83. La Rondine

In October 1913, when Puccini was in Vienna for the first Austrian performance of La Fanciulla del West, he met Siegmund Eibenschütz (1856-1922), director of the Carl-Theater and one of the leading producers of Viennese operetta.Note: *Eibenschütz has often been inaccurately identified in literature. For correct information, see Leo Santifaller, Eva Obermayer-Marnach (eds.), Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon (Graz: H Böhlau Nachf, 1957), vol. 1, and Salomon Wininger, Große Jüdische National-Biographie (Chernivtsi: Druck "Orient", 1927), vol. 2.  Apparently in their casual conversation, Eibenschütz offered Puccini a fee of 200,000 crowns for the composition of a comic opera for his theatre. At first Puccini probably did not take the offer very seriously, for after his return to Italy he did not even remember the director’s name (see Carteggi 1958 No. 635 of 6 November 1913). Immediately thereafter, extensive discussions pertaining to questions of the distribution of copyright in such a project began. Puccini brought his close Viennese friend Angelo Eisner Edler von Eisenhof into the negotiations as the mediator.Note: *According to the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Eisner was born in 1857 and died in 1938. See also Wer ist wer — Lexikon österreichischer Zeitgenossen (Vienna: Selbstverlag des biographischen lexikons "Wer ist Wer," 1937), as well as Carteggi 1958 Nos. 636-42, 644-46, 650-52, 654, and 656. Other letters to Eisner were published in Fenice 1983, 463-74; the originals of nearly all of Puccini’s known letters to Eisner are in I-Ms.  Apart from Eibenschütz, Emil Berté (1855-1922) was also involved in the deal. Berté was Eibenschütz’s partner in a joint venture of their own music publishing house and was obviously the dominant partner for its business affairs.Note: *Regarding Berté, see Andrew Lamb, "Berté, Heinrich [Henry]," in Grove Music Online, 2001.  In literature about Puccini, Emil Berté is regularly confused with his younger brother Heinrich who gained international fame for his operetta about Schubert entitled Das Dreimäderlhaus (1916), which was extremely successful for decades.
In the middle of December 1913, Puccini received a proposal for a libretto from his Viennese partners, which he did not like at all, calling it “the usual sloppy and banal operetta with the usual contrast of Orient and ... Occident”.Note: *“È la solita operetta sciatta e banale, col solito oriente e ... occidente in contrasto” (see Carteggi 1958, No. 638). The subject of that libretto is not known, but in any case it was created by Alfred Maria Willner, Franz Lehár’s regular librettist.Note: *It has also been said that Lehár arranged for Puccini’s contact with the managers of the Carl-Theater (see Schneidereit 1984, p. 180).  For some time, Puccini considered offering the Viennese business partners his long-standing project to set to music the comedy Anima allegra by the Spanish authors Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero, which at that time was also very successful in Italy. Indeed, the dramaturgy of La Rondine contains elements which were already present in Anima allegra, such as the buffo couple of maid and poet.
While Puccini was occupied for a long time with the planned composition of the story Two little wooden shoes (in Italian I due zoccoletti) by Marie Louise de la Ramée, whose stage name was Ouida (see Appendix I.7), he still studied the drafts sent to him from Vienna by Willner. In the first weeks of 1914 there was obviously an agreement on the subject for the Viennese operetta, and at the end of March Puccini received the first two acts of the libretto from Willner (see Carteggi 1958, nos. 645 and 646). After more arguments over the distribution of copyright between the Viennese partners and Puccini’s Italian publisher (at that time still Ricordi, as usual), Puccini received the contract by the end of April 1914 (see Carteggi No. 650).Note: *According to an unpublished “Pro memoria” in I-Lgp, probably written in 1927 on behalf of Puccini’s heirs and the publishing house of Sonzogno, the contract was dated 18 April 1914. The distribution of copyright between Sonzogno and Eibenschütz & Berté was very complicated and changed several times; for details see Kaye 1987, 177-78. 
Since the opera would be composed in Italian, Puccini provided his own author: Giuseppe Adami (1878-1946). This young writer, with limited experience as a librettist but of major importance for Puccini’s future work and for the early Puccini biographies, supplied the Italian version of Willner’s text for Act 1 at the beginning of May 1914 (see Carteggi 1958, no. 654, footnote 1). Although Puccini soon became discontent with the libretto (as usual), he began sketching the composition by the middle of May.Note: *See Seligman 1938, 240-41, of 14 May 1914 and Carteggi 1958, no. 654 of 26 May 1914.  However, it was only during the summer of 1914 that he decided to devote himself entirely to La Rondine and to postpone the other options kept open until then (apart from I due zoccoletti, the project to set Didier Gold’s grand guignol play La Houppelande, which eventually became Il Tabarro).Note: *See Puccini’s letter of 22 June 1914 in Seligman 1938, 242. He hoped to finish the composition of La Rondine by the spring of 1915 (see Carteggi 1958, no. 656 of 26 July 1914). During the summer of 1914, he worked on the libretto with Adami often present, as well as on the composition.Note: *See e.g. Seligman 1938, 257-58, of 14 September and Epistolario 1982, no. 114 of 25 September 1914.
