“Moscow” Letters by Giacomo Puccini to the Director Vladimir Alekseyev: First Publication

В статье впервые публикуется переписка Джакомо Пуччини и оперного режиссера Владимира Алексеева, ставшего одним из первых популяризаторов творчества композитора в России. Указанные письма впервые вводятся в научный оборот и таким образом дополняют корпус переведенного ранее эпистолярного наследия. В письмах, относящихся к 1913–1917 годам, затрагиваются разные аспекты творчества Пуччини, в том числе связанные с российской музыкальной культурой: постановка оперы «Девушка с Запада» в Москве, отклики на творчество Скрябина, Рахманинова и Стравинского, ситуация с постановкой опер Пуччини в Большом театре. Сканированные копии писем предоставлены для работы Российским национальным музеем музыки. С разрешения Музея в статье приводится фотокопия одного из писем Пуччини. This article is the first publication of the correspondence between composer Giacomo Puccini and opera director Vladimir Alekseyev, who became one of the first popularizers of Puccini’s work in Russia. It is the first time that these letters are introduced into scientific circulation and thus supplement the corpus of the previously translated letters of the composer. Letters from 1913 to 1917 touch upon various aspects of Puccini’s work, including those related to Russian musical culture, such as production of the opera La fanciulla del West in Moscow, responses to the works of Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky, the situation with staging of Puccini’s operas at the Bolshoi Theater. Scanned copies of the letters are made available for work by the Russian National Museum of Music. With the permission of the museum, the article presents a photocopy of one of Puccini’s letters.

Luigi Mancinelli, Giulio Ricordi y Francesco Tamagno, figuras fundamentales en la recepción del primer Puccini en España: el estreno de Edgar en el Teatro Real (1892

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) solo estuvo una vez en España. Fue durante los meses de febrero a marzo de 1892, en los que viajó desde Italia a Madrid para supervisar los ensayos de Edgar y asistir a su posterior estreno en el Teatro Real. A diferencia de Giuseppe Verdi años antes, Puccini apenas tuvo tiempo para conocer otras ciudades españolas. Los ensayos absorbieron todo su tiempo y, tras el estreno, rápidamente regresó a Milán. Edgar fue la primera ópera de Puccini que consiguió estrenarse fuera de Italia, de ahí su importancia para entender la recepción del músico en el extranjero y, sobre todo, en España. Por todo ello, en este artículo pretendemos estudiar el estreno de la primera ópera de Puccini en España, la recepción de la obra y del compositor italiano en Madrid, así como la estancia del músico en la mencionada ciudad.

Giacomo Puccini's Operatic Legacy and Its Study in the Practice of Vocalists

The purpose of this article is to analyze the Opera legacy of Giacomo Puccini from the standpoint of philosophy and practical vocal pedagogy, which, according to the authors, is necessary for the formation of vocal and performing skills of young singers of the academic direction. The authors suggest a historical overview of the main works of the composer in this genre, based on the study of their vocal characteristics, the author reveals the features of his unique Arioso-recitative style. On the basis of various research methods (among which the special place is occupied by the philosophical, aesthetic, vocal-technical and methodological analysis) concluded, that vocal performance the point of view of the works G. Puccini are useful for the development of vocalists ' singing breath, musicality, imaginative thinking, mastering of the technique of cantilena, continuous legato (as the basis of belcanto), improving the timbral colors of the voice, its dynamic nuances, developing the right senses of agogics. The above is confirmed by the analysis of the peculiarities of the technique of performance and interpretation of one of the composer's most famous works for the tenor repertoire – Calaf's Aria "Nessun dorma" from the Opera "Turandot" (which was the main subject of this study).

9. Personal Conception on the Way of Interpreting the Area from Act I of the Opera La Bohéma – Si, Mi Chiamano Mimì by Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini’s artistic creation spans a period of 40 years, from 1884 to 1924, during which time he composed 12 works. This small number proves once again the great artistic exigency of the composer. The enormous success that Giacomo Puccini’s works have enjoyed since his life, continues to this day and is constantly growing. We aim to analyze the area SI, MI CHIAMANO MIMÌ from LA BOHÉMA’s work with personal interpretative aspects.

Giacomo Puccini

Die Annahme, Giacomo Puccinis (1858–1924) Opern seien sehr bekannt und weil sie so bekannt sind, wäre auch ihr Gehalt erkannt, hat sich als trügerisch erwiesen. Die Forschung ist gefordert – mehr denn je. Umgekehrt wäre es aber genauso falsch anzunehmen, bei Erforschung ihres Gehaltes die Opern Puccinis als bekannt vorauszusetzen. Das Heft nähert sich dem Komponisten sowohl als einem unbekannten Bekannten als auch einem bekannten Unbekannten, dessen Spätwerk hier im Mittelpunkt steht und aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven betrachtet wird. Die Beitragenden sind Richard Erkens, Anselm Gerhard, Laurenz Lütteken, Panja Mücke und Clemens Risi. Den Abschluss bildet der kommentierte Wiederabdruck eines Kapitels aus Richard Spechts Monografie "Puccini: das Leben, der Mensch, das Werk" (1931). Hier wird mit literarischer Verve beschrieben, wie und vor allem warum der Realismus Puccinis zur Realität des deutschen Opernpublikums geworden ist.

