LETTERS OF GIACOMO PUCCINI Edited by Giuseppe Adaml
The life story of Puccini is the story of the rose and the thorn. He came from a family who for five generations had been professional musicians, and accordingly compara- tively poor. His first opera, composed when he was still a youth, won hint fame, and from that time until his death he went from one success to another, piling up fame and riches, until in his last years he was a millionaire and his name a household word all over the world. Yet he never found happiness. He was obsessed by fears of failure, and his soul was swept by moods of melancholy in which life, even his exciting and ample life, seemed futile and rudderless. He lived on his nerves, and had to torture himself to an ecstasy of misery in order to be able to produce his luscious melodies which still make the whole world weep in theatre and restaurant. The story of this strange entanglement of external and internal fates is shown intimately in Letters of Giacomo Puccini, edited by Giuseppe Adami, and translated by Ens Makin (Harrap, 12s. 6d.). They show a man who never lost his modesty and sensitiveness ; a sincere and painfully nervous artist, who at the end of his life was still young enough in spirit to write, " I have always carried with me a great burden of melancholy. But I am made so, and so also tire made all men who have a heart and nerves : torment of
spirit mid eternal discontent." _ .
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