Tag Archives: giacomo-puccini

Puccini’s Women

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LE DONNE DI GIACOMO PUCCINI (GIACOMO PUCCINI’S WOMEN)

Giacomo Puccini, whose death’s centenary is commemorated this year, places women at the centre of his operas. Indeed, of the twelve he wrote, seven take their titles from the heroines starring in them: ‘Manon Lescaut’, ‘La Bohème’, ‘Tosca’, ‘Madama Butterfly’, ‘Suor Angelica’,  ‘Turandot’, and ‘The Girl of the Golden West’. The remainder contain similarly important roles for women.

Are there any overriding features that characterise Puccini’s operatic women?

Yes. They are all vulnerable… to love and the lasciviousness of men. But these heroines are also strong in a way that women in earlier operas were not.  An independence comes through them which makes previous operatic women seem a little pallid. Behind Mimi’s apparent sweetness is the strength to lead a self-sufficient, independent life in a tough Parisian world dominated by males. Men and power clash with Tosca who fights to free herself from their political machinations and live for her art. Cio Cio San is a victim not only of colonial-style abuse from western male attitudes but also of her own culture’s hierarchical religious strictures. Sadly these women’s resistance to patriarchal oppression end in their death, often by their own hand. In two operas, however, Puccini’s heroines survive. Minnie in ‘The Girl of the Golden West’ leaves for a new life with her ex-bandit lover Dick Johnson who she saves from being lynched. Icy Princess Turandot, filled with hatred towards men because of the violent rape of a royal ancestor, melts before Calaf’s love for her – a love sadly unfulfilled musically through the composer’s death which left his masterpiece incomplete.

Puccini said that he hunted after good opera libretti, lake Massaciuccoli’s coots and attractive women. His possessive wife Elvira, recently the subject of a fine play at Bagni di Lucca’s Teatro Academico, created problematic situations with her skirt-chasing husband which spilled over into his artistic creations and portrayal of the eternal feminine. Who can deny that Tosca’s jealousy was a reflection of the maestro’s own domestic travails? Or that Liu’s fate reflected the suicide of his own servant girl?

How then can these highly complex women be properly portrayed in art?

The exhibition, ‘Le Donne di Giacomo Puccini’ inaugurated on November 29th 6.30 pm in Bagni di Lucca’s Sala Rosa at the Circolo Forestieri aims at displaying the enigmatic paradoxes of Puccini’s women and presenting them all in their infinite variety. The exhibition is organized by Morena Guarnaschelli, who is not only a highly esteemed artist but also the driving force behind the resurgence of the town’s cultural association ‘Il Borgo degli Artisti’ earlier this year.

More than fifty art works will be shown by artists from Italy, Netherlands, Britain and the United States.  They range from paintings to bas-reliefs and sculptures. They also include works by students at the San Giuseppe art school and the ARTISTICisBETTER cultural association of Grottaferrata, Rome.

After the exhibition, at 8 pm you are invited (prior booking please, phone 320 1107330) to an evening dinner with a menu consisting of Puccini’s favourite dishes accompanied by arias from his operas  performed by Maria Fontanini (soprano), Stefano Calcidese (piano) and Elia Barsellotti (violin).

In this year, Puccini’s death anniversary, the Maestro lives anew! We look forwards to greeting you at the inaugural of the exhibition which will remain open every day from 5 pm to  7 pm and, additionally, on Wednesdays, Saturdays Sundays from 10 am to 12 am.

The Centennial Room

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Exactly one hundred years ago today perhaps the world’s most popular opera composer and one of its greatest, Giacomo Puccini, paid a locally much feted visit to Celle, the village where his family home is situated.

A few days later Puccini travelled to a clinic in Brussels where, sadly, he did not survive an operation for his throat cancer.

We were privileged to attend the remembrance of Puccini’s last visit to Celle commemorated with the laying of a wreath just as the sun was appearing, a lyric concert and the opening of a new room in the family home dedicated to this genius from the Lucchesia who now rightfully belongs to the whole world and to all lovers of the best music.

