Composer
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Wedekind’s Lulu. Dismissed by 18 thcentury rationalism, she was embraced and glamorized during the Romantic Age. Throughout the novel, she is barely sympathetic – her cold pursuit of riches over tenderness is repeated several times. But her actions cannot be taken at face value. Socially and sexually naïve, the aristocratic Des Grieux relays his experiences through his own eyes and the prism of his memories. Is his recollection truly a credible one? He is, after all, seen capable of deceit, thievery and homicide (and is quick to blame others for his errors). We don’t get a close physical description of Manon, other than having exceptional beauty, but rather the passions she elicits. Nor do we hear her voice directly, only what Des Grieux has chosen to tell us. Her more humble origins are also unclear, but the selfish conduct of her brother (and indeed herself) indicate that they must live by their wits and generate income by whatever means available. Des Grieux always seems to have associates ready to bail him out financially (in particular, Manon’s foil, his pious friend Tiberge), loans never to be repaid. Manon’s social position is less secure. Her existence is moment-to-moment, and her only assets are youth and beauty. In no way hypocritical in her genuine affection for Des Grieux, Manon’s fatal flaw is a lack of contentment and an unending search for something better. Only when the two lovers get to Louisiana can they exist for one another without concern, yet the journey does proves costly. Nonetheless, amid a progression of agonizing missteps, notorious misadventures and fatal attractions, there is value imparted by Manon’s plight: the eternal message to live in – and appreciate – the present moment. T
Giacomo Puccini b Lucca, December 22, 1858; d Brussels, November 29, 1924
G
iacomo Puccini was born into a family of court composers and organists in the historic city of Lucca, Italy. With a strong feeling of tradition in the Puccini family, it was expected that Giacomo would assume his deceased father’s position as maestro di cappella when he came of age – by 14 he already was playing organ in a number of the town’s churches. But at age 18 a performance of Verdi’s Aida inspired him to devote his life to opera. In 1880 Puccini began composition studies with Amilcare Ponchielli at the Milan Conservatory of Music. There he was introduced into the professional artists’ circle, to which he would belong for the rest of his life. Puccini was not a prolific composer. Unlike most of his contemporaries, there were long intervals between his operas, partly because of his fastidiousness in choosing subjects, several of which he took up only to abandon after several months, and partly because of his constant demands for modifications of the texts. Much of his time, too, was spent in hunting in the marshes around his home and in trips abroad to supervise revivals of his works. The composer’s first work for the stage, Le villi (1884), originally was submitted to a contest sponsored by the music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno. The one-act opera received not even honorable mention, but Puccini was certain of its merit. He and librettist Ferdinando Fontana began to canvass the opera to the broader circle of the Italian intelligentsia. One of these individuals was the highly influential Arrigo Boito (at that time in correspondence with