ALS in Italian, signed “G. Puccini,” one page both sides, 8.25 x 10.75, G. Ricordi & Co. letterhead, May 5, 1897. Letter to conductor Leopoldo Mugnone, in part (translated): "You can't imagine how much I've had to do during this tour. Boheme was a success both in Manchester and Glasgow, in spite of a vile and disgusting execution. Now it will be done in Edinburgh and other English cities including London in the fall at Covent Garden. We are working hard to see that it will be done in Paris and in Brussels, and I hope this will be arranged. In the meantime, arrangements have been made for Vienna and we're hoping for Berlin too. Thursday (tomorrow) Leoncavallo's will be done—we'll see the results. As for coming to Palermo I don't think it will be possible since I will have to come back to Paris in June, and then perhaps go to Vienna, and besides Tosca makes demands and she is right since I have been acting like a pig for a long time, but not through any fault of mine. I have had very useful meetings with Sardou, which have smoothed over many explicative difficulties of the libretto. I have found so much kindness everywhere, especially here in Paris on the part of Zola, Daudet, and Sardou. You should know that something else is brewing, something which I can't talk about now. When the time comes, you will be the first to be informed. How sorry I am not to be able to come to Palermo to spend some time with you! But my destiny keeps me away from you, though I hope not for long." In very good to fine condition, with toning to the top half of the second page, a short edge tear, and one small area of paper loss not affecting the text. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope addressed in Puccini's hand.
During a luncheon in March 1893, Puccini met with fellow composer Ruggero Leoncavallo to discuss their upcoming works. Puccini informed his friend that he had begun writing La Boheme, to which a stunned Leoncavallo responded that he too was adapting the Henry Murger novel. An angry exchange soon followed, with Puccini refusing Leoncavallo's request to abandon the project. Their subsequent rivalry strengthened Puccini’s artistic resolve, but his intermittent trips to oversee productions of Manon Lescaut, and his interference with the efforts of his Boheme librettists, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, delayed the completion of the libretto until August 1894. Puccini finished his La Boheme fifteen months ahead of Leoncavallo, and the opera premiered at the Teatro Regio on February 1, 1896, with a young Arturo Toscanini serving as conductor. Leoncavallo's version—now rarely performed—received a successful premiere at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice, on May 6, 1897, the day after Puccini penned this letter.
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