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Scan 1308
Baker S Biographical Dictionary Of Musicians, 1900
2 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 1288. See the scan on archive.org.
1was 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 on 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 the next work, La Bohème (4 acts; text by Illica and Giacosa), produced at the same theater on Feb. 1, 1896. These two works not only carried their composer's name throughout the world, but also have found and maintained their place in the repertory of every opera-house. With fame came wealth, and in 1900 he built at Lago del Torre, where he had been living since 1891, a magnificent villa. The 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 repertory and contains some of Puccini's best-known arias. At its première 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 House (Feb. 11, 1907) took place in the presence of the composer, whom the management had invited specially for the occasion. It was then suggested that he write an opera on an American subject, the première to take place at the Metropolitan Opera House. 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 première of La Fanciulla del West occurred, amid much enthusiasm, at the Metropolitan Opera House on Dec. 10, 1910. But the enthusiasm subsided quickly; the following season the work had a few more performances, and then disappeared from the repertory; it shared the same fate in Italy (1st Italian performance Teatro Costanzi, Rome, June 12, 1911) and other European countries. Puccini then brought out La Rondine (3 acts; Monte Carlo, March 27, 1917) and the 3 1-act operas Il Tabarro (after Didier Gold's La Houppelande), Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi (all performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, Dec. 14, 1918). His last opera, Turandot (after Gozzi), was left unfinished; the final scene was completed by Franco Alfano and the work first performed at La Scala, Milan, on April 25, 1926; it was also given at the Metropolitan Opera House, Nov. 16, 1926.—All operas but Edgar have been performed in the U. S.: Le Villi (Metropolitan Opera House, Dec. 17, 1908); Manon Lescaut (Hinrichs Co., Philadelphia, July 29, 1894); La Bohème (Los Angeles, Oct. 18, 1897); Tosca (Metropolitan Opera House, Feb. 4, 1901); Madama Butterfly (Washington, Oct. 15, 1906). Puccini also composed the Inno a Roma (1919), for use in the schools of Rome.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Virgilio, Della Decadenza dell' opera in Italia (Milan, 1900); A. Brüggemann, Madama Butterfly e l'arte di G. Puccini (Milan, 1904); Wakeling Dry, G. Puccini (London, 1906); F. Torrefranca, G. Puccini e l'opera internazionale (Turin, 1912); D. C. Parker, A View of G. Puccini, in the 'Mus. Quarterly' (Oct., 1917); A. Weissmann, G. Puccini (Munich, 1922); A. Cœuroy, La Tosca (Paris, 1924); A. Bonaventura, G. Puccini: L'Uomo, l'artista (Leghorn, 1924); A. Fraccaroli, La Vita di G. Puccini (Milan, 1925; also in German); G. Marotti and F. Pagni, G. Puccini intimo (Florence, 1926); A. Neisser, Puccini (Leipzig, 1928); F. Salerno, Le Donne pucciniane (Palermo, 1928); G. M. Gatti, The Works of G. Puccini, in the 'Mus. Quarterly' (Jan., 1928); R. C. Merlin, Puccini (Milan, 1930); R. Specht, Puccini (Berlin, 1931; in English, N. Y., 1933); W. Maisch, Puccinis musikalische Formgebung (Neustadt, 1934); G. Adami, Puccini (Milan, 1935; in German, 1943); M. Carner, The Exotic Element in Puccini, in the 'Mus. Quarterly' (Jan., 1936); K. G. Fellerer, G. Puccini (Potsdam, 1937); V. Seligman, Puccini Among Friends (correspondence; N. Y., 1938); G. Marotti, Giacomo Puccini intimo (Florence, 1942); F. Thiess, Puccini, Versuch einer Psychologie seiner Musik (Berlin, 1947); A. Bonaccorsi, Giacomo Puccini e i suoi antenati musicali (Milan, 1950);
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