Product Description
This guide presents a unique collection of critical, analytical, and documentary essays on Puccini's most popular opera. There are new studies on the background to Parisian bohemianism (by Jerrold Seigel), on Puccini's musical language (by William Drabkin), and on the opera's stage history (by William Ashbrook). Following research in Italian archives, and a thorough study of the published sources (many of them previously unknown to modern scholarship), the editors have added further essays on the genesis of the opera, the structure of the libretto, and aspects of the work's reception. The book also contains a brief study of Puccini's working methods as seen through the autograph score, a full synopsis, discography, many illustrations, and an appendix of related documents (some published in English for the first time). ... Read more

Product Description
Scholarly recognition of Giacomo Puccini's achievements as a musical dramatist has been growing steadily for more than 75 years. This useful volume surveys and evaluates close to 700 books and articles about the composer, written in English, Italian, German, French and Spanish. Additional features include an essay on the evolution of Puccini studies, an annotated discography/videography, a guide to manuscript materials, and a list of organizations devoted to Puccini.
This useful volume surveys and evaluates close to 700 books and articles about the composer, written in English, Italian, German, French and Spanish. Additional features include an essay on the evolution of Puccini studies, an annotated discography/videography, a guide to manuscript materials, and a list of organizations devoted to Puccini. ... Read more

Product Description
Ricordi is proud to present the first titles in their new series of orchestral scores featuring engaging images (from Casa Ricordi's historical archives) and synopses in Italian, English, French and German. In addition, these scores feature heavier cover and paper stock plus stronger binding. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great resource!
Really clear engraving and authenticity to the work.I'm a full-time collaborative pianist and coach, so a resource like this is really useful.In order to translate the instructions for stage and musicality, you will need an Italian dictionary!
... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!Amazon.com Review
Manon Lescaut is one of Puccini's less successfulscores, although many people prefer his slight astringency toAmassment's sweeter treatment of the same subject. It has some lovelymoments, though, particularly for the tenor. This orchestral versionhas all the parts, but no English translation; you'll need your own,or a good Italian dictionary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

product delivery
This item was delivered promptly and as described.I will gladly use this service again

The first Puccini's Masterwork
I don't know who wrote the short introduction to this score, but it's someone who simply does not have any idea about the opera: Manon Lescaut is a true, complete, mature masterwork by a composer whose astonishing craftmanship is at the same level of his incomparable, and unanimously praised melodic gift. The Dover score is the reproduction of the most authoritative edition, and show the usual, excellent standard of all Dover scores. ... Read more

Product Description
Puccini's Madame Butterfly is the heartbreaking story of Cho-Cho-San, a beautiful, fragile Japanese Geisha, whose trust and fidelity are betrayed by her husband, an American Navy Lieutenant. Stationed in Nagasaki, Lieutenant Pinkerton acquires his wife as casually as his house — both leased for 99 years, with the option to cancel at any time. After their honeymoon, Pinkerton departs, promising to return. But for three long years, Cho-Cho-San awaits, and when he finally does return, he brings his new American wife — and finds he has a son by Cho-Cho-San. This picture book adaptation of the tragic libretto features haunting paintings that evoke the opera's exotic setting and emotional resonance, creating a captivating, cultured introduction for young readers. ... Read more

Product Description
Puccini is the most beloved composer of opera in the world: one quarter of all opera performances in the U.S. are of his operas, his music pervades movie soundtracks, and his plots have infiltrated our popular culture. But,although Puccini’s art still captivates audiences and the popularity of such works as Tosca, La Boh?me, and Madama Butterfly has never waned, he has long been a victim of critical snobbery and cultural marginalization.
In this witty and informative guide for beginners and fans alike, William Berger sets the record straight, reclaiming Puccini as a serious artist. Combining his trademark irreverent humor with passionate enthusiasm, Berger strikes just the right balance of introductory information and thought-provoking analysis. He includes a biography, discussions of each opera, a glossary, fun facts and anecdotes, and above all keen insight into Puccini’s enduring power. For anyone who loves Puccini and for anyone who just wonders what all the fuss is about, Puccini Without Excuses is funny, challenging, and always a pleasure to read.

