Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Italian: Giacomo Puccini, full name Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo María Puccini, December 22, 1858 - November 29, 1924 Japanese), an Italian opera composer whose representative works include operas such as "La Bohème", "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly". It is also one of the most frequently performed operas in the world.
Some of the songs from these operas have become part of modern culture, including "Dear Papa" and "Turandot" from "Gianni Schicchi" "The Princess Stays Up All Night" is included.
Chinese name: Giacomo Puccini
Foreign name: Giacomo Puccini
Nationality: Italy
Birthplace: Italy, Italy Skalkarka
Date of birth: December 22, 1858
Date of death: November 29, 1924
Occupation: Opera composer
Graduation school: Milan Conservatory
Representative works: "La Boheme", "Tosca" and "Madame Butterfly"
Gender: Male
Basic information
Personal introduction
Giacomo Puccini was born into a musical family in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. Puccini's father died when he was 5 years old, so he was sent to his uncle Fortunato (Fortunato Magi) to study music, but Fortunato thought Puccini was an uncultured and vulgar student. Puccini later became the organist and choir teacher of the Lucca church, but it was not until he watched the famous opera composer Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" that Puccini decided to become a Opera composer, and in order to enjoy this opera performance, he walked 18.5 miles (30 kilometers) to Pisa with his friends.
Because Puccini received a scholarship and the help of a relative, he entered the Milan Conservatory in 1880 and studied under the guidance of romantic composers Amilcare Ponchielli and Antonio Bazzini. Learned composition under the guidance of. When Puccini was 21 years old, he composed "Messa" (Messa), marking the culmination of a long-term collaboration between the Puccini family and Lucca's Christian music. Although Puccini named this work, which was set to a Catholic mass, the Requiem, it is now better known as the Messadi Gloria. The name is technically named after the first two characters (Kyrie and Gloria) and ignores the other characters.
This work also hints at Puccini's emergence as a playwright, as he displayed dramatic power on the stage. The explosive performance of the arias by the tenor and bass soloists is indeed more operatic than church music. Because of its orchestral arrangement and dramatic power, Puccini's Requiem is often compared to Verdi's Requiem.
While at school
While studying at the music school, Puccini received an opera script from Ferdinando Fontana and participated in an opera composition competition in 1882. Although Puccini did not win, the work "Dance with the Monsters" was later performed at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan in 1884 and attracted the attention of Giulio Ricordi of Casa Ricordi. . Puccini's second opera, "Edgar" (Edgar), was performed in 1889 because he was commissioned by Ricotti. Later, Puccini also became lifelong friends with Fontana.
Growth experience
Since 1891, Puccini spent most of his time in Torre del Lago, a village 15 kilometers away from Lucca. A small community between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, located south of Viareggio. Puccini rented a house in Torre della Gucci, but he still traveled regularly to Lucca. In 1900, Puccini bought land and built a villa on the lake, which is now the Villa Museo Puccini. Puccini lived here until 1921, when he moved to Viareggio due to the impact of peat pollution. After Puccini's death, Puccini's villa became the Villa Museo Puccini. Puccini was buried in the local church, and later his wife and son were also buried here.
The Villa Puccini Museum, owned by Puccini's granddaughter Simonetta Puccini, is open to visitors.
Representative works
Puccini's third opera "MANON LESCAUT" was performed in 1893 and achieved great success. It connected Puccini's relationship with the playwrights Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. They collaborated on the next three operas, which later became Puccini's most famous works. These three operas are:
"La Bohème": considered to be one of Puccini's most successful works and one of the most legendary operas in history.
"Tosca": It actually depicts different aspects of real life (including violence). It can be said to be Puccini's first work with a realist color. Because of its many important features, it is considered one of the most important works in history.
"Madama Butterfly": At first it was met with hostility (mostly from opponents), but after several performances, it is now considered one of Puccini's most successful works.
Unfortunately less productive period
Puccini’s creations after 1904 became increasingly rare because of his passion for drag racing, which almost caused him to die in a car accident in 1903. Killed. Giacossa died in 1906, and a scandal broke out in 1909 when his wife Avila falsely accused their maid Doria Manfredi of having a relationship with Puccini, which later led to the suicide of the maid. . Avila was successfully sued by Manfordi's family, so Puccini had to pay compensation. The death of Puccini's publisher, Regordi, in 1912 also ended a productive period in Puccini's career as a playwright.
However, Puccini still completed "La Western" in 1910, and then completed "Larondine" (Larondine) in 1917, which was an operetta that Puccini recomposed, but he found that This is incompatible with his style and talent.
