Puccini

Master Musicians Series

by Julian Budden

Puccini ha sido, es y seguirá siendo una de las figuras más populares en el mundo de la ópera. Y el autor de este libro, Julian Budden, ha sido uno de los más destacados investigadores de la ópera italiana. La unión de ambos nombres dio como fruto la que muchos consideran la gran biografía sobre el compositor de Lucca. Con una hábil mezcla de análisis musical y relato colorista, en sus distintos capítulos se ofrece una esclarecedora visión de algunas de los títulos más populares del repertorio operístico de todo los tiempos, como Manon Lescaut, La boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly o Turandot. Budden aborda con agudeza el proceso de elaboración de una ópera, en la figura de quien se puede considerar que pone el punto final a la ópera italiana del siglo XIX. Así, en sus páginas el lector asiste a la pugna por encontrar a los intérpretes adecuados para el estreno de La boheme, la angustia de Puccini por terminar Turandot o su animosidad hacia algunos coetáneos como Leoncavallo (a quien llamaba irónicamente Leonasino o «león-asno»). Asimismo, proporciona un informado análisis de las propias óperas, examinando la música acto a acto. Destaca, entre otras cuestiones, la influencia de Wagner en Puccini, el único entre sus contemporáneos italianos en seguir el ejemplo del alemán a la hora de otorgar protagonismo al motivo musical, lo que algunas veces le permite dar voz a pensamientos no expresados por los cantantes, y otras emitir al público una señal de la que el personaje no es consciente. Y, por supuesto, también nos deja un fascinante e interesantísimo retrato del hombre con talento pero modesto, una persona con amistades de toda clase y condición tenderos, sacerdotes, terratenientes acomodados, colegas artistas. Afable, cortés, dotado de un gran sentido del humor, rara vez dejó de encandilar a todos los que se encontraban con él.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Julian Medforth Budden, BA, BMus, was a British opera scholar, radio producer and broadcaster. He is particularly known for his three volumes on the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, a single volume biography in 1982 and a single volume work on Giacomo Puccini and his operas in 2002.

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Art is a kind of illness." Giacomo Puccini

The insightful opera scholar, Julian Budden, wrote that Giacomo Puccini was the greatest composer of Italian opera that ever lived. The book is a tribute and a loving biography of the innovative Puccini whose personal life was in chaos and shambles but who thrived on intense drama. Despite his ruinous affairs, he still managed to compose beautiful melodic inventions of originality and vigor.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book is subtitled 'his life and works,' it's the works that Budden focuses on. While there is detail about his life, it takes a very secondary place here to long analyses of the operas, how they came about, who worked on them with Puccini and much more. This isn't a bad approach to a musical biography, but Budden has left the biographical Puccini to other authors.
Taking that into account however, Budden writes on the operas, their genesis and subsequent 'lives' in great detail. As a writer and musician I found it fascinating to see what long gestations many of his works had, how complex was the process of writing first the 'prose' libretto and then the poetic one, usually done by two different people. Puccini himself would work back and forward, suggesting this, deleting that, restructuring (and causing the writers to go back to the drawing board) and much more. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book - for me.
The music should have interested me too, but Budden's theoretical/analytical approach to writing about how the music works takes away from the reality of what the music does when performed. Certainly he doesn't ignore this, and to give him credit, his explanations may mean more to some musicians than others. I'm not a musical dunce by any means, but I found his way of focusing on certain Puccini 'tricks' wasn't that exciting.
Or, perhaps, Budden sets himself an impossible task: music, at the end of the day, can't really be described. Though he gives his all to the task, in the end music has to be heard and experienced before its power becomes clear.
This may be unnecessary carping. I came out of reading this book with a much greater appreciation for the way Puccini constructs his music and the effect that has. What I need now to do is go and listen (or hopefully see online) some of the operas, perhaps with Budden at my elbow.

[Raymundo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro muy pesado, difícil de leer. Cada capítulo es una ópera, lo cual hace la estructura mejor que su libro sobre Verdi. Empieza cada capítulo con la vida en ese momento del compositor, y luego con teoría musical. Es un libro para personas avanzadas en conocimiento de teoría de música y del compositor. Ni siquiera reseña de forma breve o adaptadas a su significancia las óperas.

[Melissa Snavely]

Super detailed - musical analysis is very comprehensive, takes you through each opera. For a serious study only.