Oggi, esattamente cento anni fa, forse il compositore d’opera più conosciuto al mondo e uno dei più grandi, Giacomo Puccini, fece una visita molto celebrata a Celle, il villaggio dove si trova la sua casa di famiglia. Pochi giorni dopo, Puccini si recò in una clinica a Bruxelles dove, purtroppo, non sopravvisse a un’operazione per il suo cancro alla gola.

Abbiamo avuto il privilegio di partecipare alla commemorazione dell’ultima visita di Puccini a Celle, commemorata con la deposizione di una corona di fiori proprio mentre il sole stava finalmente sorgendo, un concerto lirico e l’inaugurazione di una nuova stanza nella casa di famiglia dedicata a questo genio della Lucchesia che ora appartiene di diritto al mondo intero e a tutti gli amanti della migliore musica.

Back in the Family

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What better place could we have been last night than at Giacomo Puccini’s family home for a concert to remember that it was a hundred years ago that he sadly died.

It is particularly poignant to remember that this was Giacomo’s last visit before he embarked on that fateful journey to the Bruxelles clinic to seek a cure for his throat cancer exacerbated by more than fifty years of smoking fifty a day.

The concert artistes all gave their best under the guidance of supreme Puccini opera producer Vivien Hewitt whose enthusiastic and elucidating presentations of the pieces sung gave us new insights into a composer who helped to transform opera into a higher (and maybe never to be surpassed) level of music drama.

Casa Puccini in Celle, a lovely little village in the val Pedogna, perhaps fills one more than any other place associated with this great composer and great lover of life with the feeling that ‘he is here’: Certainly the family home is so full of atmosphere, from the bed where Giacomo was born (its the original – the one in the Lucca house is a copy), to the ink blotched manuscripts where the composer penned his student sketches and set down themes for the greatest of his works to Edison’s present of a gramophone just to prove that the whole world could now listen to him

We feel so privileged to be a stone’s throw away from where the heart of Lucca’s musical treasury was born. It was an enchantment to be there ….and there too on the eve of our wedding anniversary… forty seven years so far!

Un Puccini Sconosciuto

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Un recital della musica di Giacomo Puccini per pianoforte? Sembra assurdo quasi quanto un recital delle arie d’opera di Chopin. Ma non del tutto…. poiché Puccini aveva un rapporto intimo con il pianoforte. Sebbene non fosse un pianista professionista (al conservatorio ebbe solo un anno di lezioni sullo strumento prima di passare all’organo che la sua famiglia pensava sarebbe stato il suo lavoro principale – come organista nelle chiese di Lucca) Puccini aveva una visione ferma sul tipo di strumento che piaceva suonare. Diceva che doveva essere sonoro, quasi orchestrale nel tono. Steinway sarebbe diventato il suo preferito: grande, pieno delle dinamiche più varie e la famosa fotografia del figlio più famoso di Lucca al pianoforte mostre proprio questo strumento.


Per Giacomo Puccini il pianoforte era principalmente un mezzo per raggiungere una fine: un modo per toccare negli ambienti domestici la visione sonora dei suoi capolavori operistici. Mi viene in mente come poco prima della morte del maestro, cento anni fa (ecco perché ora è particolarmente celebrato), Puccini suonò il finale di “Turandot”, la sua ultima opera incompleta, a un caro amico nello studio seminterrato della sua nuova villa a Viareggio. Peccato che nessuno abbia registrato ciò che ha suonato…ma del resto era ben prima dell’era degli smart telefonini!


È vero che gran parte della musica per pianoforte di Puccini è costituita da trascrizioni fatte dalla sua opera operistica: alcune quasi letterali, altre pot-pourri. Tra questi però ci sono brani scritti originariamente per pianoforte.


Il concerto tenutosi recentemente nello splendido casinò progettato da Pardini a Bagni di Lucca, inaugurato nel 1839 con un recital pianistico tenuto niente meno che da Franz Liszt (!), è stata la prima esecuzione completa della musica pianistica di Puccini: una prima assoluta infatti e una che includeva diversi brani scoperti di recente e mai ascoltati prima. Questo concerto è stato il secondo in una serie di tre che hanno proposto la musica meno conosciuta di Puccini. Il primo consisteva di musica corale religiosa e fu tenuto nella chiesa di Corsena dove il compositore scrisse uno dei suoi pezzi giovanili, la ‘Vexilla’.


