Research

Tempo in Puccini Operas 

(commissioned research currently awaiting publication as part of the series Premio Rotary Giacomo Puccini Ricerca, Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini in Lucca, Italy)

In 1889, when Puccini was composing Manon Lescaut (first masterpiece) and Verdi was composing Falstaff (final masterpiece), Giulio Ricordi received the following letter from Verdi.

I want there to be only one creator, and I will be happy if what I wrote is performed simply and exactly as written. […] Often I read in newspapers of effects not imagined by the composer; but I myself have never found [such effects]. I do not permit the singer or conductor to create …

Regarding the music, no concessions are needed for ‘colorings’ [coloriti, meaning articulations such as dynamics, phrasings, staccati, etc.] nor for the tempos. […] The interpretation of a work of art is that of one person and can only be that of one person.[1]

Meanwhile, Arturo Toscanini, Puccini’s preferred conductor,[2] visited Giuseppe Verdi in 1898 to consult with him regarding interpretation of Verdi’s Requiem. 

In Genoa the visitors from Turin [Toscanini and Venturi, the chorus master] were kindly received by the old man [Verdi]. The conversation turned to the Sacred Pieces and Toscanini hoped that the composer would play the Te Deum at the piano. But instead Verdi said, ‘No, no, you play it.’ Toscanini began to play; and at one point he made a slight rallentando (relaxation of the tempo) that was not printed in the score. ‘Bravo,’ said Verdi. Toscanini stopped playing and said, ‘Maestro, if you knew how much this has been bothering me … Why didn’t you write the rallentando?’ And Verdi replied: ‘If I had written it, a bad musician would have exaggerated it; but if one is a good musician, one feels it and plays it, just as you’ve done, without the necessity of having it written down.’[3]

With Puccini’s opera scores we confront the same conflict, that is, Puccini was very specific in person and on paper about his intended performance instructions. At the same time, he was continually delighted by the way that Toscanini drew out of his opera scores the composer’s original concept. On December 22, 1922, in response to the 30th-anniversary performance of Manon Lescaut conducted by Toscanini at La Scala, Puccini wrote to the Corriere della Sera, the main music critic in Milan:[4]

Dear Director, 

Your music critic asserts that I have retouched the instrumentation of Manon. “Especially in the second and fourth acts, there are several retouchings, and some others are evident even in the first act.” 

It is a matter of some slight modifications of coloring; but the full score printed by Ricordi can testify to the fact that I have not redone the instrumentation of the opera. My Manon is what it was thirty years ago, only that it has been directed by Arturo Toscanini, which means directed in a way that brings its composer the great and rare joy of seeing his music illuminated with the same vision [lights] that he saw and dreamt at the moment he composed it and never saw again. For too long it has been the custom in Italy to present so-called repertory operas — meaning those which have resisted time and unfaithful performances — in an indecent way: one orchestra rehearsal, none for staging, and off it goes with all the dead weight of its disfigurements, of the abuses which the bad habits of directors and singers have little by little encrusted all over the opera.

When Arturo Toscanini, with that fidelity and love which are enflamed by the fire of his marvelous art, takes the scalpel in his hand and clears away the ugliness, and brings the opera back to its natural state, revealing the true intentions of the composer to the public, the old opera seems new to the public and the public says: It is a different one. No, it is the same one, enlivened by the greatest animator of which the art of music can boast. […]

From these words penned by Puccini at the end of his life, and from the evidence examined in the 12 opera scores, this study concludes that Puccini intended for his operas to be performed with the articulations as printed in the scores (obvious errors, omissions, and conflicts between piano-vocal and orchestral scores aside). This assumes a generally inflexible pulse except when Puccini intentionally interrupted repeating accent patterns. Within this context, he aimed for energized pulse to establish new periods, precision in building towards and executing melodic apexes, and breath-taking, abrupt endings. His opera scores overflow with very careful notation of the shape of the phrase (text-setting), temporal color (subdivisions of the pulse, contrasts of meter, pulse speeds) and different types of interpretative emphasis which affect the pulse (sostenuto, sostenendo, stentato, stentando, among many others) – far beyond the more obvious notation of dynamics and agogic marks (staccato, bowing and breath marks, etc). In order for such subtleties of phrasing and pulse to be audible, the ongoing pulse – even and including slowing down and speeding up – must be precise. Indeed, Puccini complimented the precision of Toscanini’s interpretation – not a mechanical accuracy, rather a complete and musical execution of all the instructions on the page.

Puccini’s attendance at many rehearsals and performances of his own works attested to his desire for a dramatically powerful interpretation of his operas, even more, his fear that inappropriate interpretations would mar their theatrical effectiveness. Besides the constant problem of inadequate rehearsal, Puccini’s few specific criticisms of performances addressed sluggish and/or heavy-handed tempos, even by accomplished conductors and singers in well-resourced theaters. 

In this context, the slightly faster-than-expected metronome markings (compared to a too-small sample size of contemporary operas) suggests to the modern performer Puccini’s intention for the pulse to move forward with energy towards the downbeat. Temporal phrasing in the extant recording of Musetta’s Waltz by Toscanini confirms such conclusion. In the same way that too many words could impede the drama (even Giuseppe Giacosa’s beautiful verses discarded in large batches by Puccini), so also a not-energetic or not-quite-precise execution of pulse drains the forward energy of these operas.

