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PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924)
Autograph letter signed (‘G. Puccini’) to Sybil Seligman, Torre del Lago, 2 April 1909.
One page, 248 x 159mm, on a letter-card, autograph address to Sybil Seligman in Nice.
‘… my spirits are too battered to start off any work …’: a depressed and anguished Puccini in the period after the suicide of Doria Manfredi. ‘Everything is getting so complicated. Elvira burst out at me in a rage about the lawsuit; she said that I had done nothing to get it withdrawn whereas I have in fact been trying, and am still doing so. Even my son is not sympathetic to me … I am about to go to Milan for Elektra … In June I hope to come to London, but I would like to have my own bedroom, small sitting-room etc etc, with a housemaid and a piano for working, somewhere I could just touch the piano even at night; such a place as I believe will be impossible to find. The Girl [i.e. La fanciulla del West] is languishing; my spirits are too battered to start off any work … I am miserable and bored …’.
The letter is written in the period between the suicide of the Puccinis’ servant, Doria Manfredi, on 28 January, and the trial of Elvira Puccini for persecution and defamation (she had suspected her husband and Doria of having an affair). Elvira was found guilty at the ensuing trial, although her prison sentence was suspended after Puccini paid damages. The composition of La fanciulla del West was much delayed by this crisis, and its premiere in New York did not take place until 10 December 1910.
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