INCLUDES:
_ Why Puccini’s art and its message of hope is crucial to our world today
_ How Anglo audiences often miss the mythic significance of his operas
_ The use of his music as shorthand in films, from A Room with a View to Fatal Attraction
_ A scene-by scene analysis of each opera
_ A guide to the wealth of available recordings, books, and videos ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

It should blow you away as it did me.
Make no mistake about it, this is an absolutely delightful, informative book! It is wonderful reading for the opera neophyte as well as the opera expert.
Opera has always been my favorite musical form. I've studied it many years and in all humility, consider myself more than qualified to discuss this subject. Case in point:I have fully illustrated several complete opera librettos in the style of the graphic novel; one of which is Puccini's Madama Butterfly, recently published and now available on Amazon. The Fully Illustrated Libretto of Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Madam Butterfly or Madame Butterfly) (Graphic Novel) (Illustrated Opera Librettos and Graphic Novels, Volume 1)
Although I thought myself to be familiar with Puccini and all his operas, Mr. Berger's book gave me an entirely new perspective and now look forward to listening again as if it were the very first time!
Berger's writing style is informal, easy to understand and direct. The first section deals with Puccini's life, times, and the artistic matrix of Italy in which he lived. The next section deals with the individual operas in chronological order.First a list of the characters and a short psychological study of each one, thenthe plot interspersed with the author's own comments laced with humor and wit. Part 3 of the book is called 'The Puccini Code' and deals with 'Issues in Puccini and the Perception of His Works'. It begins with the Myth of Tosca...other reviewers found this section to be superfluous, but I found it to be one of the most fascinating parts of the book. It begins with a history of the Italian culture starting with the Byzantine Pope Gregory Iall the way to the Napoleonic era. The reason for this digression is to explain to the reader how all this history affected the psychology of the characters in Tosca and why they relate as they do. It also points out the symbolic elements of this opera such as wine and blood including the tidbit of Maria Callas, who's fingers walked on the table as she followed the trail of spilled wine which led her directly to the knife with which she stabs Scarpia. Wow.I recommend to anyone unfamiliar with Tosca, to listen to the opera first, then read this section.
Following this is another delightful and entertaining section of famous productions of Puccini's operas and what you might expect to see. It was surprising that the author omitted the hilarious blunder of a performance of Tosca at the Met, when Zinka Milanov threw herself over the castle wall, only to bounce back up on stage!!
The book continues with author's opinions of singers and available recordings. It is interesting to know what Mr. Berger thinks, as I do not always agree 100%. For example, he feels that the Nielson-Corelli recording of Turandot is by far the best. While it is true that Corelli was one of the most handsome, appealing tenors that ever lived, I cannot imagine that any recording could surpass the earlier Bjoerling recording, also with Nielson. Oh well, personal opinions are always personal opinions; not facts.
All in all, a superb book which I highly recommend to anyone and one of the very few books I plan to read again.

Once you have listened to Puccini there's no need to read abouthim.
There is a Compact Disc (CD) sold on Amazon entitled The Ultimate
Puccini. Check it out.

For a real adventure go to this search engine:[...], then enter The Ultimate Puccini.You want the first entry which shows the CD sold by Amazon.Wonder first about [...]...then get comprehensive details about the CD.

[...]

I have cutting edge files on classical music, world art, world literature, and very beautiful files on quotations.

Don Dubois
Saline MI 48176

[...]

The author understands that opera is the greatest art form.
I am doing research for a program to be given during a Great Operatic Moments by Puccini concert with the Heartland Chamber Chorale and this book not only helped in preparation of this program, it was fun to read and well organized.Having heard many operas, including three where the singer was mute and walked the role while the voice came from the orchestra pit, I am familiar with many performances of Puccini.This book will enhance my next time at La Boheme (Lyric Opera, Chicago).I believe this is the book which will help anyone hear Puccini for the first time and delight the experienced listener. Funny and informative.

