ALS in Italian, signed “G. Puccini,” one page, 6 x 9.75, January 21, 1906. Handwritten letter to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, regarding the historic Naples premiere of his beloved 1904 opera, Madame Butterfly. Puccini discusses the press ("Let us hope that here they will not be so nasty"), given the poor reception it had previously received at La Scala. He enthusiastically provides details of the various preparations for the premiere, describes the performances in the rehearsals by soprano Maria Farneti and tenor Emilio De Marchi, and praises conductor Ettore Panizza. Puccini further expresses gratitude to journalist Matilde Serao for an article she wrote about him, and sends his greetings to Ricordi's son, Tito. In fine condition.
Puccini composed five versions of his opera Madama Butterfly. The original two-act version premiered at La Scala on February 17, 1904, but Puccini withdrew it after its poor reception. He quickly rewrote the opera in three acts, with this second version premiering successfully in Brescia on May 28, 1904. Although the opera would debut in the United States in 1906 — first in Washington, D.C., in October, and then in New York in November — Puccini was still not satisfied with its final presentation. He spent much of 1906 working on a third version, which was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on February 11, 1907. Later in 1907, he introduced orchestral and vocal revisions to form a fourth version, and then finalized the opera with a fifth and final revision, now recognized as the ‘Standard Version,’ which is the version most often performed today.
Handwritten letters from Puccini discussing Madama Butterfly, arguably his most renowned work, are rarely encountered.
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