Giacomo Puccini, a great opera composer

Giacomo Puccini was one of the greatest opera composers of all time. He was unusual among modern composers in writing no mature works that were not operas, having committed himself to this medium from an early age.

He was born in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, on 22^nd December 1858, the fifth of seven children of the organist and choirmaster of Lucca’s San Martino Cathedral. This was a position that had been held by the Puccini family for four generations and Giacomo was pencilled in as the next incumbent. However, his father died when Giacomo was only five and he was sent to study with his uncle, who had taken over the position until Giacomo would be old enough to move into his father’s job.

However, Giacomo saw a production of Verdi’s “Aida” at Pisa in 1876 and decided that opera was far more interesting to him than being an organist. He therefore enrolled at Lucca’s Conservatorio Pacini, completing his studies in 1880. He then moved to Milan, which was the Mecca for all budding opera composers, and studied at the Conservatorio Reale between 1880 and 1883.

While there he entered a competition for a one-act opera, sponsored by a music publisher. His opera was “Le Villi”, but when the results were announced Puccini’s name was not even mentioned as an “also ran”. However, when he played and sang some of the music at a party where a number of influential people were present, the reception was so enthusiastic that arrangements were made to stage the opera anyway.

The Milan music publisher Giulio Ricordi acquired the rights to “Le Villi” which Puccini expanded to two acts, and also commissioned a new opera from him. This was “Edgar”, which was far less successful, mainly because the subject matter was not conducive to Puccini’s talents. The opera was staged in April 1889 but was coolly received and was lost soon afterwards.

It was at this time that Puccini fell in love with Elvira Gemignani, a married woman, whom he was only able to marry in 1904 after her husband had died.

His next project was much more to his liking and much more successful. This was “Manon Lescaut” which was staged in February 1893 and made his name known throughout Italy and beyond. He was widely hailed as the true successor to Verdi.

While still working on this opera, Puccini had bought a house at Torre del Lago near Lucca. The house overlooked a lake which attracted thousands of ducks and geese, which appealed to Puccini’s other passion of wildfowl shooting. He lived in this house until 1921, composing his operas with a shotgun by his side so that he could open the window and bag a duck or two when he needed a break.

  

Puccini’s next three operas are among his greatest, namely “La Bohème” (first staged in 1896), “Tosca” (1900) and “Madame Butterfly” (1904). He employed two librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, who produced their scripts jointly; Illica would draw up the scenario and invent plot details, in prose, and Giacosa would produce a version in verse. Puccini also had a lot to say about the script and there were many arguments among the three of them. However, Puccini, like Wagner, had a very strong theatrical sense and knew instinctively what would work from a dramatic point of view. The composer’s view always prevailed.

In these and his other operas it is noticeable that Puccini’s heroines are more important than his heroes; indeed, of his twelve major operas seven are named after the heroine. He had a gift for understanding the female psyche and, although they come to tragic ends, his heroines are portrayed with true affection.

“The Girl of the Golden West” (1910) was set in the 1849 Californian gold rush and used American and Native American tunes. It was premiered in New York and went down far better with the public than with the critics.

“La Rondine” (1917) was the least successful of Puccini’s mature operas and it also caused him some political difficulties in that its resemblance to a Viennese opera was regarded by some as being unpatriotic at a time when Italy was fighting on the side of the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, etc) against the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. 

“Trittico” (1918) was a venture along the lines of Parisian “Grand Guignol” in which three contrasting one-act plays or operas were presented in sequence. Puccini’s triptych was “Il Tabarro”, “Suor Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi”, although these days they are rarely performed together as originally intended.

Puccini’s final opera, which was incomplete at his death, was “Turandot” which is often regarded as his greatest masterpiece, despite various problems with its plot. It combines the heroic, the lyrical-sentimental, the comic-grotesque and the exotic. It contains one of the greatest of all tenor arias, namely “Nessun dorma” which was brought to wide public attention in 1990 when Luciano Pavarotti’s recording was used as the theme of the BBC’s World Cup coverage.

Puccini died from cancer of the throat on 29^th November 1924, with the final two scenes sketched but not completed. “Turandot” was performed at La Scala, Milan, on 25^th April 1926 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, ending at the point where Puccini’s score ended, with Toscanini announcing the fact as he laid down his baton. However, the following evening it was performed in its completed version, the final scenes having been written, based on Puccini’s sketches, by Franco Alfano.

The legacy of Giacomo Puccini is a succession of operas that provide wonderful spectacle and drama as well as music of the highest quality and the opportunities it provides for the world’s greatest opera singers, of all voices, to display their talents to the utmost. Puccini’s works will surely be heard throughout the world for many years to come.

© John Welford