{"id":46257,"date":"2020-05-31T09:01:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T13:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/?p=46257"},"modified":"2020-05-31T09:01:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T13:01:30","slug":"on-this-day-a-deep-dive-into-puccinis-le-willis-on-the-anniversary-of-his","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/on-this-day-a-deep-dive-into-puccinis-le-willis-on-the-anniversary-of-his\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day: A Deep Dive into Puccini’s ‘Le Willis’ on the Anniversary of His Stage Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 31, 1884 Puccini made an unlikely debut at Milan\u2019s Teatro dal Verme. Despite an ad- hoc mounting of \u201cLe Willis,\u201d he gained the acclaim of both the public and critics, forcing the impresario Steffenoni to extend its run to three consecutive nights. \u201cClamorous success. Eighteen curtain calls. First finale repeated three times. Am happy\u201d we hear the 25-year-old report to his mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, this first success on the operatic stage was anything but guaranteed. His correspondence from the summer and fall of 1883 suggests that composition was slow and, as a recent graduate, he could rely on little more than the confidence of his former teacher – Amilcare Ponchielli – who encouraged his participation in the Concorso Sonzogno.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rejection<\/h3>\n

This competition launched by the eponymous publisher proved a disappointment and Puccini did not even receive an honorable mention. Indeed much ink has been spilled over the very reasons for this denial, as the winning pieces of Guglielmo Zuelli and Luigi Mapelli had not much of a posterity. Why then was \u201cLe Willis\u201d rejected?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been speculation about the terms of the Concorso and Puccini interpreting them too freely. After all \u201cLe Willis\u201d was some sort of musical hybrid whose symphonic interlude had little in common with the teaching mainstream.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, his poor handwriting has been evoked as a fairly straightforward explanation for the course of events. Yet the score remains legible in its original parts and, as the Gazzetta Musicale pointed out, copyists had no trouble working on the material for the Dal Verme premiere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What has recently been favored is an entirely different idea, involving Giulio Ricordi and his roguish cleverness in enrolling the avant-garde for his publishing firm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Could Ricordi have manipulated the jury and hence the outcome of the competition? Be that as it may, the \u00e9minence grise among publishers had heard of the youngster even before a meeting was arranged in February of 1884; by then he was aware of Puccini\u2019s talent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, from the perspective of his maturing over the years it becomes clear that we are far from the melodies, let alone the theatrical instincts of \u201cTosca” and \u201cMadama Butterfly.\u201d This gap is masked to some extent by the 1889 revision which has established itself as the go-to version of \u201cLe Villi\u201d – this time in two acts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An Experimental Opera<\/h3>\n

It has indeed taken the editorial efforts of Martin Deasy and a benchmark recording from Opera Rara to restore the original sound of a piece that has literally turned into a palimpsest of changes and adaptations. At the same time it is needless to repeat the philological findings of Martin Deasy who has convincingly presented \u201cLe Willis\u201d as an experiment in scapigliatura aesthetics. He has thus rehabilitated the somewhat programmatic and clumsy libretto, putting the drama on par with its musical interpretation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of equal interest is the vocal writing and Puccini seems to attribute specific requirements or voice types to his main characters Anna and Guglielmo. With the unduly absence of a tenor solo they carry much of the plot\u2019s emotional highlights; for instance, the baritone aria had its fair share of applause.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an interesting observation, as critics have continuously singled out the love duet and the preghiera as the opera\u2019s most noteworthy moments. The orchestral postlude of the latter made an especially novel impression and Filippo Filippi, after the Scala premiere in 1885, reports thus:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the chorus is finished Roberto departs, and while Anna weeps, consoled by her father, inflamed sounds spring forth from the orchestra like a wave, so potent, so inspired, a phonic effect so novel that the audience remained enraptured by it, and wanted to hear once more the piece, and then another time, not only the first but the second evening.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether this was the result of a no matter how innocent exercise in symphonic writing or a deliberate <\/span>clin d\u2019oeil <\/span><\/i>towards the introduction of Wagnerism does not matter. It only helps to illustrate what is a striking contrast with the following aria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnima santa\u201d and its arioso are indeed reminiscent of the Verdian style with its high tessitura and dynamic variations; it proceeds with a vocal line revolving around the passaggio and, albeit on a different scale, the comparison with hallmarks like \u201cIl balen\u201d are not out of place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet the Verdi baritone which typically invests a fatherly figure is strangely absent from the rest of Puccini\u2019s oeuvre and potential contenders are relegated to secondary parts. The prime exponents, on the other hand, are characters with dubious morals that give the baritone interpreter ample opportunity to display his famous snarl and hardly are there better examples of this than the Scarpia of Tito Gobbi and Giuseppe Taddei.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Things are different with Guglielmo Wulff. His are decidedly lyrical inflections making him not only the carrier of our sympathies but also the tenor\u2019s antagonist per se. This conception Puccini would never reiterate in his later works and one might wonder why.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, the tenor connotes the ideal and often juvenile lover who despite some occasional shortcoming remains the public\u2019s favorite. Not so the baritone. In \u201cLe Willis\u201d, however, the latter is framing the drama by placing his plea for revenge within the general scheme of divine justice. Thus, Roberto is being killed by the dancing wraiths and Wulff closes the opera with his exclamation: \u201c\u00c8 giusto Iddio!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we barely know anything about the voice of Erminio Pelz (sometimes spelled Peltz) when he created the role in 1884. Reports about timbre and technique seem to be non- existent and the closest we come to an appreciation of his vocal means is a comment on his \u201cvoce robustissima\u201d that the Gazzetta Musicale noted after a performance of \u201cSalvator Rosa.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The latter opera\u2019s first Masaniello was Leone Giraldoni, a celebrated Verdian and one of the aging composer\u2019s favorite baritones. Would it overstretch the imagination to think of the \u201cvoce robustissima\u201d as similarly adept in the repertoire of \u201cIl trovatore,\u201d \u201cUn ballo in maschera,\u201d and even \u201cSimon Boccanegra\u201d?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However circumstantial the evidence Guglielmo Wulff does not belong into the aesthetic orbit of Puccini. What may have been an eclectic attempt at writing for the medium voice grows into a cutting down of the role\u2019s prominence within the couple of months that separate \u201cLe Willis\u201d from its two-act revision at the end of 1884.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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