G. Puccini. Autograph love-letter to the soprano Rose Ader, describing his desperate passion for her, 1921

PUCCINI, GIACOMO

Autograph love-letter signed ("Giacomo"), to the soprano Rose Ader, Milan, 29 April 1921

in French and Italian, writing effusively about his desperate passion for her, describing her as the love of his life, the most beautiful and adorable creature he has ever known, and the consolation of his unending melancholy, telling her that he has discussed his feelings for her with the librettists for Turandot, Simoni and Adami, who expressed the wish to meet her and sympathized with him, and confessing that he feels shame at being so old when declaring his love for her 

"...Oh lumiere de mes augen oh perfum de mon ame! Oh consolation de ma eterne tristesse! Oh vie de ma vie. Oh Rose la plus belle, la plus adorable de creature. Mon amour, mon coeur, je moeur pour toi ! Ma pensée est toute pour ma bien aimée, pour toi que je adore!...Ho pranzato fuori di casa con i miei poeti collaboratori=Simoni-Adami--simpatici e tanto buoni giovani che vorrei farti conoscere. Dicevo loro la mia disperazione e il mio amore per te..."

4 pages, oblong 8vo, on 2 printed correspondence cards, autograph envelope, addressed to Rose in Hamburg, stamped and postmarked, Via Verdi 4, Milan: "28/29 ore 1 di notte" [29 April 1921]

APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED.

Rose Ader (1890-1955) was a German light soprano ("lyrischer Sopran") who met Puccini when she sang the title role in the first German production of Suor Angelica in Hamburg in February 1921, coached by his friend Count Schnabl. The composer became infatuated with her and tried to persuade her to learn all his soprano roles in Italian. He sent her a copy of Liu's aria in Act 1 of Turandot, probably having her in mind for the première. It was not known that Puccini discussed Rose with his librettists Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, nor what they thought of her, except, he says, "they love you because you love me". The next day, he wrote to Adami telling him that he had reached the scene with the riddles at the end of Act 1. He composed everything but the final love duet before his death and the opera was completed and staged at La Scala Milan on 25 April 1926. Rose sang at the Hamburg opera until c.1933, when her Jewish heritage made it impossible for her to work, and she eventually emigrated to Argentina.

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