A decent introduction
I would only recommend this book to someone beginning to explore Puccini who was desperate for a guidebook.With the exception of the useful biography in the beginning there is not much in here that one could not discover on their own by listening to recordings of the operas.
I found most of the commentary shallow.
Potential buyers should know that most of this book is a summary of Puccini's major operas (Edgar is not included).
Part Three, "The Puccini Code" is quite disappointing.I had hoped I would gain some deeper appreciation for Puccini but I came away unsure that there was anything I did not discover on my own.

Sometimes, Berger could not help taking unwarranted strikes at Wagner.This is strange for someone who wrote a book about Wagner and certainly knows better than to resort to clichés about his operas.At one point he even suggests that racial purity is a theme in Wagner's opera.If there are arguments to be made here, they should be made and not stuck in, unjustified, in a book on Puccini.He levels a similarly unjustified charge of racism on some of Puccini's critics.Mispronouncing "Turandot" . . . "slightly racist."

My advice, save your money and buy recordings or tickets.Puccini's brilliance is there.You do not need Berger to hold your hand through the process.

An amazing, long-overdue book!
Finally, someone has validated Puccini's worth as a composer!While other attempts have been made at this, they tend to take an approach that is very objective and scholarly.While this is one way to approach an analysis of music, this book's straightforward, at times downright blunt, approach is a refreshing antidote to the overly cerebral tone of many other books.Puccini knew all the 'rules' of composition and chose to ignore or modify many of them in order to get to the raw emotions of his characters and audiences alike.It has long been my feeling that anyone who claims not to enjoy Puccini's works is either too caught up in academic snobbery or too afraid of his/her emotions to feel the beauty of his works.This book is a vindication for not only Puccini and his operas but for his fans and those who perform his works. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is intended primarily as a guide for the opera goer. It includes a synopsis of the plot, with indications of the themes and motifs used in it, and discusses the style of the opera, Toscabeing a typical example of Italian naturalism in operas, verismo. It compares Puccini's libretto with Sardou's play La Tosca, analyses the close-knit structure of the work and examines salient points in the music. It also describes the genesis of the work (quoting wherever appropriate, Puccini's own remarks about it), its first production and early reception. A subsidiary aim of the book is to present the opinions, positive and negative, that have been expressed by various critics about the opera since its first production in 1900. There are contributions from the celebrated singer and producer of Tosca Tito Gobbi, and two other musicologists, Roger Parker and William Ashbrook. Malcolm Walker has provided a discography. ... Read more

Product Description

Giacomo Puccini is one of the most frequently performed and best loved of all operatic composers. In Il Trittico, Turandot, and Puccini's Late Style, Andrew Davis takes on the subject of Puccini's last two works to better understand how the composer creates meaning through the juxtaposition of the conventional and the unfamiliar -- situating Puccini in past operatic traditions and modern European musical theater. Davis asserts that hearing Puccini's late works within the context of la solita forma allows listeners to interpret the composer's expressive strategies. He examines Puccini's compositional language, with insightful analyses of melody, orchestration, harmony, voice-leading, and rhythm and meter.

Product Description
Authoritative Italian edition of one of the world’s most beloved operas. Sturdy, attractive volume reprints every note of Puccini’s masterpiece, based on Murger’s novel, Scenes de la vie de Boheme. English translations of list of characters and instruments and the table of contents.
Amazon.com Review
This is, unsurprisingly, one of the most-performed operas ofall time, for its combination of story elements (boy meets girl, boygets girl, boy loses girl, girl dies), beautiful melodies, and pureperformability. The second act is only 19 minutes long, but it'samazingly complex--check it out in this full orchestral score, areprint by Dover of an out-of-copyright publication. Bear in mind thatthere is no English translation, but most recordings will have a copyof the words in English anyway, so they're readily available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Just Great
The item arrived in perfect condition, in the time frame promised, and at a great price.No problems.

