G. Puccini, 11 autograph letters to the conductor Mugnone about "La bohème" and "Tosca", 1895-1903

PUCCINI, GIACOMO

Important series of eleven autograph letters and cards signed ("GPuccini"), to the conductor Leopoldo Mugnone about the premières of "La bohème" and "Tosca", c.1895-1903 where dated

urging Mugnone to conduct the première of La bohème ("...Il mio pensiero è a te o mio sublime interprete futuro..."), with Gemma Bellincioni as "una Mimì ideale", and Fernando de Lucia as Rodolfo, emphasizing that he depends absolutely on Mugnone’s artistic soul to realize the opera, just as he has poured his own soul into writing it, and hailing his later success in the opera at Genoa and Treviso; four years later, Puccini discusses the forthcoming premiere of Tosca in Rome (which Mugnone did conduct), expressing outrage that his leading singers, Ericlea Darcée and Emilio De Marchi, are to perform in Lucia di Lammermoor before his own opera, urging for Lucia to be postponed, since there is no real connection between the two works ("...Io credo che al posto del nervo drammatico ci sia una corda fatta di budello di galletto! Tosca e Lucia! nero--bianco!..."), and subsequently discusses the singers and rehearsals needed for productions at Bologna and Lucca, since only the tenor Antonio Pini-Corsi is familiar to him, congratulating Mugnone on a successful production at Naples, discussing his travel plans and reporting intensive work preparing for the first performance of Madama Butterfly

"...Salutami ti chiedo la signora Bellincioni e dille che sarebbe una Mimì ideale, ma temo che come accadde a Manon debba accadere a Mimì!! Però io mi auguro che questa volta non succedano ...... difficoltà e che possa averla ad interprete--così con de Lucia Bellincioni e [?il] duce Mugnone possa creder finalmente la mia povera musica interpretata secondo le mie intenzioni...Ti voglio assolutamente. Ho bisogno della tua anima d’artista per la mia opera nella quale ho versato tutta la mia...."

18 pages, 8vo, 4 postcards with autograph addresses on verso, 4 autograph envelopes, some on blue stationery, manuscript descriptions (photocopies), Pescia, Torre del Lago, Florence and Abetone, 9 August 1895 to 23 November 1903, where dated, some offsetting of the ink on the first letter, a few creases along folds

UNPUBLISHED: these letters do not appear in Ravenni & Schickling's Epistolario, volume 1 (2015).

This is an important series by Puccini to the conductor of the première of Tosca on 14 January 1900. Leopoldo Mugnone (1858-1941) had already conducted the premières of several other operas at Rome, including Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. Puccini had wanted him to direct La bohème with Gemma Bellincioni and Fernando de Lucia, but delays and contractual difficulties lead to the premiere being entrusted to Toscanini at Turin, with somewhat disappointing results. Mugnone then conducted a successful production at Palermo, which Puccini attended and, for the La Scala premiere, favoured him over Toscanini, although he was later to become disillusioned with him. Puccini's first letter of 9 August 1895 predates the earliest to Mugnone in Epistolario (no.586, dated 14 August 1895). Puccini first addresses him "Caro ed amato Maestro", and later "Caro Popoldo" and "Caro Popi".