Giacomo Puccini: l'arte internazionale di un musicista italiano

Abstract

Giacomo Puccini: l'arte internazionale di un musicista italiano. By Michele Girardi. (Musica critica.) Venice: Marsilio, 1995. [512 p. ISBN 88-317-5818-7. L70,000.] Mosco Carner's landmark work, Puccini: A Critical Biography (London: Duckworth, 1958; revised and updated 1974, 1992), set the standard for all large-scale Giacomo Puccini research to follow, and, until recently, no volume has really succeeded in responding to modern needs for a revised comprehensive study of the composer. For now, Michele Girardi's new book attempts to fill this void, and he achieves some measure of success. Girardi's goal is to construct a life-and-works study that is rooted in the music itself; in his own words, the music examples are the backbone of the work (p. 11). Girardi begins his narrative with a brief consideration of the Puccini dynasty in Lucca, and then proceeds through a discussion of individual works, their genesis, and their milieu. He avoids monotony by creating a context for each opera. Thus, for example, Puccini's first operas Le villi and Edgar, are viewed through the scapigliati (wild ones), the younger generation of Italian writers that included Ferdinando Fontana, Puccini's first librettist. Much of Puccini's correspondence has been published, but rarely have his own words been used so effectively to enrich an account of his life and milieu. Also most welcome here are the many illustrations (no photos or facsimiles, however) that include a side-by-side chart (p. 40) showing clearly and precisely the structural evolution of Le villi from a one-act to a two-act work. This chapter is also laced with comments from the letters of Fontana, which exist as a discrete published collection but have not been explored so elegantly in a Puccinian context. A similarly useful, fascinating, and new visual presentation juxtaposes the often-quoted Japanese melodies borrowed by Puccini in Madama Butterfly with the excerpts from the opera that they inspired (p. 217). Girardi's illustrations of Puccini's self-borrowings are also most welcome (see, e.g., the pair of themes on p. 26, illustrating the discussion of Edgar). It is not entirely clear whom Girardi is addressing in his book. In general, he seems to desire a readership that is at once popular and well informed. His engaging prose will satisfy the sophisticated opera lover, but the number of annotations seems clearly directed to the scholarly community, as does the sheer volume and density of the music analysis. In general, Girardi's analysis falls into two large categories: that which he has undertaken himself, and that which he has adapted and schematized from earlier published sources. His borrowings include Rene Leibowitz's commentary on Manon Lescaut (pp. 83-84), from his Histoire de l'Opera (Paris: Correa, 1957); and Mosco Carner's (1958) discussion of Turandot (pp. 458-59), which Girardi has altered slightly, but not documented. Girardi has also reprinted (in Italian translation, pp. …