Puccini, Giacomo

expressing his horror at war in general, describing it as a nightmare, and his wish for Italy to stay out of the present conflict (which he feels Italy could not sustain), railing against his enemies in the French musical establishment, who have criticized him for remaining neutral (he now regrets denying that he had signed an Anti-German protest), and attributing the French campaign to their jealousy that his operas are so popular, not only in France but all over the world; Puccini reports having nearly completed his opera for Vienna, La rondine, thanks Sybil for news of Madama Butterfly and La bohème at Covent Garden, comparing the English favourably with the French "pigs" ("come sono grato agli inglesi così differenti da quei pigs vostri vicini"), and reports the acquisition of the rights to base an opera on Ouida's novel I due zoccoletti,

"...Seguo le fasi della terribile guerra e penso a quando finirà!  E' un atroce incubo per tutti! Quanti dolori, quanti strali, quante inumanità!...si è travisata ad arte dei miei nemici di Francia la mia piccola smentita (che era meglio forse non fare) ad una asserzione falsa. Vi repeto che non è la Francia cioè il popolo di Francia, sono i colleghi imponenti i Leroux et Comp: i Lalo i Bruneau che da tempo hanno op[e]rato e scritto contro di me..."



5 pages, 8vo (c.24.5 x 15.cm), autograph address-panels, stamps, discreetly numbered by Vincent Seligman, printed stationery of via Verdi 4, Milano and Torre del Lago, 11 February to 9 April 1915,

Seligman, pp.259-262; Budden, p.347

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Puccini had a horror of war that put him at odds both with his compatriots, such as Toscanini, and with nationalist fervour in France, which threatened the popularity of his operas there.  Italy did not enter World War I until May 1915, and Puccini never personally took sides, especially since he had a commission to compose La rondine for Vienna, and a German mistress installed in his house in Viareggio.  When some artists in Rome issued a protest against the German bombing of Rheims, Puccini was mistakenly reported to have been one of the signatories, prompting an immediate call for the boycott of his operas in Germany and Austria.  When he hastily denied that he had signed, French politicians like Léon Daudet and the musical establishment (he cites the critic [Pierre] Lalo, the composer [Alfred] Bruneau and the publishers Leroux), campaigned ever more openly against him.  La rondine was eventually given in Monte Carlo in 1917, provoking French protests about accepting an "enemy opera".