FRIENDS OF BOHÈME
Thursday, August 22, 9:30 p.m.
Terrazza Mascagni, Livorno
DANGEROUS RELATIONSHIPS
August 2, 2023
Noemi
August 24, 2023
FRIENDS OF BOHÈME
Pietro Mascagni Alessio Boni
Giacomo Puccini Marcello Prayer
Piano Massimo Salotti
Soprano of the Mascagni Academy
Mise en scène Marco Voleri
Production Mascagni Festival / Aida Productions
Tickets
In the heart of the fervent musical Italy of the 19th century, two young talents, Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, met at the conservatory, giving rise to a friendship that would mark the history of Italian music. In the year of Puccini's celebrations, this reading explores the deep connection between Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, from humble beginnings to worldwide success, revealing to the audience their poetics, personal lives, victories and challenges that shaped their careers. Pietro and Giacomo had also been, like the protagonists of Puccini's most famous opera, "friends of Bohème," two young artists with a great desire to make music, and they lived their bohème in Milan. Here a firm and brotherly friendship was born between the two. The young musicians, favorite pupils of maestro Ponchielli, both in precarious economic conditions, shared the same room in a modest top-floor apartment for a long time. They shared meals, study hours, together they bought Wagner and Boito's sheet music so they could study them. It was Pietro who organized a collection for Giacomo to send on stage, in 1884, the opera Le Villi, the first operatic composition that no impresario wanted to perform; it was Pietro who stayed backstage throughout the performance to be among the first to embrace his friend at the end. Thus in 1890 after the premiere of Cavalleria the first congratulatory telegram Pietro received was from his friend Giacomo. Those times always remained vivid in Mascagni's memory, even once he had achieved stardom. His was the desperate letter of November 27, 1924 in which he wrote from Vienna to Adriano Belli, a musicologist journalist, about the death of his friend Giacomo.
In 1930, with Forzano, it was Mascagni who inaugurated the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago by conducting La Boheme in honor of his friend. This reading celebrates this extraordinary friendship by underscoring the strength of a bond that overcame challenges, nurturing mutual creativity and inspiration. The pages of Italian music history are embellished by this epic symphony of friendship that made the names of Mascagni and Puccini immortal in the world music scene.
In the heart of the fervent musical Italy of the 19th century, two young talents, Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, met at the conservatory, giving birth to a friendship that would mark the history of Italian music. In the year of Puccini's celebrations, this reading explores the deep connection between Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, from humble beginnings to worldwide success, revealing to the audience their poetics, personal lives, victories and challenges that shaped their careers. Pietro and Giacomo had also been, like the protagonists of Puccini's most famous opera, "friends of Bohème," two young artists with a great desire to make music, and their bohème they lived in Milan. Here a firm and brotherly friendship was born between the two. The young musicians, favorite pupils of maestro Ponchielli, both in precarious economic conditions, shared the same room in a modest top-floor apartment for a long time. They shared meals, study hours, together they bought Wagner and Boito's sheet music so they could study them. It was Pietro who organized a collection for Giacomo to send on stage, in 1884, the opera Le Villi, the first operatic composition that no impresario wanted to perform; it was Pietro who stayed backstage throughout the performance to be among the first to embrace his friend at the end. Thus in 1890 after the premiere of Cavalleria the first congratulatory telegram Pietro received was from his friend Giacomo. Those times always remained vivid in Mascagni's memory, even once he had achieved stardom. His was the desperate letter of November 27, 1924 in which he wrote from Vienna to Adriano Belli, a musicologist journalist, about the death of his friend Giacomo.
In 1930, with Forzano, it was Mascagni who opened the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago by conducting the Boheme in honor of his friend. This reading celebrates this extraordinary friendship by underscoring the strength of a bond that overcame challenges, nurturing mutual creativity and inspiration. The pages of Italian music history are embellished by this epic symphony of friendship that made the names of Mascagni and Puccini immortal in the world music scene.