Great for the orchestra, but not the vocalist!
This edition of La Boheme is great. It is a full opera score. However, I would recommend this for someone playing in the orchestra pit rather than a vocalist because you have to really look hard to find your part and it shifts from page to page. Highlight your part everytime you see it, because it will shift on you from time to time!

Great study guide
I am doing a production of "La boheme" right now and this has been a great tool.Not too small and easy to follow!

A Great Score
Puccini's La Boheme is among his most perfored operas and this Dover addition full score is a great supplement to your enjoyment.

The print is large and easily readable.The score itself is durable and will lie flat on your desk or music stand with ease.The best part is that it is the most inexpensive copy of the score one can find. ... Read more

Product Description
Italian/English. Translated by Parker. ... Read more

Product Description
Who needs a singer? With Play Puccini, instrumentalists can bathe themselves in luxurious Italian melody! These ten opera arias are among the composer's most famous and distinctive achievements, here transcribed for intermediate level solo instrument and piano. The book includes a biography of Puccini, notes about the plot of each opera, and the dramatic context of the selected aria. The companion CD features excellent performances, as well as piano accompaniments for practice. Includes arias from: La Boheme, La Fanciulla Del West, Gianni Schicchi, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Suor Angelica, Tosca and Turandot. ... Read more

Product Description
With works such as La Bohème and Madame Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) created some of the world s most popular and widely performed operas. His colourful orchestrations, beautiful melodies, rare theatrical sensibility, and daring choices of subject matter combined to produce timeless stage works that continue to appeal to a broad audience. In this powerful biography, Conrad Wilson examines this great composer s works and the ways in which they were influences by his many relationships with women and his contradictory personality.


Giacomo Puccini is part of Phaidon s successful 20th Century Composers series, which presents authoritative and engaging biographies of the great creative musicians of our time, augmented by striking visual material and essential reference information. This edition of the book features a whimsical new cover by Jean-Jacques Sempé, the world-renowned illustrator and cartoonist.Amazon.com Review
The latest in Phaidon Press Limited's fine 20th CenturyComposers series, this biography plows ground that's already been goneover many times, but does so very well. Like the rest of the books inthis series, it's aimed at the more-than-casual but less-than-expertreader, and puts the composer's life and art into perspective,assisted by assorted photographs. This is a particularly good startingplace for someone captured by Puccini's music dramas who's interestedin how it all came about. There are no musical examples, which can bea positive or a negative depending on one's point of view and whetherone reads music. New listeners may find the overly brief discographyin the back of the book a useful guide. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Descended from four generations of distinguished composers and organists, Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) was driven by family tradition and an ambitious mother to pursue a career that brought him worldwide recognition as the greatest composer of Italian opera after Giuseppe Verdi.But behind the brilliant creator of such lasting works as La Bohéme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, La Rondine, and Turandot, there was a person racked with indecision, self-doubt, bouts of depression, and private misfortunes.

In this beautifully written work, Mary Jane Phillips-Matz brings to life both the man and his circle.Setting Puccini's intriguing story within the worlds of his beloved Tuscany and the cutthroat opera business, the author follows the composer from boyhood in his ancestral Lucca, to his struggling student years at the Milan Conservatory, to his early successes and failures, to the artistic triumphs that earned him international celebrity and considerable wealth.Filled with colorful details and anecdotes drawn from extensive primary sources as well as interviews with descendents, family friends, and colleagues, the book chronicles Puccini's personal sorrows and scandals, and recounts his stormy professional rivalries and associations in England, Europe, and the United States.Phillips-Matz also skillfully untangles the threads of the gifted artist's complex and contradictory character.She reveals a sophisticated composer who often drew upon exotic thematic material and an elegant cosmopolite who loved his several villas, expensive cars, boats, and fine clothes.Yet Puccini remained passionately wedded to the simple life of the Tuscan countryside of his youth.This is the place the Maestro returned to in times of turmoil to share the communal joys of hunting and playing cards with his neighbors.

