G. Puccini. Autograph letter signed ("Giacomo Puccini"), about Italy's participation in the First World War, 1915

PUCCINI, GIACOMO

Autograph letter signed ("Giacomo Puccini"), to Sybil Seligman, his confidante in London, 13 June 1915

expressing his enthusiasm for Italy's participation in the First World War, which seems to be going well, and his hope that Italy's guiding star will look over her and see her through to the final victory, informing Sybil that his son Tonio is a volunteer motor-cyclist as a aide-de-camp to some general; Puccini also reports work on his "Austrian" opera (ieLa rondine, commissioned for Vienna), and criticises the "gramophone voices" that disappointed in the recent "Japanese" production of Madama Butterfly in London ("...quelle voci da grammofono non sono, credo, piacevole...") 

“...Sì, siamo in guerra e si va bene, questo è molto confortante. L'entusiasmo in Italia è grande, è serio, è solido. Dio ci protegge e lo stellone d'Italia brilli sulla vittoria finale!...”

4 pages, 8vo (c.17.5 x 13.5cm), printed stationery of Via G. Verdi, 4, Milan, 13 June 1915

With Covent Garden closed, the "London Opera House" staged Madama Butterfly in May 1915, with Tamaki Miura as Cio-Cio-San, the first Japanese singer to be cast in that role.

LITERATURE:

This letter is partly published in V. Seligman, Puccini Among Friends (1938), p.262.