Triple Opera
"Il Trittico" was first performed in New York in 1918. This work consists of three parts.
Later Years
Poster for the opera "Tosca" Because Puccini had a habit of smoking, he began to suffer from chronic sore throat at the end of 1923. Diagnosed with throat cancer, doctors recommended he travel to Brussels, Belgium, for a new experimental radiation treatment. Because Puccini and his wife never knew how serious cancer was, they only told their son.
Puccini died on November 29, 1924 from complications caused by the treatment (myocardial infarction due to inability to control bleeding after surgery).
News of his death reached Rome during the performance of La Bohème, so the performance was immediately stopped and the orchestra played Frédéric-Fran?ois Chopin's "Funeral March" for the shocked audience. (FuneralMarch). Puccini was buried in Milan in 1926, but his son later moved his remains to a chapel in the Villa Torre della Puccini.
"Princess Turandot" is Puccini's last work. It was not completed when Puccini died. The last scene was composed by Franco Alfano based on Puccini's Completed draft. However, there is some doubt as to whether Franco Alfano followed Puccini's draft exactly.
When Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere of "Princess Turandot" in April 1926, he chose not to perform the parts completed by Alfano. When the performance reached the end of Puccini's part, Toscanini stopped the orchestra, turned to the audience and said, "This opera ends here, because at this time the master (meaning Puccini) Cini) has passed away" (some records show that Toscanini was more poetic and said: "The master laid down his pen here")
Italian composer Luccia Luciano Berio completed a new formal ending to "Princess Turandot" in 2001 based on the original manuscript, but this ending is not often performed.
Politics
Puccini was not politically active, unlike Verdi or Wagner. However, Mussolini, the leader of Italian fascism, claimed that Puccini applied to join the Italian National Fascist Party. However, this seems unlikely, as there is no record or proof that Puccini ever applied to join the Italian National Fascist Party. In addition, if Puccini really did this, his friend Arturo Toscanini is unlikely to be so friendly with him, because Toscanini was enough to influence Puccini , and he was an anti-fascist.
Opera works
1884: "LeVilli"
1889: "Edgar"
1893: "Manon Lescaut" (Manon Lescaut)
1896: "Labohème" (Labohème)
1900: "Lescaut" Tosca
1904: Madama Butterfly
1910: Lafanciulla del West
1917: "Larondine"
1918: "Iltrittico"
1926: "Turandot"
Commemoration
In order to commemorate Puccini’s achievements in opera, the Puccini Music Festival is held in Torre Dragu, Italy every year from July to August.
Creative Career
National Opera
In the mid-19th century, romanticism in France had faded, and literary appreciators were tired of the uncontrolled imagination of writers. . They demand stories that are true to life. Therefore, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the "realism" opera genre emerged in Italy. The themes of the operas were taken from daily life, and the creation pursued intense dramatic plots and exaggerated emotions, colorful lyrical melodies, and more natural emotions. , rich recitation tone is welcomed. Its representative writers are Puccini, Mascagni and Leoncavallo. The works include Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" and "The Artist's Life", Mascagni's "Cavalier Rusticana", Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci", followed by the Frenchman Charpentier's " Louise" etc. They are the pioneers in this new movement.
At the same time, with Russia as the center and other countries, national operas emerged.
National operas are all based on the myths and folklore of the country or the nation. The creation is based on praising the spirit of the nation and strives to get rid of the influence of Western art. The works are permeated with strong national characteristics and atmosphere.
Master Puccini
Realism originated from the naturalism of Zola and Ibsen. It is based on daily life and reflects the tragic life of ordinary people. It can be said to be a counter-judgment to Wagner's idealism. They carefully observe the people around them and hope to reflect their lives without exaggeration, which makes their works full of sympathy, beautiful melodies, fresh harmonies and rich lyrical color. However, realism also pursues intense dramatic plots and exaggerated emotions in art, which makes the plots of their operas often have a legendary nature.
From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Puccini led opera into a new era, and he achieved international success. Puccini boldly combined the free melodies of Italian tradition with new elements of modern music to create colorful, delicate and graceful orchestral music. His works are full of exotic sentiments, compact plots, rare and attractive themes, and have strong shocking power. Therefore, major opera houses around the world must release Puccini's works every opera season, and music lovers are always happy to go to the theater to watch one masterpiece after another. He is the greatest Italian opera composer after Verdi and a representative of the "realism" opera school. Under Puccini's impetus, Italian composers created a large number of realist works with new singing styles based on the theme of rural life in various places.