On 10 November 1914, Puccini mentions the “quartetto” which he had left to compose “to fill other gaps and other lacunas”.Note: *“Io ho lasciato il quartetto per altri riempitivi e altre lacune da colmare” (Epistolario 1982, no. 117). This reference to the quartet can only mean “Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso” in Act 2, for which Puccini adapted his song Sogno d’or written in November 1912 as the basis (see 82). By the end of November, Act 2 was nearly all completed up to the end, apart from Puccini’s customary wishes for corrections (see Epistolario 1982, no. 120). But he was totally unenthusiastic about the whole project, and at that time he even considered stopping work on the opera completely (see Epistolario 1982, no. 121 of 19 November 1914).
By the end of March 1915, Puccini and Adami resumed work on the libretto (particularly probably the third act) to finally finish the opera.Note: *See Seligman 1938, 261-62, of 24 March and 9 April 1915, as well as Puccini’s unpublished letters to Tito Ricordi of 2 and 5 April 1915 (I-Mr, nos. 83 and 181).  Additional difficulties arose after Italy entered World War I, and consequently Puccini’s Austrian contractual partners became enemies of Italy. On 22 August 1915, Puccini informed Adami that Act 3 was nearly ready (see Epistolario 1982, no. 125). A few days later, Puccini met Emil Berté in neutral Zurich to clear up the complicated legal situation.Note: *See Carteggi 1958, no. 679, as well as Puccini’s unpublished letter to Berté of 9 October 1915 (last in the auction of Erasmushaus and Stargardt on 8 October 1994 in Basle, catalogue p. 110, No. 188).  Given the circumstances and contrary to the contract, Puccini thought of staging the opera’s first performance in Italy, conducted by Toscanini. Nearly at the same time, he declared La Rondine finished (see Seligman 1938, 262-63, of 15 October 1915) which was obviously not correct. One week later he asked Adami to come to Torre del Lago to finish La Rondine (see Epistolario 1982, no. 137 of 23 October 1915). Since Puccini began the composition of Il Tabarro about the same time (see 84ⁱ), however, the composition of La Rondine could only have been completed a little later.
Puccini did not need much time for the instrumentation. He apparently did that work while he was composing Il Tabarro or in the intervals resulting from difficulties with the libretto for that opera. By the end of March 1916, Carignani was in Torre del Lago to help Puccini with the copying.Note: *“che mi aiuta nella copia”; see Cecchini 1980-1993, no. 2797, which according to the original in US-NH (Koch 707.159) is dated 29 March 1916.  This certainly means that, apart from the full score, the piano-vocal score was already prepared. At the same time, however, changes in the libretto of La Rondine were still made: especially in the finale of Act 3 (for which there is a remark in Epistolario No. 131).Note: *Contrary to Adami’s indication, the letter obviously is not from March 1918. Due to its other contents, it certainly dates from 3 April 1916. Finally, in a letter to Adami dated 22 April 1916 (Epistolario 1982, no. 130), Puccini proclaimed: “La ‘Rondine’ è finitissima! [The ‘Rondine’ is very much finished!]”. This is also confirmed in a letter to Sybil Seligman of 27 April 1916 (Seligman 1938, 265), where Puccini informed his confidante that La Rondine was “quite finished” and awaiting its first performance after the end of the war. At that time, Puccini was probably unaware that the Italian secret service was also interested in his work because of Puccini’s connection to enemy Austrian publishers (and also because of his many visits to his German mistress Josephine von Stengel who lived near the Italian border in Swiss Lugano). In fact, Puccini was suspected of spying.Note: *For the details of the Italian secret service’s activities, see Schickling 1999. 
