Gianni Schicchi - Composition History

Composition History

The one-act opera genre had become increasingly popular in Italy, following the 1890 competition sponsored by publisher Edoardo Sonzogno for the best such work won by young Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. With Tosca essentially completed by November 1899, Puccini sought a new project. Among the works he considered were three works by French dramatist Alphonse Daudet that Puccini thought might be made into a trilogy of one-act operas.

After Madama Butterfly, which premiered in 1904, Puccini had difficulty finding a new subject. He further considered the idea of composing three one-act operas to be performed together, but found his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, firmly opposed to such a project, convinced that it would be expensive to cast and produce. The composer then planned to work with his longtime librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa, on an opera about Marie Antoinette, a project frustrated by the librettist's illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, "Will we go back to it? If I find three one-act works that suit me, I'll put off M.A." Puccini pursued neither project, as Giacosa's illness led to his death in September 1906.

In March 1907, Puccini wrote to Carlo Clausetti, Ricordi's representative in Naples, proposing three one-act operas based on scenes from stories by Russian novelist Maxim Gorky. By May the composer had set aside this proposal to concentrate on the project which became La fanciulla del West, although he did not wholly abandon the idea of a multiple-opera evening. His next idea in this vein, some years later, was for a two-opera bill, one tragic and one comic; he later expanded this to include a third opera with a mystic or religious tone. By November 1916 Puccini had completed the "tragic" element, which became Il tabarro, but he still lacked ideas for the other two works. He considered staging Il tabarro in combination with his own early work Le Villi, or with other two-act operas which might be used to round out the evening's entertainment. Finally, librettist Giovacchino Forzano presented the composer with two works of his own, which became Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. The latter would be Puccini's first setting of a comic text; although his earlier operas, for example La bohème, contain comic episodes, these are merely ancillary to the drama to provide contrast.

Forzano wrote to Tito Ricordi, Giulio's son, on 3 March 1917:

I sent the libretto of Suor Angelica to Maestro Puccini some days ago. He has declared himself – kind as he is – very satisfied ... I have also finished a brief outline of a plot based on Gianni Schicchi. You know the Maestro's opinion of this subject, which is rich in possibilities and whose comic nature is quite out of the ordinary.

In fact, Puccini was at first less than enthusiastic about the idea for this comic opera – Florence as a setting did not appeal to him, and he feared the public would have little interest in the subject. However, he soon became interested, and did some work on the piece even while composing Suor Angelica. The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to Gianni Schicchi, although the war news and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which Puccini lost a sister, distracted him from his work. The first draft was completed on 20 April 1918, and Puccini continued to refine and orchestrate it through the summer of 1918.

With the trilogy complete, Puccini had to decide on a place for the premiere. In 1918, travel was risky and uncertain. Puccini received an offer from Buenos Aires which he refused, unwilling to have so complex a work first performed overseas in his absence. He finally agreed that the premiere could take place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, without his being there, on the basis of performing instructions which he supplied to the conductor. Gianni Schicchi proved to be the last opera completed by Puccini.