The Ending of the Heroine
Puccini (1858-1924) did not plan to write a new opera, and was still further deleting and revising "Madame Butterfly" which had been performed for two years. .
Killing off all the main characters at the end of an opera is not Puccini’s invention. But what Puccini lacked in originality he made up for in consistency, perfecting the idea of ??the heroine's death to something of an artistic procedure.
In Puccini's opera at least one of the main characters dies before the curtain ends. For example, in his first opera "A Dance with Monsters," Anna dies of sadness, and her lover Robert dies of embarrassment in life. The second opera, "Edgar," ends with Edgar's lover Fidelia being stabbed to death by her jealous rival. There is also the opera "The Artist's Life" (also translated as "La Boheme") (1896). In the opera, Mimi coughs to death; the ending of "Tosca" is that the heroine jumps from the balcony wall next to her. Died. The heroine in "Madame Butterfly" committed suicide with the nearest sharp weapon, while Manon Lescaut died of exhaustion after fulfilling her duties on stage.
In fact, the suicide of the heroine in Puccini's opera is very suitable. If the heroine's name becomes the name of the opera, the possibility of her death will be even greater. In Puccini's last opera "Turandot", when the princess Turandot did not want to die out of obvious selfishness, the maid Liuer committed suicide. Despite this, the composer did not change the title of the opera.
Puccini *** wrote 12 operas, 8 of which had the heroine or another important female character killed - a mortality rate of 66. The hero is doing much better. It is certain that none of them died of old age. They all died of murder, suicide or incurable diseases. Puccini was no fool at all, he knew what operagoers wanted to see.
Giacomo Puccini was born on December 22, 1858 in Lucca, a small village in Italy. Before he was born, four generations of his ancestors lived there. His great-great-grandfather, also named Giacomo, was the organist of the church of San Martino in the village. He passed this job to Puccini's great-grandfather Antonio, who in turn passed the job to his grandfather Domenico. He passed it on to his father Michele. Puccini's mother, Albina Maggi, was a musician. When Puccini was born, he was the fifth of seven children. His parents named him Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, which seemed to make him a A living family tree.
Due to his inherited musical talent, Puccini had already got a job playing organ in Lucca when he was 14 years old. However, following in the family footsteps, he just became a church organist for the aspiring young man. Not enough for Puccini. He was a rebel: he wanted to write an opera.
In 1876, when he was 18 years old, he and several young men walked nearly 50 miles one way from Lucca to Pisa to hear a performance of Verdi's "Aida". Listening to Verdi's masterpiece had a profound impact on the young man, and he immediately decided that opera was what he wanted to do. Grove's Dictionary of Music tells us that that fateful performance of "Aida" "opened a musical window for him." Basically all he needs is a door.
Full of enthusiasm and desire, he hurried to Milan to study composition at the Conservatoire there. He received funding from his uncle Nicolao Cheru.
In 1883, Puccini composed his first opera "Dancing Around" while studying at the Milan Conservatoire. In 1883, the Sonzonio Publishing House in Milan held a one-act opera creation competition. Ponchielli suggested that Puccini participate, and he found a young librettist named Fontana for Puccini. Fontana provided the script "A Dance with Monsters" based on an old German fairy tale. The plot is very simple: Anna, a poor peasant girl, dies because she was deceived by the heartless man Robert. She and the other deceived girls lingered and turned into ghosts, specifically fighting against men who had done wrongful things in the world. Robert, who was filled with regret, finally died under the pursuit of a group of ghosts. The overly monotonous plot did not provide the composer with much room for expression, but time was tight and Puccini had to start composing immediately. It was completed on the eve of the competition submission deadline.
Works
Puccini's opera "Dance with Monsters" failed to win the competition because it was difficult to read. However, fate soon smiled on Puccini. With Boito's help, "Dancing Around the Monsters" was staged in Milan in 1908. The theater was full and the show was a great success.
Five years later, his second opera "Edgar" came out. It premiered at La Scala in Milan on April 21, 1889. Although the response was not good, it fully demonstrated his skill. Many years later, a revised version of "Edgar" (compressed into 3 acts) was performed at the Buenos Aires Opera House, conducted by the famous Toscanini. It mainly describes civilian life and pays attention to the inner feelings of the characters.
Around this period, Puccini met a woman named Elvira Bonturi Gemignani. Ah, he and she are getting better and better. Their boy Antonio was born in 1886.
