Puccini's Last Act: Finishing Turandot

• Published in: The Opera journal 2022-10, Vol.55 (2), p.1-60
• Main Author: Burton, Deborah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autographs; Composers; Correspondence; Opera; Puccini, Giacomo
• ISSN: 0030-3585

Some scholars have asserted that, for various reasons, Puccini had been unable to finish the work, yet evidence is clear that he played the finale for Galileo Chini, Guido Marotti, and possibly Arturo Toscanini.1 A letter from musicologist Leonardo Pinzauti to composer Luciano Berio indicates that a young neighbor, Salvatore Orlando, also heard Puccini perform the finale, and spoke with him about it.2 At his death, Puccini left behind thirty-six pages of musical sketches (now housed at the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan), a copy of the libretto with various musical annotations (location unknown), and some separate sheets with musical ideas jotted on them.3 In April 1926, the opera was given a posthumous premiere, with the finale completed by Franco Alfano, a younger composer (1875-1954) who was under great pressure to complete it. [...]his finale, still heard today, is not the ideal solution. [...]the sketches shown to Alfano were a subset of a larger group that had already been narrowed down by Zuccoli. Approximately a decade ago, I was able to access copies of nine autograph sketches not part of the thirty-six pages in the Archivio Storico Ricordi, which had been in a private collection in Germany.14 Because they originated from the Zuccoli family, I label these the "Zuccoli" (Z) sketches.15 Neither Alfano, Maguire, Berio, nor Hao used-or possibly even knew about-them.16 Would it now be possible, with this extra autograph material (and other sketches I recently examined at the Puccini archive in Torre del Lago) to create a Turandot finale similar to what Puccini had in mind? I have attempted to do so, and this article details my path to "realizing" a new "Puccinian" ending.17 In Part 1,1 describe the newly accessed material, and discuss my methodology in putting it all together, with the help of six "clues." [...]the Appendix shows incipits of each of the sketches and collates the various enumerations to which they have previously been referred.