PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924) - photo 1
PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924) - photo 2
PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924) - photo 3
PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924) - photo 4

PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924)

Starting price
£ 2 800
Auction dateClassic
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 870689
Lot 88 | PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924)
PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924)

Two autograph letters signed ('Puccini' and 'G.P.') to Sybil Seligman, Torre del Lago and Chiatri (Lucca), 22 July 1907 and [2 August 1908 (postmark)].

In Italian. Two pages, 247 x 156mm, on letter cards, integral address panels to Seligman in London and St Moritz. Provenance: Christie's, 1 December 2004, lot 32.



The genesis of 'La Fanciulla del West'. In July 1907 Puccini reports that it is 'too hot to breathe. I am waiting for the original manuscript – it is urgent because the other subject is going forward and I would like to have [La Fanciulla] ready at once'; he has great transport problems, but is delighted by the 'Indian songs' [i.e. native American songs] Sybil has sent him; 'I am well - and you? Always, I have no doubt, a model of beauty and the picture of health'. In August 1908 he is afflicted by the 'Lavli Hit [i.e. lovely heat]', and is heading off to Abetone: 'Parto con bagaglio della Girl che è in fabbrica e per ora non mi sembra tanto male' [I am leaving with La Fanciulla, who is in course of construction, in my luggage - up to the present she doesn't seem too bad to me].



The libretto of La fanciulla del West is by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco. It was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1910, conducted by Toscanini. Sybil Seligman (née Beddington, 1868-1936) was from a wealthy and cultivated British Jewish family (her elder sister, Ada Leverson, was a confidante of Oscar Wilde): she was a close friend and confidante of Puccini's from their first meeting in 1904 and was particularly involved in the genesis of Fanciulla, in part prompted by her connection with America through her San Francisco-born husband. After her death, her son Vincent published extracts from the more than 700 letters written to her by Puccini (Puccini among Friends, 1938).





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