Staff \with \remove “Time_signature_engraver” \key aes \major es’_“Range” (aes) The short aria consists of 32 bars and takes between and 3 minutes to perform. It is written in A major with the time signature of 6/8 time and a tempo indication of andantino ingenuo ( = 120). The vocal range extends from E 4 to A 5 , with a tessitura of F 4 to A 5 . The five-bar orchestral prelude, in E major and 3/4 time time, consists of octave tremolos by the strings; in the opera, these five bars are Gianni Schicchi’s words () at the end of his preceding dialogue with Rinuccio. Many recital arrangements start with a presentation of the melodic theme; the remaining accompaniment uses strings and a harp playing broken chords.

O soave fanciulla

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The duet, between 5 and 6 minutes in length, is written in the common time time signature, the key of A major, but ending in C major. The last bar in the orchestra is characterized by descending harp harmonics through the final C major chord. When Mimì and Rodolfo realize they are in love (unison ), the music returns to the opera’s love leitmotif from Rodolfo’s aria (). They leave the stage together singing . Mimì’s last note is a high C, marked (fading away), and while an E below is written for Rodolfo, many tenors also sing the high C, making the last note unison. Following Rodolfo’s and Mimì’s , the duet concludes one of the most romantic passages in all of opera.

Quando me'n vo'

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Libretto#

Quando me’n vo’ Quando me’n vo’ soletta per la via, la gente sosta e mira e la bellezza mia tutta ricerca in me da capo a piè … Ed assaporo allor la bramosia sottil, che da gli occhi traspira e dai palesi vezzi intender sa alle occulte beltà. Così l’effluvio del desìo tutta m’aggira, felice mi fa! E tu che sai, che memori e ti struggi da me tanto rifuggi? So ben: Le angoscie tue non le vuoi dir, ma ti senti morir! When I walk When I walk all alone in the street, people stop and stare at me and look for my whole beauty from head to feet … And then I taste the slight yearning which transpires from their eyes and which is able to perceive from manifest charms to most hidden beauties. So the scent of desire is all around me, it makes me happy! And you, while knowing, reminding and longing, you shrink from me? I know it very well: you don’t want to express your anguish, but you feel as if you’re dying!

Requiem (Puccini)

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History#

Puccini composed the work on a commission of his publisher Giulio Ricordi on the occasion of the forth anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi. The autograph score is dated 14 January 1905, which is possible the day of composing. The work was first performed on 27 January 1905 by the choir of La Scala in Milan, conducted by Aristide Venturi, at the chapel of the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti that Verdi had founded. The composition was also performed on 29 December 1924 at a memorial concert for Puccini at the Milan Conservatory, and again on his 50th anniversary of death on 30 November 1974. The music was first published in 1976 by Elkan & Vogel in New York City, followed by a 1990 edition in Italy. A critical edition was published in 2005 by Carus-Verlag in cooperation with the Fondazione Puccini and the Centro studi “G. Puccini” in Lucca, edited by Michele Girardi.

Suor Angelica

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

:Place: A convent in Italy :Time: The latter part of the 17th century The opera opens with scenes showing typical aspects of life in the convent. Sister Angelica and two lay sisters - Sister Genovieffa and Sister Dolcina - are late for chapel. All the sisters sing hymns, the Monitor chides Sisters Genovieffa and Dolcina for not doing penance as Sister Angelica has done, and everyone gathers for recreation in the courtyard. The sisters rejoice because, as the mistress of novices explains, this is the first of three evenings that occur each year when the setting sun strikes the fountain so as to turn its water golden. This event causes the sisters to remember Bianca Rosa, a sister who has died. Sister Genovieffa suggests they pour some of the “golden” water onto her tomb. The nuns discuss their desires for worldly pleasures. While the Monitor believes that any desire at all is wrong, Sister Genovieffa confesses that she longs for the lambs she tended to when she was a shepherdess, and Sister Dolcina for sweet foods to eat. Sister Angelica claims to have no desires, but as soon as she says so, the nuns begin gossiping - Sister Angelica has lied, because her true desire is to hear from her wealthy noble family, whom she has not heard from in seven years. Rumors are that she was sent to the convent as punishment. The conversation is interrupted by the Infirmary Sister, who begs Sister Angelica to make a herbal remedy, her specialty, for a wasp sting. Two tourières arrive, bringing supplies to the convent, and news that a grand coach is waiting outside. Sister Angelica becomes nervous and upset, thinking rightly that someone in her family has come to visit her. The Abbess chastises Sister Angelica for her inappropriate excitement and announces the visitor, the Princess, Sister Angelica’s aunt. The Princess rejects Sister Angelica’s affectionate gestures. The Princess explains that 20 years prior, she became the guardian to Angelica and her sister Anna Viola when their parents died and that she was given control over her nieces’ inheritance. The Princess then reveals her reason for coming to the convent – Angelica must sign a document transferring her inheritance to Anna Viola, who is marrying a man willing to ignore the shame that his fiancée’s sister brought on their family. Angelica replies that she has repented of her sin but that she cannot sacrifice everything to the Virgin: she cannot forget the memories of her illegitimate son, who was taken from her 7 years previously and of her aunt’s banishing her to the convent as retribution. The Princess at first refuses to respond, but she finally informs Sister Angelica that her son died of fever 2 years previously. Sister Angelica, devastated, signs the document transferring her inheritance and then collapses in tears. The Princess leaves. Sister Angelica is seized by a heavenly vision – she believes she hears her son calling for her to meet him in paradise. She makes a poison and drinks it but realizes that by killing herself she has committed a mortal sin and has damned herself to eternal separation from her son. She begs the Virgin Mary for mercy and, as she dies, she witnesses a miracle: the Virgin Mary appears along with Sister Angelica’s son, who runs to embrace her.

