Editing Giacomo Puccini (section)

==Early career and first operas==
As a thesis piece for the Milan Conservatory, Puccini composed the orchestral ''Capriccio sinfonico'' ("Symphonic caprice"). Puccini's teachers, Ponchielli and Bazzini, were impressed by his work, which was subsequently performed at a student concert at the conservatory on July 14, 1883, conducted by [[Franco Faccio]]. The ''Capriccio'' was favourably reviewed in the Milanese publication ''[[La Perseveranza]]'',<ref name="Dry" /> and thus Puccini began to build a reputation as a young composer of promise in Milanese music circles.

===''Le Villi''===
{{Main|Le Villi}}

Following the première of the ''Capriccio sinfonico'', Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccini's next work might be an opera. Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to [[Ferdinando Fontana]].<ref name="Dry" /> They agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the [[libretto]]. Puccini submitted the work, titled {{Lang|it|Le Villi}} ('The Fairies'), for {{Interlanguage link|Casa Musicale Sonzogno|it|Sonzogno (editore musicale)}}'s first of four musical competitions, advertised in April 1883, for a new, unperformed opera "inspired by the best traditions of Italian opera", which could be "idyllic, serious, or comic", to be judged by a panel including Galli and Ponchielli. Puccini's submission was disqualified because its manuscript was illegible;<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Greenwald |first=Helen M. |year=2023 |title=Coupling: Mascagni and Leoncavallo |journal=Royal Opera House Programme for Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci |publisher=[[Royal Opera House]] |pages=30–35}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Vannoni |first=Giulia |date=15 November 2021 |title=Galli, questo sconosciuto |trans-title=Galli, this stranger |url=https://www.ilponte.com/galli-questo-sconosciuto/ |access-date=6 January 2024 |website=Il Ponte |language=it-IT}}</ref> the second competition, in 1889, was notably won by [[Pietro Mascagni|Mascagni]]'s ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]''.<ref name="Dry" /><ref name=":9" />

Despite the defeat in the competition, ''Le Villi'' was later staged at the [[Teatro Dal Verme]], premiering on 31 May 1884.<ref name="Dry" /> [[Casa Ricordi]] assisted with the première by printing the libretto without charge.<ref name="Dry" /> Fellow students from the Milan Conservatory formed a large part of the orchestra.<ref name="Dry" /> The performance was enough of a success that Casa Ricordi purchased the opera.<ref name="Dry" /> Revised into a two-act version with an intermezzo between the acts, ''Le Villi'' was performed at [[La Scala]] in Milan, on 24 January 1885. However, Ricordi did not publish the score until 1887, hindering further performance of the work.<ref name="Dry" />

===''Edgar''===
{{Main|Edgar (opera)}}

Impressed with ''Le Villi'' and its composer, music publisher [[Giulio Ricordi]] commissioned a second opera from Puccini, which would result in ''[[Edgar (opera)|Edgar]]''. Work begun in 1884 when Fontana began working out the scenario for the libretto.<ref name="Girardi">{{cite book |last=Girardi |first=Michele |title=Puccini:His International Art |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2000 |location=Chicago}}</ref> Puccini finished primary composition in 1887, and orchestration in 1888.<ref name="Girardi" /> ''Edgar'' premiered at [[La Scala]] on 21 April 1889 to a lukewarm response.<ref name="Girardi" /> The work was withdrawn for revisions after its third performance.<ref name="Girardi" /> In a Milanese newspaper, Giulio Ricordi published a defence of Puccini's skill as a composer, while criticizing Fontana's libretto. A revised version met with success at the [[Teatro del Giglio]] in Puccini's native Lucca on 5 September 1891.<ref name="Girardi" /> In 1892, further revisions reduced the length of the opera from four acts to three, in a version that was well received in Ferrara and was performed in Turin and in Spain.<ref name="Girardi" /> Puccini made further revisions in 1901 and 1905, but the work never achieved popularity.<ref name="Girardi" /> Without the personal support of Ricordi, ''Edgar'' might have cost Puccini his career. Puccini had eloped with his former piano student, the married Elvira Gemignani ({{nee|Bonturi}}), and Ricordi's associates were willing to turn a blind eye to his lifestyle as long as he was successful. When ''Edgar'' failed, they suggested to Ricordi that he should drop Puccini, but Ricordi said that he would stay with him and continued his allowance until his next opera.{{sfn|Carner|1959|p=49}}

===''Manon Lescaut''===
{{Main|Manon Lescaut (Puccini)}}

On commencing his next opera, ''[[Manon Lescaut (Puccini)|Manon Lescaut]]'', Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist"{{sfn|Carner|1959|p={{page needed|date=June 2018}}}} could spoil it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept [[Ruggero Leoncavallo]] as his librettist, but Puccini soon asked Ricordi to remove him from the project. Four other librettists were then involved with the opera, as Puccini constantly changed his mind about the structure of the piece. It was almost by accident that the final two, [[Luigi Illica]] and [[Giuseppe Giacosa]], came together to complete the opera.

''Manon Lescaut'' premiered at the [[Teatro Regio (Turin)|Teatro Regio]] in Turin on 2 February 1893.<ref name="Night of Lescaut premiere">{{cite news |date=2 February 1893 |title=Arte e Scienze |newspaper=La Stampa}}</ref> By coincidence, Puccini's first enduringly popular opera appeared within a week of the premiere of Verdi's last opera, ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'', which was first performed on 9 February 1893.<ref name="Night of Lescaut premiere" /> In anticipation of the premiere, {{Lang|it|[[La Stampa]]}} wrote that Puccini was a young man concerning whom "great hopes" had a real basis ("{{lang|it|un giovane che è tra i pochi sul quale le larghe speranze non siano benigne illusioni}}").<ref name="Night of Lescaut premiere" /> Because of the failure of ''Edgar'', however, a failure of ''Manon Lescaut'' could have jeopardized Puccini's future as a composer. Although Giulio Ricordi, head of Casa Ricordi, was supportive of Puccini while ''Manon Lescaut'' was still in development, the Casa Ricordi board of directors was considering cutting off Puccini's financial support.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|2002|p=64}} In any event, "''Manon Lescaut'' was Puccini's first and only uncontested triumph, acclaimed by critics and public alike."<ref name="GroverOperas">{{harvnb|Sadie|Macy|2006|p={{page needed|date=August 2021}}}}</ref> After the London premiere in 1894, [[George Bernard Shaw]] pronounced: "Puccini looks to me more like the heir of Verdi than any of his rivals."<ref name="Budden">{{harvnb|Budden|2002|page=107}}</ref>

''Manon Lescaut'' was a great success and established Puccini's reputation as the most promising rising composer of his generation, and the most likely "successor" to Verdi as the leading exponent of the Italian operatic tradition.<ref name="Streatfeild" /> Illica and Giacosa returned as librettists for Puccini for his next three operas, probably his greatest successes: ''[[La bohème]]'', ''[[Tosca]]'' and ''[[Madama Butterfly]]''.