Soon afterwards, a serious conflict developed with Puccini’s publisher, Tito Ricordi, whom the composer accused of not being sufficiently involved in resolving the difficult legal problems connected with the opera caused by the chaos of the war. In this situation, Ricordi’s rival, the publishing house of Sonzogno, made an offer to Puccini for La Rondine, which he ultimately accepted.Note: *See Carteggi 1958 No. 690 of 31 July; Seligman 1938, 266, of 19 September; Carteggi 1958, no. 693, of 23 September 1916.  In the middle of October 1916, Puccini went to Zurich with Renzo Sonzogno;Note: *See Puccini’s unpublished postcard to Elvira Sonzogno of 19 October 1916,I-Ms (C.A.6842). there, they probably met with the Viennese contractual partners to agree on the conditions for changes in the contract — the most important of which was probably to have the first performance of the opera away from Austria. The legal problems continued (see Carteggi 1958, nos. 695-98). Monte Carlo was considered as the venue for the first performance, and by the beginning of January 1917 the première was set, as well as the contract with Sonzogno.Note: *According to Morini, Ostali, and Ostali jr. 1995, vol. 2, p. 671, the contract is dated 9 January 1917; see also Carteggi 1958, no. 702 of 11 January 1917.
As usual, Puccini took an active interest in the rehearsals for the first performance and apparently still made cuts in the score.Note: *See Puccini’s unpublished letter to Carlo Clausetti of 14 March 1917 (I-Mr). The subsequent productions of the opera in Bologna, Milan, and Rome convinced Puccini that a thorough revision was necessary.Note: *See Puccini 1981, no. 40 of 25 January 1918: “il terz’atto è un pondo — vorrei rifarlo ... [the third act is a burden — 
I would like to rewrite it...].”  He began work on the revisions in the summer of 1918 and had Sonzogno send him the full score.Note: *Probably a copy of 83.E.1a; see Carteggi 1958, no. 721, of 5 July 1918.  In addition to Adami as the actual librettist, Giovacchino Forzano also had a share in the textual changes, at least in an advisory capacity. (Forzano was then collaborating with Puccini on the libretti of the operas for Il Trittico.)Note: *For the details of Puccini’s partially unrealized intentions, see Carteggi 1958, nos. 722, 723, 726, and 732, as well as Epistolario 1982, no. 129 (erroneously dated between 1915 and 1916 by Adami and others).  Adami was called up for military service and his availability to work on La Rondine was limited; so the new version was temporarily left incomplete, with only the revisions in the first two acts accomplished.
Before Puccini resumed work on the score, he received a letter of 11 February 1919 from Willner who (having read the piano-vocal score 83.E.1) complained about the changes made by Adami and Puccini in Willner’s original text.Note: *Published in Fenice 1983, 474-75. From this letter the extent of the differences between the German original and Adami’s Italian adaptation can be determined. They obviously pertain to details of the dialogue rather than the scope of the dramaturgy. Adami’s sole mention in the first edition of the piano-vocal score as the librettist is not justified and can only be explained by the situation caused by the war, since Willner and his collaborator, Reichert, were then deemed to be enemy foreigners. However, Puccini may have reacted to Willner’s objections. Some months later, when Puccini finalized the new version of La Rondine, he rejected Willner’s proposal that he and Reichert make the changes they considered necessary. Instead, Puccini opted to occupy Adami with the remaining revisions. These last corrections, especially the considerable change in the plot of Act 3, were made between the end of July and the end of September 1919.Note: *See the synopses in Hopkinson 1968, 38-39. The relevant correspondence includes Puccini’s letters of 13 July 1919 (in Sartori 1958, 303) and 27 July 1919 (Carteggi 1958 No. 759). There is no doubt that Epistolario 1982, no. 127, also must have been written at this time, as confirmed by the letter of 29 July 1919 (in Seligman 1938, p. 303); see also Epistolario 1982, No. 132 of 1 August 1919; Carteggi 1958, nos. 760, 761, and 763 of 21 August to 15 September 1919; Seligman 1938, 303-04, of 31 August 1919; Rizzi 1964, 29 and 32, of 31 August 1919.  Even so, Puccini did not realize all his ideas for revisions.
The Italian edition of the piano-vocal score of the new version (83.E.2) was probably printed in 1919. The first German edition (83.E.2b) was only issued in the following year, in view of the first performance sung in German.Note: *Strangely enough, that edition only mentions Willner and Reichert as the librettists, and not Adami, though they (or one of them) obviously translated Adami’s Italian text of 83.E.2 for the version of the opera in 83.E.2b. Since Willner’s and Reichert’s original German text remains unknown, one cannot determine to what extent Adami, for his part, made use of it.  There were numerous plans for a performance of the new version (“II. edizione”), which eventually came to pass on 10 April 1920 in Palermo, despite Puccini’s initial objections (see Rizzi 1964 , 30), since he could not take part in the rehearsals and also did not attend the performance (see Puccini 1981, No. 51). Somewhat mysterious is Puccini’s remark concerning Sonzogno’s destruction of the “1^a edizione di Rondine” (see Epistolario 1982, no. 136, of 9 July 1920); but perhaps that was a misunderstanding.