Work evaluation
Personal evaluation
Puccini was one of the leading figures of the "realism" opera genre from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. In his own creation, he inherited and developed the performance techniques of traditional Italian opera, and with his profound understanding of the essence of the opera art form, he made the opera in dramatic performance, plot and music
Opera " Tosca"
His works have undergone great changes throughout their development. All this is reflected in his creative, beautiful and smooth melodies and his colorful and superb artistic treatment of polyphonic music. Through his unremitting efforts and artistic practice, he achieved a perfect unity of the dramatic effect and musical effect of the opera, and achieved a very harmonious and easy-to-understand communication between the actors and the audience. The contents of the operas he created mostly showed the lives of the people at the bottom of society at that time and stories of joys and sorrows. In terms of musical language and style, he actively absorbs and adopts melodies rich in folk local color and style, making them more nationally distinctive and vital. For example, the opera "Turandot" uses the melody of the Chinese folk song "Jasmine"; "Madama Butterfly" uses the melody of the "American National Anthem" and the Japanese folk song "Sakura", etc. This pursuit of exotic creations also inspired the composer's continuous exploration and innovation in creation.
In 1893, "Manon Lescaut" came out, which was the forerunner of its four mature operas. The four operas are "The Ladies of the Sea", "Tosca", "Madama Butterfly" and "La Western".
They all have touching love stories, with female protagonists, and end in tragedy. The music is clear, elegant, and closely integrated with the lyrics and images, but "Madame Butterfly" failed to premiere because it was similar to the previous films. "Girl of the West" was performed at the Metropolitan Theater in New York on December 10, 1910, conducted by the famous conductor Toscanini, and was a great success. Puccini was very interested in the opera creation of his time and often studied the works of Debussy, R. Strauss, Schoenberg and Stravinsky, thus creating three operas with completely different tastes. One-act opera - a "triptych" composed of the exaggerated plot "The Jacket", the sad "Sister Angelica" and the comedy "Gianni Schicchi". His last opera, Turandot, was the only Italian opera written in Impressionist techniques. Unfortunately, he died of throat cancer with an unfinished manuscript in hand. Puccini can be called the last writer of Italian opera and the representative of realistic opera.
The results of the exploration
First screening
Puccini's opera "Manon Lescaut" at the Regi in Turin on February 1, 1893 premieres O, an opera that begins in France and ends on the windswept plains near New Orleans. It gave Puccini his first huge success, with 50 curtain calls on its opening night. Spanish soprano Lucrezia Borri recounted how she met Puccini backstage during rehearsals for the premiere of Manon, and how proud she was of the beautiful costume she wore for the climactic scene. Puccini, a man who was very particular about details, told her that the costume was too beautiful for a hungry, penniless character wandering in the wilderness, so he poured his coffee on her Splash it on to give her clothes that worn look. Wow, she was going crazy! The success of "Manon Lescaut" established his status as a famous composer.
Puccini was a man of continuous good luck. He worked hard to write three of the most successful operas: "The Artist's Life", "Tosca" and "Madame Butterfly". They all end with the death of the heroine. But it's not enough for the heroines to die, they also have to let out a loud cry of sorrow before disappearing completely.
On February 1, 1896, "The Artist's Life" (also translated as "La Bohème") premiered at the Teatro Real in Turin, Italy. The play reflects the joys and sorrows of Parisian artists' life in the 1830s. The audience loved this opera because of its wonderful drama and touching romance.
In 1890, Puccini watched the tragedy of the same name created by the 19th-century French playwright Victorian Sardou (1831-1908) in Milan. He was deeply moved and decided to rewrite it into an opera. Because he was busy composing "The Artist's Life" at the time, the matter was temporarily put on hold. After completing The Artist's Life, Puccini commissioned Luis Ilica and Giuseppe Jalissa to write the libretto. The two librettists reduced the original play's five acts to three and eliminated the political features of the original play, which centered on the French Revolution. "Tosca" premiered on January 14, 1900, at the Teatro Constanti in Rome. The premiere was not a success due to deliberate opposition to Puccini. Music critic Joseph Kerman called the opera "a crappy, cheap, lurid piece of work." The opera ends with Tosca stabbing Scarpia to death, her lover Cavaradossi being killed by a musketeer, and Tosca committing suicide. In the end, almost no one was left standing.
After that, "Tosca" was staged in Milan at the end of March, Genoa in May, London in July, and New York in 1901. Today, "Tosca" has become one of the most frequently performed traditional opera repertoires, and is often included in the top ten famous operas in Western Europe.
