Puccini never seen
The purpose of this exhibition is to collect the material which is not known a lot, almost in all cases unpublished, as a mark of Giacomo Puccini's life and his artistic production. There are exposed the rarest original photos with interesting moments of his private life, letters and unpublished documents of various kinds and mainly the signed score of "Salve Regina", the early composition by the Maestro.
The signed manuscript of Salve Regina SC 39 by Giacomo Puccini remained unknown until December 2008 when it was up for sale by auction at the Asta Bolaffi Ambassador Autografi e documenti storici in Torino.
It is a Largo religioso (accompanied by the harmonium but also more easily by the piano) which was written by Puccini during his studies in Milan; it belongs to a group of compositions (together with Storiella d'amore SC40 and Ad una morta! SC41) which set to music verses from Melodie per Canto signed by the librettist of Aida , Antonio Ghislanzoni (Lecco, 25 th November, 1824 – Caprino Bergamasco, 16 th July, 1893) - the author of e.g. librettos for "Aida" by Verdi and "Edmea" by Catalani: to be more precise, Salve Regina appears in the second edition of Melodie published by Emilio Quadrio in 1882.
Before the already mentioned Asta Bolaffi, Salve Regina was well-known only in the autographed form conserved in a photocopy at the Institute Boccherini in Lucca.
Compared to the last one, the version certified by a new manuscript is more complete (it sets, in fact, in music both strophes of Ghislanzoni's poetry) and is dated on 6 th November, 1882 (the genesis of Salve was always, however, connected to the first half of the following year).
The music of Salve Regina was used again by Puccini in the finale of the first part of Le Villi ( Nr. 5 Preghiera ): the new version enabled to individuate the latest musical idea which would migrate from Salve to Preghiera .
This version of Salve Regina was published for the first time on the occasion of the critical edition of Puccini's music for voice and piano (GIACOMO PUCCINI, "Canti": musica per voce and pianoforte , by Riccardo Pecci, Stuttgart, Carus Verlag, 2010).
Riccardo Pecci