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PUCCINI, Giacomo (1858-1924)
Autograph letter signed (with the pet-name 'Muckili') to [Rose Ader], Regina-Palast Hotel, Munich, 20 August 1921.
In Italian. Four pages, 185 x 143mm. Autograph envelope addressed to Rose Ader in Hamburg. Provenance: with Schulson Autographs, 2015.
'It is better to write in bad Italian ... Strauss is not very good': a breathlessly unpunctuated letter to his lover, drafting a letter for her to write to him – and denigrating Richard Strauss. 'You must write a letter to me immediately at Torre del Lago not poste restante ... Write as follows: "Illustrious Maestro in the first days of September I come Viareggio with Seeligman family. I do not know if you, dear Maestro, remember me – you met me in Rome with Nikisch at the concerts – I am the Sister Angelica from Hamburg – I hope to have your protection to sing Italy, study much, great desire to learn you beautiful language – Sorry – Greetings, Rose Ader". / Do you understand? / You can also write other words also a longer letter in bad Italian is better ... This way I hope easier to see each other – Less mystery and perhaps no pains for us – I hope ... Maybe my Gattin [wife] will open your letter mit [with] steam – Gut! / My sweetest, how much [I have] thought of you! ... Addio my dearest love, many thousand kisses on your beautiful mouth and on your eyes'. Puccini also mentions 'another opera' at the Joseftheater in Munich the previous day ('Beautiful spectacle, but not good music. Strauss not very good') and his friend Count Schabl.
Rose Ader (1890-1955) was an Austrian soprano, who sang primarily in Hamburg, where she sang at the first German performance of Suor Angelica in February 1921, after which the composer fell deeply in love with her: a number of passionate letters survive over the following year. In the present letter, Puccini writes in somewhat simplified Italian sprinkled with a few words of German, perhaps as a sort of lovers' code. The 'Seeligman' family are the family of Puccini's close friend and confidante Sybil Seligman.
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