Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, on December 22, 1858, to a
family which for several generations had produced professional
musicians. As a boy, Giacomo attended the Istituto Musicale in his
native city, played the organ in the local church, and wrote two choral
compositions. A subsidy from Queen Margherita enabled him to continue
his music study at the Milan Conservatory with Bazzini and Ponchielli.
The latter encouraged Puccini to write for the stage. Puccini’s first
dramatic work was a one-act opera, _Le Villi_, given successfully in
Milan in 1884, and soon thereafter performed at La Scala. On a
commission from the publisher, Ricordi, Puccini wrote a second opera
that was a failure. But the third, _Manon Lescaut_—introduced in Turin
in 1893—was a triumph and permanently established Puccini’s fame. He now
moved rapidly to a position of first importance in Italian opera with
three successive master-works: _La Bohème_ (1896), _Tosca_ (1900) and
_Madama Butterfly_ (1904). Puccini paid his first visit to the United
States in 1907 to supervise the American première of the last-named
opera; he returned in 1910 to attend the world première of _The Girl
from the Golden West_ which had been commissioned by the Metropolitan
Opera. Puccini’s subsequent operas were: _La Rondine_ (1917), _Il
Trittico_, a trilogy of three one-act operas (1918), and _Turandot_
(1924), the last of which was left unfinished but was completed by
Franco Alfano. Operated on for cancer of the throat, in Brussels,
Puccini died of a heart attack in that city on November 29, 1924.
Though Puccini was an exponent of “Verismo,” a movement in Italian opera
which emphasized everyday subjects treated realistically, he poured into
his operas such a wealth of sentiment, tenderness, sweetness of
lyricism, and elegance of style that their emotional appeal is
universal, and he has become the best loved opera composer of the 20th
century. Selections from his three most popular operas are basic to the
repertory of any semi-classical or “pop” orchestra.
_La Bohème_ was based on Murger’s famous novel, _Scènes de la vie de
Bohème_ adapted into an opera libretto by Giacosa and Illica. When first
introduced (Turin, February 1, 1896) the opera encountered an apathetic
audience and hostile critics. It had no big scenes, no telling climaxes,
and most of its effects were too subtle emotionally to have an
instantaneous appeal. But the third performance—in Palermo in
1896—received an ovation. From that time on it never failed to move
opera audiences with its deeply moving pathos and its vivid depiction of
the daily problems and conflicts of a group of Bohemians in mid
19th-century Paris. The central theme is the love affair of the poet,
Rodolfo, and a seamstress, Mimi. This love was filled with storm and
stress, and ended tragically with Mimi’s death of consumption in
Rodolfo’s attic. The following are some of the episodes heard most often
in potpourris or fantasies of this opera: Rodolfo’s celebrated narrative
in the first act, “_Che gelida manina_,” in which he tells Mimi about
his life as a poet; Mimi’s aria that follows this narrative immediately,
“_Mi chiamano Mimi_,” where she tells Rodolfo of her poignant need for
flowers and the warmth of springtime; the first act love duet of Mimi
and Rodolfo, “_O soave fanciulla_”; Musetta’s coquettish second-act
waltz, “_Quando m’en vo’ soletta_,” sung outside Café Momus in the Latin
Quarter on Christmas Eve, informing her admirers (specifically Marcello
the painter), how men are always attracted to her; Rodolfo’s poignant
recollection of his one time happiness with Mimi, “_O, Mimi, tu più_” in
the fourth act; and Mimi’s death music that ends the opera.
_Madama Butterfly_—libretto by Illica and Giacosa based on David
Belasco’s play of the same name, which in turn came from John Luther’s
short story—was first performed in Milan on February 17, 1904 when it
was a fiasco. There was such pandemonium during that performance that
Puccini had to rush on the stage and entreat the audience to be quiet so
that the opera might continue. Undoubtedly, some of Puccini’s enemies
had a hand in instigating this scandal, but the opera itself was not one
able to win immediate favor. The exotic setting of Japan, the unorthodox
love affair involving an American sailor and a geisha girl ending in
tragedy for the girl, and the provocatively different kind of music
(sometimes Oriental, sometimes modern) written to conform to the setting
and the characters—all this was not calculated to appeal to Italian
opera lovers. But three months after the première the opera was repeated
(with some vital revisions by the composer). This time neither the play
nor the music proved shocking, and the audience fell under the spell of
enchantment which that sensitive opera cast all about it. From then on,
the opera has been a favorite around the world.
The most celebrated single excerpt from the opera is unquestionably
Madame Butterfly’s poignant aria, her expression of belief that her
American lover, so long absent from Japan with his fleet, would some day
return to her: “_Un bel di_.” Other popular episodes include the
passionate love music of Madame Butterfly and the American lieutenant
with which the first act ends, “_Viene la sera_”; the flower duet of the
second act between Madame Butterfly and her servant in which the heroine
excitedly decorates her home with cherry blossoms upon learning that her
lover is back with his fleet (“_Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio_”); the
American lieutenant’s tender farewell to Madame Butterfly and the scene
of their love idyl from the third act (“_Addio fiorito_ _asil_”); and
Madame Butterfly’s tender farewell to her daughter before committing
suicide (“_Tu, tu piccolo iddio_”).
_Tosca_—based on the famous French drama of the same name by Sardou, the
libretto by Giacosa and Illica—was introduced in Rome on January 14,
1900. It was a blood and thunder drama set in Rome at the turn of the
19th century; the dramatic episodes involved murder, horror, suicide,
sadism. The heroine, Floria Tosca, is an opera singer in love with a
painter, Mario Cavaradossi; she, in turn, is being pursued by Scarpia,
the chief of police. To save her lover’s life, she stands ready to give
herself to Scarpia. The latter, nonetheless, is responsible for
Cavaradossi’s execution. Scarpia is murdered by Tosca, who then commits
suicide.
Two tenor arias by Cavaradossi are lyrical highlights of this opera. The
first is “_Recondita armonia_,” in the first act, in which the painter
rhapsodizes over the beauty of his beloved Tosca; the second, “_E
lucevan le stelle_,” comes in the last act as Cavaradossi prepares
himself for his death by bidding farewell to his memory of Tosca. The
third important aria from this opera is that of Tosca, “_Vissi d’arte_,”
a monologue in which she reflects on how cruel life had been to one who
has devoted herself always to art, prayer, and love. In addition to
these three arias, the opera score also boasts some wonderful love
music, that of Cavaradossi and Tosca (“_Non la sospiri la nostra
casetta_”) and the first act stately church music (“_Te Deum_”).