Italian Opera

By any measure, Giacomo Puccini was one of the greatest opera composers in history. Puccini composed his first operas in the 1880s, and in the following decade, his first hits premiered in Italy. In the 1900–01 season, the Met introduced his La Bohème and Tosca, then followed up with Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly in 1907, when the composer himself was in attendance. His La Fanciulla del West in 1910 was the first world premiere ever given by the Met.

Though Puccini was the leading figure in the Italian verismo movement, several of his contemporaries were composing operas in the same “realistic” style that emphasized everyday life and extroverted emotionalism. Umberto Giordano, whose Fedora premiered at the Met in 1906, would eventually have three more operas presented by the company, most notably Andrea Chénier in 1921.

Two more verismo composers whose operas premiered in that period are remembered today principally for a single work. Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur had its first Met performance in 1907, and Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini was added to the repertory in 1916.

Puccini’s La Boheme

Left: Soprano Nellie Melba, the Met’s first Mimì, was an international superstar of the Belle Époque, widely known for the pure beauty of her voice as well as its phenomenal flexibility.
Photo: Reutlinger (Paris)

Right: Baritone Giuseppe Campanari, the Met’s first Marcello, sang nearly 500 performances in his two decades with the company.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Left: Soprano Fritzi Scheff sang Musetta in the Met premiere of La Bohème, which took place while the company was on tour in Los Angeles. Scheff later transitioned into performing in operettas, vaudeville, and eventually movies and night clubs.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Right: In 1917, the company added a principal conductor dedicated to French operas. Each principal conductor oversaw musical issues and led most performances for his “wing” of repertory. Luigi Mancinelli was the chief conductor of the Met’s Italian and French repertory from 1893 to 1903. Until about 1940, the Met had a principal conductor (without a formal title) for the Italian and French repertory, and another for German works.

Puccini’s Tosca

Program page for the United States premiere of Tosca at the Met in 1901. Victorien Sardou’s play La Tosca, which inspired Puccini’s opera, was familiar to New Yorkers from a touring company that featured actress Sarah Bernhardt.

Left: Italian baritone Antonio Scotti’s Scarpia was judged “a brilliantly vigorous and aggressive impersonation,” by New York Times critic W. J. Henderson. Including the Met premiere, he sang the role an astounding 217 times with the company.

Right: Croatian soprano Milka Ternina, the Met’s first Tosca, was particularly admired for her Wagnerian interpretations. After four Met seasons, she was forced to retire for medical reasons, but she continued to teach. Renowned soprano Zinka Milanov was among her pupils.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

The highlight of tenor Giuseppe Cremonini’s relatively brief Met career was certainly the Tosca premiere in 1901. Of his performance, New York Times critic W. J. Henderson acidly wrote, “He might easily be more touching in the last act, but that would require some subtlety, of which he is quite innocent.”
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Giordano’s Fedora

Left: Lina Cavalieri, dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” by the press, attained celebrity more for her looks and multiple scandals than for her voice. Nevertheless, the Italian soprano’s place in Met history belies her short two-season career, during which she sang the title role of three important additions to the repertory: Giordano’s Fedora (her Met debut), Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Right: Probably the most beloved tenor in Met history, Enrico Caruso sang in every Opening Night but one from his debut in 1903 to his final season in 1920. He also created many roles in new works at the Met, including the lead tenor parts in Fedora, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Adriana Lecouvreur, and La Fanciulla del West.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Left: Umberto Giordano, composer of Fedora, also had the world premiere of his Madame Sans-Gêne given at the Met in 1915, but his most successful work, Andrea Chénier, reached the Met in 1921.
Photo: Herman Mishkin

Right: Arturo Vigna led the Italian and French wing of the Met repertory under the Heinrich Conried administration from 1903 to 1908.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Puccini’s Manon Lescaut

Act III of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in the production of 1912–13, set design by Mario Sala.
Photo: White Studio

Antonio Scotti sang the role of Lescaut in the Met premiere of Manon Lescaut. The Italian baritone also took lead roles in the first company performances of Fedora, Manon Lescaut, and Madama Butterfly.
Photo: Aimé Dupont

