Simoni had a copy of the play in his nearby apartment he ran home, retrieved it, and gave it to Puccini to read. What about it indeed! It was a well-known story: the German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) had translated it and staged it in German in 1801, and it had been the subject of an opera composed in 1854 by Puccini’s teacher Antonio Bazzani. Puccini, who knew something of Gozzi’s “theatrical fables” asked, “What about Turandotte?” Discussing stories that could be turned into operas, Simoni brought up the name of the Venetian playwright Carlo Gozzi (1720-1806), and suggested they look over his works. ![]() ![]() Sometime in early March 1920, Puccini was having lunch in Milan with the librettists Giuseppe Adami (1878-1946) and Renato Simoni (1875-1952). Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) in 1905, with his ever-present cigarette (or cigar) That post – on Puccini’s opera Tosca – wades chin-deep into the critical issues that continue to dog his work. It is a controversary we will not discuss in this post rather, I’d direct you to Music History Monday for January 14, 2019. ![]() Puccini’s operas remain among the most popular in the repertoire, but among the most critically controversial as well. Giacomo Puccini was born in the Tuscan city of Lucca on December 22, 1858, and died in Brussels, Belgium on November 29, 1924, three weeks shy of his 66 th birthday. ![]() Because given the delays in creating the libretto for Turandot, Puccini’s failing health, his leaving the opera incomplete at his death, and the controversy surrounding Turandot’s subsequent completion by the composer Franco Alfano (1875-1954), itwas indeed an opera that almost didn’t happen. At the time of the premiere, Puccini himself had been dead for 17 months. The premiere took place at Milan’s storied La Scala opera house and was conducted by Puccini’s friend (and occasional nemesis!) Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957). We mark the premiere performance on Ap– 96 years ago today – of Giacomo Puccini’s twelfth and final opera, Turandot.
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