Tosca

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The French playwright Victorien Sardou wrote more than 70 plays, almost all of them successful, but in modern times, unperformed. In the early 1880s Sardou began a collaboration with actress Sarah Bernhardt, whom he provided with a series of historical melodramas. His third Bernhardt play, La Tosca, which premiered in Paris on 24 November 1887, and in which she starred throughout Europe, was an outstanding success, with more than 3,000 performances in France alone. Puccini had seen La Tosca at least twice, in Milan and Turin. On 7 May 1889 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.” Ricordi sent his agent in Paris, Emanuele Muzio, to negotiate with Sardou, who preferred that his play be adapted by a French composer. He complained about the reception La Tosca had received in Italy, particularly in Milan, and warned that other composers were interested in the piece. Nonetheless, Ricordi reached terms with Sardou and assigned the librettist Luigi Illica to write a scenario for an adaptation. In 1891, Illica advised Puccini against the project, most likely because he felt the play could not be successfully adapted to a musical form. When Sardou expressed his unease at entrusting his most successful work to a relatively new composer whose music he did not like, Puccini took offence. He withdrew from the agreement, which Ricordi then assigned to the composer Alberto Franchetti.

Tosca (1941 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Cast#

Imperio Argentina as Floria Tosca
Michel Simon as Il barone Scarpia
Rossano Brazzi as Mario Cavaradossi
Carla Candiani as La marchesa Attavanti
Olga Vittoria Gentilli as La regina di Napoli
Adriano Rimoldi as Angelotti
Nicolás D. Perchicot as Sciarrone
Juan Calvo as Spoletta
Nicola Maldacea as Il pittore di corte
Claudio Ermelli as Paisiello
Enzo Musumeci Greco as L’ufficiale della regina

Tosca (1953 EMI recording)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tosca (2001 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

Tosca is in love with Cavaradossi, who is arrested by Scarpia for helping escaped prisoner Angelotti to hide. Scarpia has Cavaradossi tortured in the presence of Tosca, who divulges Angelotti’s hiding place. Tosca agrees to submit to Scarpia’s advances, if he spares Cavaradossi’s life in a mock execution and provides her with a safe-conduct to allow her and her lover to escape Rome. After Scarpia finishes writing, she stabs and kills him. She joins her lover on a platform at the top of the Castel Sant’Angelo, where the execution is to take place. She shows him the safe-conduct and explains how she got it, and she assures him it is to be a mock execution. However, Scarpia has tricked her, the execution is real, and Tosca realizes Cavaradossi is dead. Scarpia’s murder has been discovered, and Spoleta can be heard coming to arrest her. With a final cry, she leaps from the parapet to her death.

Tu che di gel sei cinta

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Princess Turandot is taken aback by Liù’s strong resolve by not revealing the name of the Prince, and asked her: Turandot: Chi pose tanta forza nel tuo cuore? Liù: Principessa, l’amore! Turandot: L’amore? Who put so much strength into your heart? Princess, Love! Love? Turandot was furious with the answer, and ordered Ping to continue torturing Liù. Liù counters Turandot with this aria, and later seized a dagger from a soldier’s belt and stabs herself. In the following moments, the blind Timur tries to wake Liù, saying it is dawn (“Liù, Liù, sorgi, sorgi”). When told she is dead, he cries out in anguish that her offended spirit will take revenge, and Liù’s cortège moves off, with Timur vowing to accompany her into “the night which knows no dawn”.

Turandot

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origin and pronunciation of the name#

The title of the opera is derived from the Persian term Turāndokht (, ; ), a name frequently given to Turkish princesses in Persian poetry. Turan is a region of Central Asia that was once part of the Persian Empire. Dokht is a contraction of dokhtar (); in Persian, both the kh and t ( خ and ت respectively) are pronounced. Italian pronunciation dictionaries recommend pronouncing the final t. However, according to Puccini scholar Patrick Vincent Casali, the t is silent in the name of the opera and of its title character. Soprano Rosa Raisa, who created the title role, said that neither Puccini nor Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the first performances, ever pronounced the final t. Similarly, prominent Turandot Eva Turner did not pronounce the final t in television interviews. Casali maintains that the musical setting of many of Calaf’s utterances of the name makes sounding the final t all but impossible.

Un bel dì, vedremo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dramatic setting#

Early in act 2, three years after her marriage to U.S. naval officer B. F. Pinkerton, Cio-Cio San (“Butterfly”) awaits the return of her long-absent husband to Japan. Her maid, Suzuki, does not believe that Pinkerton will come back, but Butterfly is optimistic. Trying to convince Suzuki of Pinkerton’s loyalty, Butterfly sings of an imaginary scene in which a thread of smoke on the far horizon signals the arrival of a white ship into Nagasaki harbour, bringing her long-lost love back to her. The imagined scene culminates in a romantic reunion. The aria is noted for its lyrical beauty. It is of particular dramatic importance, as Butterfly’s yearning expressed in the song is later met with tragedy. Butterfly’s longed-for “beautiful day” is heralded at the end of act 2 by the arrival of Pinkerton’s ship, but it proves to be her last; Butterfly learns that Pinkerton has married another woman, and at the end of the opera, Butterfly, distraught, takes her own life. “Un bel dì, vedremo” is especially significant as it appeals to audiences with its emotive melody but also encapsulates the tragedy at the heart of the opera, foretelling Cio-Cio San’s inevitable demise.