Chapter 3 - Motivic elaboration and the MPI

Summary

The difficulty for me is beginning an opera, finding, that is, its musical atmosphere. Once the beginning is fixed and composed, there is nothing more to fear: the opera has been determined and it goes.

To this quote from Puccini, which Adami notes he repeated many times, let us add a statement from Carner: “nearly always Puccini begins with what he called ‘il motivo di prima intenzione,’ the motto theme embodying the work's essential spirit.” In most of Puccini's operas, these opening musical statements appear before the curtain opens and thus focus the listener's ear on the aural landscape before any visual cues are given.

One could argue that Puccini's “motivo di prima intenzione” [motive of first plan, hereafter MPI] is simply a form of the traditional Verdian tinta (literally, “tint”), a concept resistant to translation. In recent opera scholarship, however, “tinta” has been utilized to a large extent to indicate a general coloration (such as “modal” or “chromatic”) rather than a specific musical structure or texture. Even Abramo Basevi, Verdi's contemporary and authority on that composer's early and middle works, describes “tinta” or “colorito” [coloring] in general terms: “a center toward which the different pieces that compose the opera converge.”

Puccini's MPI, as proposed here, is a different sort of creature. The word “motive” carried some weight for this composer: although “motivo” is often best translated as “theme” in earlier Italian works (implying at least a complete phrase), by Puccini's era—thanks to the Wagnerian Leitmotiv—it could also mean a short melodic cell. And when Puccini states that he needs the opening of an opera to be “fixed and composed,” it seems likely that he is referring to specific notes, rhythms and harmonies, not a general ambience. Moreover, if we read Puccini's statement closely, we find that he is implying two different sorts of beginnings: that of the opera itself, and the start of the compositional process. In short, he starts to compose at the very beginning.

What if we were to take Puccini at his word, and explore his works by considering the opening motives of his operas (or “preludes” as he often labeled them) both as the first sounds heard, but also as representative of the initial schemata upon which he built his musical structures?