Within the energy generated by a precisely articulated forward pulse, subtle temporal nuances make an audible impact. The audience hears the additional pulse associated with Mimì’s bonnet, the violent metric instability of Scarpia and Luigi, the stifling pace of Suor Angelica’s convent, and the nudging fear of Buoso’s grieving relatives. The theatrical power of Puccini’s signature melodic apex can be supported by a broadened approach, heart-rending arrival, and quick exit. Thus Puccini’s temporal indications call for the utmost precision within the context of theatrical story-telling. Don’t misunderstand: Puccini never asked for mechanical precision, rather musical expression and honesty to the story line, known intuitively to those of us who perform these operas. May this study encourage further exploration of performance interpretation of Puccini’s operas, especially regarding the tempo.

Suzanne Scherr

31 December 2019

Xinzheng (Henan), P.R. China

[1] Lettera di Verdi a Giulio Ricordi, 1o gennaio 1889; cfr. Gaetano Cesari, L’arte superstite del Maestro, Il Corriere della Sera, 27 gennaio 1926 (cit. da Sachs, Toscanini cit. p. 86) […] io voglio un solo creatore, e m’accontento che si eseguisca semplicemente ed esattamente, quello che è scritto […]. Leggo sovente nei giornali d’effetti non immaginati dall’autore; ma io per parte mia non li ho mai trovati. […] Io non ammetto né ai Cantanti né ai Direttori la facoltà di creare […]

In quanto alla musica non bisognerebbe fare concessioni né sui coloriti né sui tempi […]. L’interpretazione di una opera d’arte è Una sola e non può essere che Una sola.

[2] In an 1898 letter to thank Toscanini for a performance of La bohème at the Teatro Dal Verme in Rome, Puccini named Toscanini “sublime and incomparable condottiere’. Harvey Sachs, Toscanini (Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1978), 57.

[3] Ibid., 58.

[4] Barblan, Toscanini e la Scala (Milan: Edizioni della Scala, 1972), #34, 27 December 1922, 345-47. Letter from Puccini to Milanese Corriere della Sera, December 27, 1922: Signor Direttore, il suo critico musicale afferma avere io ritoccato lo strumentale di Manon. <<Nel 2o e 4o atto specialmente i ritocchi sono parecchi, né mancano alcuni altri di essere evidenti già nel primo atto>>. 

Trattasi di qualche lieve modificazione di colorito, ma la partitura stampata da Ricordi può fare fede che lo strumentale dell’opera non è stato da me rifatto. La mia Manon è tale e quale quella di trent’anni fa, solamente è stata concertata... da Arturo Toscanini, il che vuol dire in un modo che procura all’autore la grande e non solita gioia di vedere illuminata la sua musica di quelle luci che nel momento della composizione egli aveva visto e sognato e che poi non aveva veduto più. Da troppo tempo in Italia si è presa l’abitudine di rappresentare le cosiddette opere di repertorio, quelle cioè che resistono al tempo e alle perfide esecuzioni, in un modo indecente: una prova d’orchestra, nessuna di messa in scena e via con tutta la zavorra delle deturpazioni, degli abusi che cattive abitudini di direttori e cantanti hanno a poco a poco incrostata attorno all’opera. 

Quando Arturo Toscanini, con quella fede e quell’amore che si accendono al fuoco della sua meravigliosa arte, dà di mano allo scalpello e toglie via quelle brutture e riporta l’opera allo stato naturale rivelando al pubblico le vere intenzioni dell’autore, l’opera vecchia appare al pubblico nuova e il pubblico dice: è un’altra: no, è semplicemente quella, animata dal più grande animatore che l’arte musicale vanti. […] English translation by this author. A more complete discussion of Toscanini’s influence on performances of Puccini’s operas during the composer’s lifetime, and specifically his impact on this anniversary performance, is given in Suzanne Colette Scherr, "Puccini's Manon Lescaut: compositional process, stylistic revisions, and editorial problems" (University of Chicago, 2013), 54-96.

Puccini's Manon Lescaut: compositional process, stylistic revisions, and editorial problems

PhD research at the University of Chicago (2013) focused on editorial problems associated with the operas of Giacomo Puccini, using his third opera "Manon Lescaut" as the base study. With many known revisions as well as undocumented changes, this opera has long been recognized as the most complex example of Puccini’s musical scores. The goals were to identify a multi-leveled matrix of revisions and to apply evaluative criteria in order to reconsider what previous scholarship implied was “definitive”.

In cooperation with Casa Ricordi in Milan, the author examined original sources and a broad array of printed materials from various depositories and private libraries in Europe and the United States to identify the nature and source of variants in the opera. The unique contributions of this research include a comprehensive collation of biographical data with performance information alongside known points of revision. Careful examination of the annotated sources uncovered multiple levels of revision misunderstood by previous scholars. A wealth of complementary information was gleaned from an exhaustive comparison of printed sources, including piano-vocal editions in other languages, piano solo editions, selections and arrangements for various instruments, three harp parts, and the two staging manuals with their tables of costumes.

The analysis of the impact of revision on formal structure, the summary of patterns of revision, and the use of a large number of auxiliary sources (autograph and otherwise) established significant new benchmarks for Puccini studies.

      Introduction

1. Revision Evidenced by the Composer’s Letters

2. Introduction to the Printed Editions

3. Italian Piano-Vocal and Orchestral Editions

4. Non-Italian Theaters and Piano-Vocal Editions

5. Publication of Selections/Arrangements

6. Annotations

7. Variants: Introduction, Deletions and Additions of Music

8. Variants: Revisions-Introduction and Act I

9. Variants: Revisions – Act II

10. Variants: Libretto Substitutions and Deletions

11. Variants: Solo Vocal Oppure

12. Variants: Tempo Indications

13. Variants: Instrument-Specific Indications

14. Variants: Revisions-Act IV Aria

15. Considerations for Choosing a Version