After Puccini had seen the first performance (of the II. edizione) in German on 9 October 1920 in Vienna, he was no longer satisfied with his new version at all and immediately planned a further revision.Note: *See Seligman 1938, 319-20, which according to the original in MEL is dated 29 October 1920.  He intended to revert to the first version, changing the libretto.Note: *See Epistolario 1982, no. 183, probably of 30 October 1920, and no. 179, probably of 17 November 1920. He discussed the changes with Adami at the end of December in Torre della TagliataNote: *See Epistolario 1982, nos. 135 and 185 of 3 and 24 December 1920, respectively. and described the planned new version of Act 3 in a letter to Schnabl (see Puccini 1981, no. 67 of 25 December 1920; see also 83.B.6). Again, it required a drastic change in the plot (see Hopkinson 1968, 41) and the addition of three new characters (“tre vivaci ‘vendeuses’” named Fleury, Mariette, and Rorò). In this new version, Puccini wanted to clarify the lovers’ precarious financial situation, while keeping the majority of the existing music. In all, more than 100 new bars were added to the score of this new “III. edizione” (see 83.E.3).
Apparently this new version was already finalized in the first months of 1921, for on 3 March of that year Puccini wrote to Schnabl that Erich Wolfgang Korngold wanted to perform “la Rondine 3^a edizione” in Hamburg (see Puccini 1981, no. 76), but more time was required to prepare the necessary orchestra material. The next day, he praised the new Act 3 as being a wonder (“un portento”; see Puccini 1981, no. 77). Since Puccini began the composition of Turandot shortly thereafter, the work on La Rondine may well have been finished by that time. From then on, he constantly endeavoured (unsuccessfully) to secure a performance of the “III. edizione”.Note: *See Rizzi 1964, 32 and 56-57; Puccini 1981, nos. 82, 85, 94-98, 104, 108, and 111; Ashbrook 1969, 161; Seligman 1938, 333-34; Carteggi 1958, nos. 824 and 854 — all written between June 1921 and January 1923.  Sonzogno was not very helpful. Although they printed the piano-vocal score of the third version, they obviously did not do anything to market it and (at least for the moment) did not produce the appropriate orchestra material either (see Puccini 1981, no. 98 of 20 March 1922). However, since the Sonzogno archives were destroyed in World War II, it is unknown which material really existed there at that time. It is, therefore, conceivable that the performance of La Rondine in Fiume on 11 April 1924 (the first since October 1920 and a few months before Puccini’s death) followed his definitive version.Note: *See Carteggi 1958, no. 888, in connection with Puccini 1981, no. 129. In any case, Prunier was sung by a tenor on that occasion, so the opera cannot have been performed in the “II. edizione” (83.E.2).
The second German edition of 1929 (83.E.1b) reproduced the original version (I^a Edizione), perhaps to avoid the production of completely new sets of orchestra material. However, this meant returning to a version Puccini certainly had rejected; there is no documentary evidence for the occasional claim that he later changed his mind.
Until recently, Sonzogno and Universal Edition (Sonzogno’s marketing partner for La Rondine in German speaking countries since 1928, for the publishing activities of Eibenschütz & Berté could not accomplish that) only distributed the original version of the opera. Since the piano-vocal score of the “III. edizione” exists, but not the full score, it is indeed difficult to identify the definitive version of the opera in every detail. It was 70 years after Puccini’s death before Sonzogno presented a (partial) revision of the full score of the opera, which only affected Act 3 according to Puccini’s intentions for the “III. edizione” (in Lorenzo Ferrero’s reconstructed instrumentation of the newly composed passages; see 83.E.4). However, the relatively easy implementation of Puccini’s corrections for the first two acts were not included, so the first performance of Ferrero’s edition in Turin (1994) still did not present Puccini’s definitive version.
There were also a few earlier attempts to demonstrate Puccini’s revisions of La Rondine, notably in Venice in 1983 and in Bologna in 1987, where Puccini’s new duet of Magda and Rambaldo from the “III. edizione” (by far the most extensive musical revision in that version) was performed with piano accompaniment, as it appears in the piano-vocal score (83.E.3).
Editions in languages other than Italian, German, and English apparently have not been published. Apart from a Hungarian performance, Loewenberg 1943 (701) also records one in French in February 1926 in Monte Carlo, in the translation of Paul Milliet. This performance, conducted by Victor De Sabata, is also mentioned in Musica d’oggi of March 1926. However, according to Morini, Ostali, and Ostali jr. 1995, vol.2, 674, it took place in January 1926.