This masterful biography provides the most full, authentic, and revealing portrait to date of this major operatic composer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Well researched but dry reading.
Being a lover of Puccini's operas, I felt that Mary Jane Phillips-Matz's book might give a deeper appreciation of his life and the work that went into his compositions.
While she has painstakingly done her research, including letters, interviews and reviews, the book remains just that - research.There is little cohesion to the material and she does not inject any interpretation or further character study of the man.Aside from a few peccadillos, Puccini comes off as a dry, unhappy person who happens to write beautiful operas.
While the operas form the outline of the book, they are given rather short shrift; Puccini argues with his librettists, gets on Ricordi's nerves, finally writes the opera and it's staged successully.There is no description of the gestation of the works themselves - The various revisions of "Madama Butterfly" particularly suffers from this lack of explanation.
A great disappointment from the author who gave us an authoritative book on Verdi.

NOT "DEFINITIVE," BUT A VERY VALUABLE WORK
Mary Jane Phillips-Matz had written a magisterial biography of Verdi (Verdi: A Biography); this work is far less thorough, but is nevertheless fascinating for Puccini fans (including such details as "every few yards, he would come to a complete standstill, pausing to light one of his eternal cigarettes").

After the success of Madame Butterfly, "By any standard, Puccini was rich, and his operas were astoundingly successful."However, this very success "left him dissatisfied with his own work.Believing that audiences had begun to tire of what he called his 'sugary music,' he changed direction and embarked on years of anguish as he sought to create works of greater resonance."

He considered the opera Edgar "a blunder," and wrote on a copy of the score that belonged to a friend, "May God protect you from this opera."She also notes that Mahler and Britten both intensely disliked Puccini's work.

It's not an extensive treatment, but it's an excellent one, and well worth reading for Puccini fans.

weak
This is a very weak work full of wrong translations, on ancient state of information. In the moment does not exist any english biography of Puccini, that would be worth reading. To learn the truth about Puccini you have to learn german and read the outstanding works of Schickling and Krausser. Of both do exist italian translations, but, in the usual arrogance, no english ones.

Disappointing as a Biography
Puccini was reviewed as a wonderful account of Puccini's life and, while the author does tell us the events of his life, this account is less readable than most biographies I've read.She covers the facts of his life in a disjointed fashion.She will bring up a point and then say she will cover it in a later chapter, or she will say she covered it earlier.She arranges the chapters according to the operas he wrote, which is chronological, but the information she writes jumps around so much that it's distracting.The best biographies read as interestingly as the best fiction, and unfortunately this did not measure up.Puccini's life was certainly very interesting and this could have been a great book.Perhaps her editor should have done a better job.

Puccini: a restless visionist and revisionist
Having sung in "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly", my interest was piqued when I first heard about Mary Jane Phillips-Matz's wonderful new biography about Giacomo Puccini. Using his operas as chapter divisions, the author gives a firm basis on which to look at Puccini's life as he struggled with his music, his collaborators, his family, his publisher, his singers, Arturo Toscanini and himself.

Restless and constantly on the move was Italy's greatest twentieth-century composer. The composer was not content to stay long in one place, she tells us. He had a house here, a house there; he didn't like this one, he longed to be at yet another one....this was no laboratory musician! Through the sharing of Puccini's letters (and he wrote unceasingly, it seems), Phillips-Matz offers us glimpses into the continual torment the composer faced, either from his own high standards and inabilities to finish projects to the endless revisions of present and past operas on which he was working. Puccini seemed to be under perpetual pressure. The author is careful not to be judgmental about her subect; in fact she includes a surprising number of revealing interviews that she, herself, conducted with singers who had performed Puccini operas and had worked with him in his later life.

