PUCCINI, GIACOMO. (1858-1924). Italian composer; modern Italy’s most successful opera composer after Verdi. ALS. (“G. Puccini”). 2/3p. 4to. Viareggio, December 21, 1923. To Italian conductor ARTURO TOSCANINI (1867-1957). In Italian with translation.
“Please let me introduce to you Mr. Adolfo Weissmann, a prominent music critic from Berlin. I am sure that you will receive him with the greatest kindness. I thank you and I wish you and your family all the best…”
Puccini and Toscanini
In 1890, a young Toscanini conducted Puccini’s first opera, Le Villi, the first of many Puccini works performed under his direction. Even after the lukewarm reception of Toscanini’s premiere of La Bohème, Puccini continued to admire his skill, and most of Puccini’s works conducted by Toscanini were met with wild success. He once mused, “Toscanini conducts a work not just as the written score directs, but as the composer had imagined it though his hand failed him when the moment came to write down what he heard so clearly in his head,” (Toscanini, Stefan). It is fitting, then, that it fell to Toscanini to conduct the recently completed Turandot, on which Puccini was working when he died, at La Scala on April 25, 1926. The year before our letter, Adolfo Weissmann (1873-1929), who had written about Bizet and Chopin, published his book on Puccini.
Slight folding. In excellent condition and a remarkable association!
