|
Giacomo
Puccini
Puccini,
Giacomo (1858-1924), Italian composer,
whose operas blend intense emotion and
theatricality with tender lyricism,
colourful orchestration, and a rich vocal
line.
Puccini
was born December 22, 1858, in Lucca, the
descendant of a long line of local church
musicians. In 1880 he wrote a mass, Messa
di Gloria, that encouraged his great-uncle
to help underwrite his musical education.
After studying (1880-1883) music at the
Milan Conservatory, Puccini wrote his
first opera, Le Villi (1884); this brought
him a commission to write a second, Edgar
(1889), and a lifelong connection with
Ricordi, a major music publisher. His
third opera, Manon Lescaut (1893), was
hailed as the work of a genius. La
Bohème (1896), although containing
some of the most popular arias in the
repertoire today, displeased the audience
at its Turin premiere, even with Arturo
Toscanini conducting. Subsequent
productions, however, won the composer
worldwide acclaim.
Puccini's
other operas include Tosca (1900); Madama
Butterfly (1904), which drew hisses at La
Scala in Milan on opening night but scored
a success after Puccini revised it; The
Girl of the Golden West (1910), an opera
on an American theme; the high-spirited La
Rondine (1917); and Il Trittico, a trilogy
of one-act operas comprising Il Tabarro,
Suor Angelica, and the comic Gianni
Schicchi (1918). Puccini was working on
Turandot when he died on November 29,
1924, in Brussels. The opera, his most
exotic, was completed by Franco Alfano and
had its premiere in 1926.
La
Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and
Turandot have all entered the standard
repertory, and all show his command of
sumptuous orchestration, sustained vocal
melodies, and a control of pacing that
results in a shrewd and effective
manipulation of the audience's emotional
reaction. A recurrent theme in the plots
of his operas is the destruction of an
innocent young woman through the
callousness of society; in Madama
Butterfly, the eponymous central character
shows an emotional growth and nobility
that make the outcome genuinely
tragic.
Although
his work lacks the grandeur of Giuseppe
Verdi's ("The only music I can compose is
that of little things", Puccini once
said), many consider him second only to
Verdi among Italian composers who lived
after Gioacchino Rossini.
|
