Word: puccini
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stripteasing heroine of Thais in 1923. The cowgirl with the red braided hair was Soprano Leontyne Price (TIME cover, March 10), and the opera that rang up last week's curtain was La Fanciulla del West, or The Girl of the Golden West, by that old roughrider, Giacomo Puccini. Even among ardent Puccini fans, Fanciulla is often regarded as an embarrassing mistake, and the Met has not staged it in 30 years. But last week's production was more than good enough to remind the audience that even in horse opera there is more than one tune...
...Singers. Puccini saw David Belasco's The Girl of the Golden West in New York in 1907, promptly announced that "I shall write the music and we shall have the American opera ... I have never been West, but I have read so much about it that I know it thoroughly." Puccini, of course, knew no more about the American West than he knew about Japan when he wrote Madama Butterfly. But operagoers in 1910, when Fanciulla had its premiere at the Met, were no fussier than televiewers are today: with Caruso and Emmy Destinn in the leads, the premiere...
There are only two kinds of music; German music and bad music. Puccini was the best of the wops. His aim was to entertain well-fed folk after dinner-and he did it very competently. Verdi is not to be heard sober, but with a few whiskies tinder my belt I enjoy the last act of II Trovatore. Chopin is a sugar-teat: his music is excellent on rainy afternoons in Winter, with the fire burning, the shaker full and the girl somewhat silly...
...month meeting with Secretary Goldberg, it was clear that General Manager Rudolf Bing's image of authority had been weakened. But the Met had survived the crisis, had lost only one singer and the season would open on schedule on Oct. 23 with Leontyne Price in Puccini's Girl of the Golden West. It was unlikely that either management or musicians, whatever the possible payoff, would ever walk so near the brink of a canceled season again...
Beyond releasing the Verdi and Puccini manuscripts, the Italian government is considering obtaining an international agreement, welcomed by many publishers, to standardize critical editions of music, printed with a distinguishing type to show any editorial alterations to the composer's text...