The opening night of "Madama Butterfly" at La Scala in 1904 was a complete failure. Throughout the performance, people in the audience kept whistling, shouting and laughing. The fiasco was planned by jealous rivals seeking revenge on the composer. Puccini took the work back and revised and rewritten parts of it. First, it is shortened, which is an intuitive change. Later versions were more successful. Puccini used the royalties from the opera to buy a speedboat, which he named the Giojosan after Madama Butterfly's Japanese name.
From "Manon Lescaut" to "Madame Butterfly" (1893-1904), it was a prolific 10 years for Puccini's opera creation. His three masterpieces, "La Bohème", "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly", which are famous in the world of music, were created during this period. The works of this period follow the two clues of "lyrical drama" and "romantic drama". It is not difficult to see that the latter inherited from Verdi's romantic operas, but lacks the social background of Verdi's operas.
Released in the United States
In early 1907, Puccini went to the United States to attend the premiere of "Madame Butterfly" at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. This trip played a certain role in stimulating his creative imagination; the Italian music industry had frequent contacts with the New World at that time, and some famous Italian singers, conductors, and performers traveled across the ocean to perform in various countries in the Americas. The Metropolitan Opera House in New York became a special branch of La Scala in Milan. In addition to the singing and conducting arts of Caruso, Rina Cavalieri, and Toscanini, Puccini’s Opera productions are also popular in the United States.
Puccini's seventh opera, "La las Occidental", is a purely American-themed opera created at the request of the American Theater.
This is the only grand opera to date to depict the California Gold Rush, and it ends with the two lovers riding off into the sunset. It connects the customs and customs of the East and the West like a thread. The premiere of "La Occidental" in 1910 attracted a large audience, of course because at this time Puccini had become a leading figure in Italian opera. His hair has turned white, but sometimes he dyes it black to make himself look younger. He also wears a frayed felt hat wherever he goes. He wears it most of the time at home, but when sleeping. It may be removed at some point.
After that he wrote an operetta called "Swallow". Puccini must have been in a good mood, because no one died in the opera. What he composed next was actually a trilogy of three one-act short operas. "The Jacket" and "Sister Angelica" have the requisite murder and suicide routines. But the story of Gianni Schiki is about a scoundrel who defrauds some greedy relatives of their inheritance. This opera is the closest thing to a comic opera that Puccini ever wrote. It may make people laugh, but it is not really a work that makes people laugh.
The Last Years
Puccini's last opera, Turandot, returned to his previous form, with complex content involving intrigue, betrayal, jealousy and suicide. The plot, using the usual material. The opera also portrays three minor characters Ping, Pang and Peng. Puccini's early operas were always set in distant places such as California and Japan. "Turandot" is set in China where the emperor ruled. This work has a beautiful soundtrack, an ups and downs storyline, elegant stage performances, rich etiquette, and more complex symbols and riddles. Of course, it is always lively dramatic exaggeration, dramatic change and dramatic form that dominates the entire opera.
Puccini began to write the first act in the first half of 1921, but was so shocked when he heard the news of Caruso's sudden death in early August that he could not cheer up for a long time and began to write the third act. The closing time was already in June 1923, and by May 1924, the creation could no longer continue. Puccini's throat disease continued to worsen, and eventually developed into fatal throat cancer. In November 1924, he underwent factory surgery in Brussels. At that time, his bag still contained the draft of the final act of "Turandot". Unfortunately, the operation failed. Before his death, he still kept thinking about "Turandot". 》Creation. On November 29, 1924, Puccini died in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, at the age of 65. "Turandot" was not completely completed when he died, and was later completed by his younger contemporary Franco Alfano.
The play premiered at La Scala Theater in Milan on April 25, 1926. During the premiere, it only ended at the point where Liu Er committed suicide to protect her sweetheart, the prince. The conductor put down the baton in his hand, turned around and said to the audience: "At this place, the composer put down his pen forever."
Puccini eventually became the last great opera composer, and his death ended the era of true grand opera.
Indeed no one since him had such an impact on operatic composition.
Puccini once wrote, "In my opinion, an artist is like a person who looks at the beautiful scenery through glasses. When he exhales, the glasses are blurred by water vapor, thus blocking his vision. The beautiful scenery. He took out his handkerchief to wipe his glasses, but as soon as he exhaled, the pure beauty disappeared again. "Puccini hated nothing more than fogged glasses.
Puccini wrote twelve operas in his lifetime. He integrated music throughout the entire opera, making it a complete whole, and achieving a perfect unity of the dramatic and musical effects of the opera.