Phillips-Matz's book is not so much a book about Puccini's music as it is about process. How did the composer go about choosing texts? What was he feeling when he composed? How did he envision the final outcomes of his operas? The relationships with those who were closest to him are perhaps the best aspects of this book, especially those with his wife and Toscanini. The author almost seems to be encouraging the reader by saying this: "here is what Puccini was like; now go hear his music and see what connections you can make." ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nice translation, but poor printing job!
This public domain translation is nice (with some quaint antiquated language.)The trouble is that the Italian is on one leaf of a page, and the English is on the back, so they are difficult to compare side by side because you have to keep flipping the page back and forth!This is an unfortunate detail, because otherwise there are many quality aspects of this publication, including lovely cover art.

a no show
after receiving notice that my order had been taken - I got another a day or two later saying the score was not available, thus I have NO Gianni Schicchi score - it's no one's fault - maybe I'll just phone Patelson's in NYC. ... Read more

Product Description
EDGARVocal ScoreSeries: Vocal Score Publisher: RicordiEdition Number: RCP110490/05Pages: 212 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

In my opinion, the most under-rated opera
This opera has all the marks of a good opera:

--exquisite chromatic harmony and counterpoint
--optimal pacing
--richness of melody and motifs
--variety of mood

In fact, I like it better than some of Puccini's better-known operas.

While you're at it, I also recommend the Scotto-Bergonzi recording. ... Read more

Product Description
This famous trilogy of Puccini one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, now appears in one complete opera vocal score. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good price, good condition
Really great condition for a really good price. Worth the purchase if you need any of these scores, and kills three birds with one stone...and who DOESN'T want some extra Puccini lying around the house??

Great buy!
I am extremely pleased with this purchase, specifically its price.At rehearsal I discovered that my castmates who purchased this score elsewhere spent from $5 to $10 more (excluding shipping and taxes).My score shipped within one week, and that with me printing out the order form and mailing payment to Amazon.

This is the exact score that my company required and, as in the past, I will continue to make Amazon my first source for all scores.

Puccini-Il Trittico
It is a perfect book for studying the piece. I would prefer to have the english translation below the italian text. Since the transaltion isn't a word for word-translation, sometimes it makes up it's own story, best of all would be not to have the english words at all, but I couldn't find any version of "Il trittico" in italian language only. ... Read more

Product Description
A marriage of music and the written word. Set includes the full opera on two compact discs, accompanied by the complete libretto in its original language and English translation. Full-color photographs illustrate the history of the opera--and an entertaining text offers insights into the musical heritage of the composers, the music, and the performance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One of the Best Recordings of BUTTERFLY
Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi, and Rolando Panerai make a superb team, both in their singing and in their acting, for MADAMA BUTTERFLY.Another advantage of the recording (made in 1966) is the stereo sound, which allows all the details of Puccini's rich orchestration to be heard.Listening to this BUTTERFLY is almost as good as hearing a live performance of the opera.The accompanying book is very informative about Puccini, the opera itself, and the artists.It also has lush illustrations and includes a complete libretto in Italian and English.In short, this is another exceptional "Black Dog Opera Library" set.

A Great Book + a Great Recording
This issue from the Black Dog series may be the most successful. The book comes with comments about Puccini's life and a background on the composition of "Butterfly" that is very readable and informative.The Italian/English libretto is nicely presented, with many descriptions ofparticular arias so that one can stop and pay closer attention to therecording at these points. Finally, the recording that comes with the bookis one of the best "Butterflys" around, featuring the imaginativeRenata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi, one of the greatest post-war tenors. So,whether you are a newcomer to this opera and need a good introduction, orwhether you already own a version of "Butterfly" and want anothergreat one, this book is for you. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

"Women Bamboo"?
Randall and Gray Davis between them have given us a book which will permanently change the way we view Puccini and his most controversial opera, the "American" GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST, a work commissioned by NYC's Metropolitan Opera on the heels of the success of MADAME BUTTERFLY.Their research shows us that using David Belasco's Broadway hit as the basis for a libretto was by no means a foregone conclusion, and that many years passed before Puccini committed himself to the saga of Minnie.

