lighting effects, and so was Puccini. They worked together on La fanciulla del
West.Greenwald describes the results in that opera and lighting effects in
other Puccini works. The relationship of such effects to tonality is explored.- Santi, Piero. “Tempo e spazzio ossia colore locale in Bohème, Tosca,e Madama
Butterfly.” In Esotismo(#1439), 83–97.
How the composer deals with the passage of time: it is not a pattern but differs
with each opera. The sense of time in the female characters is distorted in times
of crisis. - Ferrando, Enrico Maria, ed. Tutti i libretti di Puccini.Milan: Garzanti, 1984.
619p. No ISBN. ML49 .P75 F5.
All the final versions of the texts, with genesis of each, and information about
the authors. There is a useful essay on Puccini’s revisions. No index. - Petrocchi, Giorgio. “L’opera di Giacomo Puccini nel giudizio della critica.”
RMI45–1 (1941): 40–49.
Considers scholarly opinions on the operas, including the negative views of
Fausto Torrefranca and Ildebrando Pizzetti [Joseph Kerman had not yet
arrived on the scene] and more enlightened appraisals—many by non-Italians.
See also the useful discussion of Puccini, especially the early operas, in Nicolaisen
(#2466).
Individual Works
La bohème
ASO20 (1979), COH 1986, ENOG 14 (1982), Rororo (1981).
- Maisch, Walter. Puccinis musikalische Formgebung, untersucht an der Oper
“La bohème.”Neustadt: Schmidt, 1934. 90p. ML3995 .M23 P97.
This seems to be the earliest technical analysis of a Puccini score; it was origi-
nally the author’s dissertation. Maisch devises an elaborate micro- and macro-
analysis, taking a Lorenzian tonality approach (see #2002). Musical examples,
diagrams, and footnotes but no bibliography or index. - Maehder, Jürgen. “Paris-Bilder: Zur Transformation von Henry Murgers
Roman in den Bohème-Opern Puccinis und Leoncavallos.” Jahrbuch der
Opernforschung2 (1986): 109–176.
An Italian translation appeared in NRMI24–3/4 (July-December 1990): 402– - A detailed double-genesis, concentrating on the two libretti drawn from the
same novel. Musical sketches and libretto drafts are discussed, with facsimiles. - Goldin, Daniela. “Drammaturgia e linguaggio della Bohèmedi Puccini.” In La
vera Fenice: Librettisti e libretti tra sette e ottocento,335–374 (Turin: Piccola
Biblioteca Einaudi, 1985; ML2110 .G64).
Libretto genesis, explaining how Luigi Illica turned the text by Henry Murger
into operatic material. The Leoncavallo version is compared to Puccini’s.
Poetic and syntactical elements are discussed.
Giacomo Puccini 279