Torre del Lago, home of the Puccini Festival, lies
between the Lake of Massaciuccoli and the Tyrrhenian Sea, 4 kilometres
far from the magnificent beaches of Viareggio on the Tuscan Riviera, 18
kilometres from Lucca and Pisa. The Festival welcomes about 40.000
spectators every year to its open-air theatre, just a few steps from the
Villa Mausoleum where Giacomo Puccini lived and worked.
His mortal remains are now in a small chapel inside the Villa. Torre del
Lago is a favourite destination of opera lovers and tourists who wish to
visit the places where the most beloved composer of the 20th century
lived.
The Puccini Festival was born in 1930 following Puccini’s wishes.
“… I always come out here and take a boat to go and shoot snipes …
but once I would like to come here and listen to one of my operas in the
open air…”. (Puccini in a letter to Giovacchino Forzano in November
1924, before he left to the clinic of Brussels where he died shortly
after). The author of La Bohème and Madama Butterfly, expressed his
wish to see his creatures come to life in the extraordinary natural
stage offered by the Massaciuccoli Lake.
Forzano, librettist of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, was so
impressed by those words that, after Puccini’s death, he decided to
realise his dream. In 1930, together with Pietro Mascagni, who had been
fellow-student and room-mate to Puccini, Forzano began to carry out the
first performances of Puccini’s operas on the lakeshore, in front of
the Maestro’s house.
On 24th August 1930, in a provisional theatre with the stage built on
piles stuck in the lake, a travelling opera company performed La Bohème
directed by Forzano and conducted by Mascagni, with Rosetta Pampanini,
Margherita Carosio, Angelo Minghetti and Luigi Montesano.
The same travelling company came back to Torre del Lago in 1931:
Beniamino Gigli and Adelaide Saraceni performed in La Bohème, while
Rosetta Pampanini and Angelo Michetti performed in Madama Butterfly. One
of the world most famous and beloved opera festivals was born.
In 1966 the Festival moved to the reclaimed land just near the small
lake harbour. Here the present theatre was built, a large structure
enjoying the charming background of Massaciuccoli Lake with the small
villages on the opposite shore, whose flickering lights at night assure
an unforgettable natural scenery to the performances taking place on the
wide stage.
During the over seventy years of the Festival, the stage of Torre del
Lago has hosted the most famous and acclaimed names of world opera.
Among them Tito Gobbi, who debuted as director in Tosca; the great Mario
del Monaco, who chose Torre del Lago to leave the stage with an
unforgettable performance in Il Tabarro; Giuseppe Di Stefano, Luciano
Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Josè Carreras, who received the Puccini
Award in 1997 during the saison final concert; Franco Corelli, Giuseppe
Giacomini, Giacomo Aragall and Luis Lima. Finally Josè Cura, whose
performance as Cavaradossi in Tosca at 1995 Puccini Festival marked the
beginning of his extraordinary career.
Famous baritones as Tito Gobbi, Ingvar Wixell, Sherill Milnes, Rolando
Panerai and Giuseppe Taddei played the roles of Scarpia, Jack Rance,
Gianni Schicchi and Lescaut, while successful recitals of world-known
artists such as Monserrat Caballé and Andrea Bocelli were performed on
the stage of Torre del Lago. As for the roles of Puccini’s heroines,
the performances of Renata Scotto, Eva Marton, Katia Ricciarelli, Raina
Kabaivanska, Olivia Stapp and Ghena Dimitrova are really unforgettable.
Among the famous directors, Francesco Molinari Pradelli, Franco Mannino,
Nello Santi, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Yuri Ahronovich,
Gian Luigi Gelmetti, Nicola Rescigno, Daniel Oren, Maurizio Arena, Anton
Guadagno and Alberto Veronesi, at present Artistic Director of the
Festival. Apart from opera, the Grand Theatre of Torre del Lago hosted
also other forms of spectacle: ballet, for instance, with important
performances of Rudolf Nureyev, Carla Fracci and Georg Iancu.
In 2000, 70th anniversary of Forzano and Mascagni’s courageous
initiative, the 46th edition of Puccini Festival proposed two major new
productions: Madama Butterfly under the direction of Vivien A. Hewitt,
with costumes by Regina Schrecker and scenes by the Japanese sculptor
Kan Yasuda debuting as stage-designer, and Beni Montresor’s monumental
Tosca. Then La Bohème and Puccini’s first opera, Le Villi, as concert
with the performances of Katia Ricciarelli and Josè Cura.
In Summer 2001 the production of Madama Butterfly designed by Kan
Yasuda toured Japan within the events of “Italy in Japan 2001”: it
received a 18-minute-long standing ovation in Tokyo's Bunka Kai Kan
Theatre and was received with the same enthusiasm in Kobe and in
Nagasaki, where Festival Puccini was the first European opera company
ever to perform Butterfly in the places where Puccini had set it. In
2002 this production was displayed in Germany at Wiesbaden May
International Festival and in the following Summer was staged again in
Torre del Lago with Andrea Bocelli performing as Captain Pinkerton. In
May 2003 Madama Butterfly designed by Yasuda moved to the USA and was
staged at the Baltimore Opera House.
A new production of Turandot by Roberto Laganà Manoli, staged with
great success in Torre del Lago in Summer 2001, toured to the Canaries
and to Messina in Spring 2002.
The Puccini Festival is just a few kilometres from Pietrasanta, the
"Little Athens" where Michelangelo first based his marble
cutting activities and where sculptors from all over the world come to
learn a unique technique. This neighbourhood has given birth to a
project called "Sculpting the Opera", which sees world-famous
artists in the role of opera set designers. Madama Butterfly by Kan
Yasuda was followed in 2002 by a new production of Manon Lescaut with
scenes and costumes by Igor Mitoraj, and a new production of La Bohème
with sets and costumes designed by Jean-Michel Folon received a huge
success in Torre del Lago in Summer 2003. For its 2004 edition, the
Festival looks again to Pietrasanta to supply the talents of sculptors
Pietro Cascella, who brings potent design ideas for an exiting new
production of Turandot, and of Arnaldo Pomodoro who will design sets for
Madama Butterfly.
To celebrate its 50th Anniversary, the Puccini Festival is now
preparing a rich Summer schedule which will be anticipated in May 2004
by two great special events: Placido Domingo will conduct two
performances of a new production of Madama Butterfly celebrating the
Centenary of its première in Brescia on May 28, 1904, with Daniela Dessì
and Fabio Armiliato in the leading roles; and on May 29 a very special
evening dedicated to Puccini’s Heroines will present the most beloved
arias from the Maestro’s favourite characters.
Finally, in Summer 2004 the Great Theatre in Torre del Lago will host
three of the best known operas by Puccini: Madama Butterfly, Turandot
and Tosca.
www.puccinifestival.it
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