Indeed, part of the interest of the book is speculating what we missed out on when Puccini decided to do with Minnie instead of working up--the last days of Marie Antoinette!For a piece that he planned on calling, THE AUSTRIAN WOMAN.He also flirted with turning the HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME into an opera; as well as considering two plays by Oscar Wilde.Perhaps our greatest regret is that he did not pursue THE WOMAN AND THE PUPPET, the searing, sexual tale of obsessive love that Von Sternberh later filmed with Dietrich as THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (and later remade by Luis Bunuel at the end of his career).As Randall and Gray Davis indicate, the scandalized reception of Strauss' recent SALOME made Puccini leery of a similarly decadent subject.However, in his private life Puccini was experiencing a coruscating scandal which tore him apart and exposed his marriage for a living hell to the whole world.His wife, Elvira, became madly jealous of her own maid, Doria Manfredi, driving her to her death.After Doria's death an autopsy revealed that she had never had sex with anyone, much less the blameless Puccini.Or was he blameless?It's easy to paint Elvira as a vicious, deluded shrew, but in my experience there's not much smoke without at least a little bit of fire.The authors hint that this trying and scandalous cloud affected the composition of LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST in numerous ways.

Gray Davis brings a lot to the project, especially the cache of Puccini letters she inherited from her late dad.These letters are the archive of Puccini's correspondence with Carlo Zangarini, his librettist.Zangarini's reputation, of course, went to hell long ago when his Fascist leanings won him honor in Mussolini's Italy and disdain everywhere else.The two authors here do their best to rehabilitate him, but in all honesty, it's uphill sledding for them and you can hear the tone of their monograph wobble when it comes to discussing Zangarini's politics.

And yet they have accomplished something new under the sun, a new reading of FANCIULLA as well as the definitive account of its writing and reception.

One minor quibble, I do not exactly see why they say that the archive of Puccini letters must have left the Zangarini hands after his death (in other words, in the postwar period).According to the evidence, why not consider it possible for Carlo to have sold them to the American autograph dealer himself, perhaps before the war?Did I miss something, why blame it on his mistress or nephew or whoever.

One further comment, publication of Puccini's notes to Zangarini reveals that Puccini ws quite a poet himself, his verses are the dark equivalent of those of Laura Riding or Edith Sitwell.They're spooky, they're so weird."I'm passing dark days/ writing real torpedoes/ in kangaroo form/ for days not far in the future."What the hell?How about, "They are all English,/ German and French,/ Women with hips,/ Women bamboo."

Then and Now
Terrific tale of the maestro coming to New York with his new opera.Sure to provoke attention with 2010 in the near future when this work will be 100.The attention paid to the opening when New York burst with potency, bejewelled dames listening to world voices sort of put the Met on the map.Laughed out loud at the recreation of that scene of the opening.Now, we wonder what about that girl next door, Doria, who helped him recuperate from the auto accident, then with Elvira the Fricka-like wife screaming, having to deal with the tragedy of Doria's demise.This personal view of the master at home with his devils informs the interpretation of the opera and how it went over.The depiction of Belasco and early 20th century theater, the pre-Method method as it were, puts Puccini right in the middle of the mix that included but pre-dated the Stanislavski revolution, in fullest flower with Stanley's "Stella!" at the foot of the stairs.None of that here, actually, this a precise look at the work and its times, the publisher, the competiton, the writers, the abandon with which people went to opera then, the end of the Whitman era and the the beginning of end of that world, only a few years after 1910 when all hell broke lose.It's historical, yes, but also hysterical how much is made of so little.There are in fact no arias in this opera, just rich orchestration and seemingly improvised conversation, very modern that way, a view to Strauss then, Adams now. It's like a couple hundred years of opera crystalized into one book, both too specific, (pages of music printed in a text), and not specific enough: do the authors think Elvira was right?The movie that must be made of this book will deal with this question.In the meantime, opera lovers should thank these writers for perservering dauntlessly to give us a look through 29 epistles at what the man went through to get there then, landing us here and now when we wonder who was that girl of the golden west: the soprano who survives, does not die in the end, but rides off with her beloved, wow, a happy ending; or the girl left behind who poisons herself, a miserable death?It's edgy that way. ... Read more