Il secondo concerto è stato introdotto dal professor Marcello Cherubini, infaticabile presidente dell’associazione culturale di Bagni di Lucca, la Fondazione Michel de Montaigne. Il Prof. Virgilio Bernardoni, un’autorità mondiale nel campo della musica pianistica di Puccini, ha poi tenuto davanti al pubblico molto seguito un discorso approfondito sul rapporto di Puccini con il pianoforte.


Questo era il programma;

La musica per pianoforte di Puccini può essere convenientemente suddivisa in tre fasi. Il primo è costituito da opere giovanili ed esercizi accademici. Questi mostrano un sapore rococò molto simile allo stile dei suoi predecessori del XVIII secolo. Sono affascinanti, passano il tempo. Si potrebbe dire poco altro ma, anche in questo caso, il primo trionfo di Puccini con la sua opera “Manon Lescaut”, ambientata nell’età dell’Illuminismo, dimostra quanto sia stato utile per lui padroneggiare quello stile antiquato.
La fuga che seguì dimostrò che il maestro poteva dare il massimo in questo tipo di composizione molto difficile. Ancora una volta questa disciplina si dimostrò molto utile nel suo primo capolavoro ecclesiastico, la “Messa a Quattro Voci”, che gli valse la laurea e una carriera apparentemente seria come compositore ecclesiastico.


Il recital della pianista veramente eccellente ed idiomatica, Silvia Gasperini, ha poi esplorato la seconda fase principale della vita creativa di Puccini. Un grande valzer, ‘a la maniere’ di Johann Strauss, ci ha dato un’indicazione di come Giacomo avrebbe deliziato il suo pubblico durante le riunioni da ballo intime e alla moda. Il “piccolo valzer” è stato scritto dopo la capricciosa effusione di Musetta nel secondo atto de “La Boheme” o l’ha preceduta?


“Scossa Elettrica”, la piccola marcia vivace composta per un concorso che coinvolgeva uno stuolo di telegrafiste (e, per inciso, continua a essere una delle preferite dalle bande locali nei villaggi della Lucchesia in forma trascritta), si è rivelata l’elemento più difficile da suonare. È stato anche molto divertente: si dice che Puccini l’abbia descritta come “una sciocchezza”!


L’ultimo periodo del limitato ma molto indicativo repertorio pianistico del maestro si è concluso con alcuni brani sentiti, scritti appena un paio d’anni prima della sua prematura scomparsa causata dal fumare cinquanta sobrainie al giorno fin dall’adolescenza. Con le loro ambiguità armoniche e cadenze irrisolte dimostrano che Puccini era attento alle nuove correnti musicali, soprattutto a quelle provenienti dalla scuola impressionista francese.


Questo non è stato certamente un concerto paragonabile a un recital di Schumann o Brahms per lo stesso strumento. Ha dimostrato, tuttavia, che Puccini era pienamente consapevole delle possibilità del pianoforte, pur non essendo un virtuoso nello strumento, che trovò utile principalmente nella creazione dei suoi capolavori operistici che sopravviveranno finché i nostri il mondo torturato sopravvive.

Attendiamo con tanto piacere l’ultimo concerto della serie: la musica di Puccini per organo che avrà luogo alla chiesa monumentale di San Cassiano il 22 giugno alle ore 17.30.

Puccini times Five

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2024 is a year to remember for lovers of opera throughout the world. One hundred years ago one of the most popular composers of this often lavish and exotic art form died from an unsuccessful operation for his throat cancer (he was a fifty-a-day person for most of his life) at a Brussels clinic.


Lucca, Puccini’s birthplace, is celebrating its enviable cultural export with a panoply of events.


Our town of Bagni di Lucca is also commemorating this universal composer whose music speaks to all feeling hearts.


This beautiful place nestling in the Tuscan Apennines, has ever been a haunt for those in quest of its miraculous waters. From mediaeval countesses to illuminist philosophers to romantic poets guests have included Matilda di Canossa, Montagne, Byron, Shelley, Heine and Elisa Bonaparte.