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

The Met’s first Cio-Cio-San and Suzuki were two American artists who were among the company’s biggest stars: soprano Geraldine Farrar and mezzo-soprano Louise Homer. Cio-Cio-San was Farrar’s favorite role, and she sang it 139 times with the company, more than anyone in Met history. The role of Suzuki was a rather minor one for a singer of Homer’s star status, and she only sang it seven times.
Photo: White Studio

The Met premiere of Madama Butterfly in 1907 was a resounding success, with the composer taking numerous bows before an enthusiastic audience. New York Times critic Richard Aldrich wrote, “Puccini has wrought his music into the very substance and spirit of the drama. It is his subtlest and most highly finished score.”

Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur

Left: American mezzo-soprano Josephine Jacoby sang the Princess of Bouillon in the Met premiere of Adriana Lecouvreur on Opening Night of the 1907–08 season. Her career with the company lasted only five years and comprised mostly supporting roles. After leaving the Met, Jacoby often sang in troupes performing Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in New York.
Photo: Herman Mishkin

Right: A scene from Act III of Adriana Lecouvreur in 1907. Photo: White Studio

Left: Conductor Rodolfo Ferrari made his Met debut with the company premiere of Adriana Lecouvreur in 1907. Though his Met career lasted only one season, he was prominent in Italy, where he led a number of world premieres, including that of Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz in 1891.
Photo: White Studio

Right: Composer Francesco Cilea is remembered today almost exclusively for Adriana Lecouvreur, although the exceptionally beautiful aria “È la solita storia del pastore” from his L’Arlesiana often appears on tenor recitals. The year 1907 also saw Cilea’s final opera, Gloria, premiere at La Scala under Arturo Toscanini’s baton.

Puccini’s Fanciulla del West

Presenting cowboys singing in Italian before an American audience posed a challenge for the creative team of La Fanciulla del West. But with a strong musical performance and David Belasco—whose play inspired the opera—directing the stage action, the premiere was well received.

Left: Already idolized by audiences, tenor Enrico Caruso added another triumph in the role of Dick Johnson. According to The New York Herald, “He acted it with naturalness,” and “vocally he was glorious.”
Photo: White Studio

Right: Czech dramatic soprano Emmy Destinn was the featured prima donna in many new operas during the early years of Giulio Gatti-Casazza’s management. As Minnie, she “earned new laurels both as singer and actress,” and “sang as she never had here before” (The New York Herald).
Photo: White Studio

Left: A poster announced the Met’s first world premiere using the title of Belasco’s familiar play with the actual Italian title underneath. The highly publicized event prompted the Met to charge doubled ticket prices, up to $10 a seat, while scalpers reportedly got as much as $150 per ticket.

Right: Arturo Toscanini was a prime mover in introducing new works to the Met. As a conductor, he was peerless. “Mr. Toscanini seemed to have poured all his artistic self into the conducting,” wrote The New York Herald. “His dramatic climaxes sent chills down the listener’s spine, while his tender moments melted the mood even of prosaic opera goers.”

Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini

Left: Based on a passage from Dante’s Inferno, Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini revolves around the fatal love of Francesca and Paolo, “Il bello.” The young Italian tenor Giovanni Martinelli was paired with New Zealander Frances Alda as the title couple, posed in this photo for their passionate Act III love duet.
Photo: White Studio

Right: Baritone Pasquale Amato appeared as Francesca’s brutal husband, Gianciotto, and tenor Angelo Badà was his depraved brother Malatestino. In the photo, Gianciotto attacks Malatestino, who reveals the lovers’ secret assignations.
Photo: White Studio

The set for Act I of Francesca da Rimini in 1916.
Photo: White Studio

Riccardo Zandonai composed sophisticated scores in a style influenced as much by Debussy and Strauss as by his verismo Italian contemporaries. The Met revived Francesca da Rimini in 1984 in a sumptuous production conducted by James Levine, with soprano Renata Scotto and tenor Plácido Domingo in the title roles.
Photo: Spadea

New Opera at the Met: Then and Now

Italian Opera