Inclusive Publics and Modern Technologies: An Introduction to Three Essays on Early Twentieth-Century American Opera

The three essays brought together in this cluster are immersed in themes that characterize “Americanness” in the twentieth century. They provide a microcosm of critical issues that define opera in the United States during these first decades when the nation helped shape the creation of opera rather than principally being a site for importing European works. Although most of the composers discussed in these articles were born in Europe (Giacomo Puccini, Paul Hindemith, and Ernst Krenek) and only a few in the United States (Marc Blitzstein and George Antheil), all of them spent significant time in the United States, and all of the works discussed are either set in the United States, utilize American characters, or tied to important American themes.

Little-known forerunner of «Turandot» of Giacomo Puccini – «Turanda» of Antonio Bazzini

Тhe image of Turandot that has almost the greatest number of interpretations in a variety of genres, particularly, in opera, ushered in the masterpiece of G. Puccini. Still, rather little-known remain over ten of her opera forerunners among which a special place belongs to the opera of the king of verismo – the well-known violin virtuoso, composer, social-cultural figure, professor of Milano conservatoire Antonio Bazzini, in whose class G. Puccini was a student. His only opera ―Turanda‖ of 1867 became the subject of the study in this article whose objective is to outline the imagologeme of the cruel princess character in the interpretation of A. Bazzini. Using the imagologic methodologies oriented toward all-round outlining of the Other – particularly in the context of the oriental themes, the author proceeds from the comparative analysis that gives ground for determination of the common and distinctive traits in the interpretation of the heroine character in the context of the Italian and general European cultural paradigm. Created almost 100 years after Carlo Gozzi’s fiaba and 50 years before G. Puccini’s ―Turandot‖ A. Bazzini finds new unexpected dimensions of the work on such theme in the opera genre. Departing from the elements of commedia dell’arte that are the cornerstones in Gozzi’s favola, Bazzini, though staying in the sphere of the fairytale plot defines the genre of his opera as the ―Asian fantasy‖, gravitating despite the decorative-harem and state-imperial image of the Orient to the principles of the lyrical opera French models and looking at the lyrical drama of V. Bellini. The main lady character is the type of the femme fatale, who in the course of unwinding of the dramatic action acquires some sentimental traits, reinvents herself from the princess-killer to the loving lady. Bazzini’s eclecticism was manifested in the departure from the Chinese content and extension of the geocultural boundaries: the action takes place in Persia (Turandot’s ancestral homeland, whose combined prototype image is described in the poem of Nizami ―Seven Beauties‖), Prince Calaf becomes the Indian Prince Nadir, preserving the role of the lyrical-dramatic hero. Bazzinin refuses from the masks and instead brings in the new bright character – magician Ormut who represents the evil forces, for he is hopelessly in love with Turandot, inspires her to killings with the aid of sorcery. The exalted mystical-orgiastic scene of worshipping Ahriman is one of the best in the presentation of the spectacular-theatrical exotica. And though over a dozen of composers-romanticists attempted to adapt the character of Turandot, the heroine found her optimal embodiment in the aura of the high verism, one of the steps on the way to which can be regarded ―Turanda‖ of A. Bazzini.

Tragedia lalki w żywiole komedii. Operowy kontekst filmu Aria Piotra Sapiegina (2001)

The subject of the analysis is the animated puppet film Aria by Pjotr Sapegin, which refers to the plot and the music – through the quotes from the aria ‘Un bel dì vedremo’ in the arrangement of Normand Roger – of the opera Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. By taking as a main reference point a description of musical operations made in the film and their contribution in constructing the meanings of the audiovisual work, the author of the article moves successively between several interpretation levels: historical (she situates the film within the puppet’s opera tradition), media-theoretical (she considers the qualitative transformation of the doll in theater and film in the perspective of different aesthetics of both media), theatrological (she reflects on the doll’s ontology, with particular emphasis on the question of comicality), and operological (she refers in part to the entire opera of Puccini and portrays more accurately verbal, musical and dramaturgical values of the aria ‘Un bel dì vedremo’, while proving that the Sapegin’s film is an example of meta-reflection on aria as a form of dramatic-musical expression). The multiple perspectives of the study are used to reveal the dramatic, stylistic, adaptive and philosophical complexity of Sapegin’s work and lead to the recognition of the capabilities of an animated film as an audiovisual medium that continually leads a creative dialogue with music as well as the potential of the puppet aesthetics at the beginning of the 21st century.