Giacomo Puccini was also a guest here. As a penniless student he came to earn a crust of bread playing the piano for dances at the casino. Indeed Puccini’s first commission and his debut as a composer came thanks to our local chemist.
To celebrate this Bagni di Lucca is presenting a series of three concerts, one each for Puccini’s choral, organ and piano music respectively.


Yesterday afternoon our local cultural association, the Michel De Montaigne Foundation held the first one.

The concert opened with ‘Beata Viscera’, for two female voices, which Giacomo composed in 1875, dedicating it to his sister Iginia who had become a nun that year. The very short composition was only found last year in the Lucca archives by Aldo Berti and ascribed to Giacomo Puccini. Yesterday was its first modern performance. ‘Beata Viscera’ is a slight piece but its simple lyricism foretells what is to come.


The motet ‘Vexilla Regis Prodeunt’ followed. Dating from1878 it was commissioned by local chemist Adelson Betti who was also organist of our parish church of San Pietro of Corsena. The young Puccini received a supper with the Betti chemist’s family, his train fare and a slice of chestnut cake for his efforts. We have sung this piece with our local choir in the church at Corsena for which it was destined. The second part of the motet’s ternary form appealed to me but otherwise I was unimpressed by its often cheesy harmonies.


The third piece was the ‘Salve Regina’, for soprano and organ, composed in 1883 on a text by Antonio Ghislanzoni, Verdi’s librettist and bohemian poet. It cannot be defined as a piece of sacred music since the text is not liturgical but described as a sacred poem. The composition was also considered by its composer to be suitable for inclusion in his first opera, the one acter ‘Le Villi’.


The Mass for strings, four solos, choir and orchestra, written in 1735 by Giacomo Puccini senior, founder of the Puccini musical family line, formed the largest piece in the concert. Its performance here was intended as a tribute to a dynasty of musicians active in Lucca for five generations. Indeed starting with Giacomo Puccini Senior and rather like other musical families, in particular Bach’s, music remained the principal career for Puccini’s family until 1924.


In this Vivaldian-style composition, a Missa Brevis consisting of only Kyrie and Gloria, the great-great-grandfather of opera composer Giacomo, demonstrates in my opinion, amazing mastery of baroque musical language with lively arias, impressive choral fugues and creative instrumental accompaniments. Indeed Giacomo Senior can now be certainly recognized as among the best Italian composers of the late baroque period just as it was merging into the classic Mozart-Haydn period. Kapellmeister of the Serenissima Republic of Lucca, and known throughout Italy, Giacomo Senior made use of the services of excellent local musicians who were joined, on special occasions, by professionals from other regions and duchies of an Italy prior to its unification.

(The Giacomo Puccini Senior Mass – second half)


It was just as well that the programme was rearranged to include the Mass as the next-to-last piece. To have performed it at the start, though chronologically apt, would have unduly brought out the jejunesse of opera-Puccini’s early church compositions.


The concert closed with the Requiem, for choir, organ and solo viola, which Giacomo Puccini, operatic composer, wrote in 1905 at the request of the publisher Ricordi on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death. I found it a very heartfelt, moving piece, a true masterpiece with a touching viola solo played by Caterina Mancini..


The concert performers included the Santa Felicita di Lucca String Quintet (Alberto Bologni and Valeria Barsanti, violins; Caterina Mancini, viola; Francesca Gaddi, cello; Gabriele Ragghianti, double bass). Daniele Boccaccio played the organ. The choir was the Nova Harmonia vocal ensemble under choir master Paola Vincenti. Soloists were Nunzia Fazzi soprano, Michela Mazzanti contralto, Adriano Gulino tenor, Nicola Farnesi bass. The conductor was Giorgio Fazzi. The artistic director was Silvano Pieruccini.

All-in-all the performers were well up to the task of letting the audience hear this rarely music to a high standard. (This in spite of a dramatic moment during the Puccini Senior Mass when a choir member fainted with a resounding thud on the platform and the performance had to be paused. Fortunately he was all right and the Mass was able to continue.) All soloists were excellent, the female ones particularly so and the strings were good.