December 2010 Archives

Fanciulla is richly melodic. I don't know if I'd buy what the composer told The New York Times on the occasion of Girl of the Golden West, as it was titled, in December 1910 at the first-ever world premiere at the Met. He said, "I consider this the best of my operas." That's saying something from the composer of La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Turandot, and Tosca. There were 55 curtain calls [a more recent number is 19] for Puccini, stage director Belasco; stars Emmy Destinn, Enrico Caruso, and Pasquale Amato; and Toscanini.

The libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, who had never set foot in the U.S., is closely based on Belasco's play - perhaps, a little too closely.  The lyrics often border the mundane, but Puccini's soaring score, one of his most beautiful, makes up for that. Fanciulla has a huge fan in Andrew Lloyd Webber and, as many know, he generously lifted several extensive motifs for Phantom of the Opera, especially the music for "The Music of the Night."

A world prem at the Met was big news. The opera was massively publicized and became a major society event with music lovers from around the world descending on New York.

Walfredo Toscanini notes, "Preceding 1910, the Metropolitan has been challenged for musical supremacy by Oscar Hammerstein and his Manhattan Opera [which presented in what is now known as the Hammerstein Ballroom on West 34^th Street at the read of the New Yorker Hotel].  Mr. Hammerstein imported acclaimed European sings and conductors and expanded the repertory with new operas. 

The arts patron Otto Kahn, a German-born financier, led the campaign to contemporize the Met, which he felt was too heavily influenced by German works. In quite a coup, he brought La Scala general manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza and my grandfather, its principal conductor, to the Met."

Competition was fierce, he states, and "the popularity of both houses continued throughout 1009; but by the next year, Mr. Hammerstein could no longer meet his expenses and negotiated a surrender to the Met, a rare defeat for the impresario."   

He wasn't the only one to stumble. Gatti-Casazza blundered in terming Girl "Puccini's American opera," which didn't sit well with the composer.  He countered that the opera couldn't be called "American," because "music has no nationality. It is either music or nothing."  However, he did point out that his score captured "the spirit of America and the vigorous nature of the West."

Mr. Toscanini says, "There were distractions in Puccini's private life" - of a romantic nature. The composer had acquired substantial wealth and enjoyed his persona as a grand gentleman.  He was a dedicated game hunter, car and motorboat collector, and quite open about his "appreciation for attractive women." He once stated, "I am almost always in love!"  It didn't matter that the woman might be married, as was the case with Elvira Gemignani. Theirs was a stormy relationship that  attracted massive gossip and could easily have been adapted into an opera. Miss Gemignani did run off with the composer, but they weren't married until some time after her husband's death.  

That didn't end the scandal. She's reported to have "hounded a household maid with accusations of a liaison" with her husband. The girl committed suicide and Mrs. Puccini was jailed for five months. The couple separated, then reconciled, but it's noted that their relationship was forever damaged.

Things often got rocky with Toscanini. Their relations, says the grandson, "blew hot and cold." After one blow up, the composer forgot that he and the conductor were on the outs.  One Christmas, he sent him an Italian pannetone [a cupola-shaped sweet cake made with raisins, candied orange, citron, and lemon zest]. Realizing his screw-up, he sent Toscanini a wire that read: Pannetone sent by mistake, Puccini. The conductor wired back: Pannetone eaten by mistake, Toscanini.

Now, back to the opera: Mr. Toscanni says, "Puccini wasn't pleased that the librettists weren't delivering what he wanted, but he composed full steam ahead.  The orchestra score was delivered on time in October. My grandfather thought the opera has a great score.  He called it 'a tone poem from beginning to end.'"

He noted that as pleasant as his grandfather could be at home, he was a taskmaster when it came to work.  "When he began to rehearse the orchestra and singers, he often marked the score where he felt it needed adjusting, especially to the acoustical qualities of the house.  When Puccini arrived in November, a feverish collaboration existed between him, grandfather, Mr. Belasco, Mr. Caruso, Miss Destinn, and Mr. Damato for three weeks."

Mr. Toscanini noted that throughout rehearsals, Caruso drew hundreds of caricatures of his co-stars and his grandfather.  "At the premiere," he says, "Puccini was acclaimed after ever act."

Destinn and Caruso repeated their performances for three consecutive seasons. By that time, however, critics began to savage Puccini for the opera's "inauthenticity." Some dismissed his work as overly impassioned, melodramatic, and sentimental.  The Met never lost faith in Girl/Fanciulla and continued to revive it. It soon fell back in favor with audiences.  Later productions starred Leontyne Price and Richard Tucker, Dorothy Kirsten and Franco Corelli. Renata Tebaldi performed Minnie in 1970, followed a year later with Plácido Domingo as Dick Johnson/Ramerrez.
                                     

La Fanciulla del West can be enjoyed via closed-circuit telecast in movie theaters, on  radio, and internet streaming. The January 8 matinee will be transmitted to more than 1,500 cinemas in more than 40 countries as part of The Met: Live in HD series.

Performances on December 14 and 22, and January 3 and 8 will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79.

For ticketing, performance schedule, casting, backstories, interview video, and more information, visit www.metoperafamily.org.

 
Boston University is currently featuring Fanciulla 100: Celebrating Puccini in collaboration with the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. It features original archival material entitled The Girl of the Golden West: Chronicling Puccini's Fanciulla, showcasing material from the Toscanini family, and from collections held at the Center and including the papers of Sarah Caldwell, Tito Gobbi, Dorothy Kirsten, Rise Stevens, Deborah Voigt, and others.

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