Book Review: Puccini - His Life and Works

Oof. This week's book was a tough read. I find that books which lean quite heavily into academia can be tough to get through, and ‘Puccini: His Life and Works’ was definitely one of them. The writing was fine; I found some of the theories and evidence rather reaching, and the overall sentence structure was missing a few punctuation marks. But that isn't to say that Puccini wasn't an uninteresting person. He was, just not the way Julian Budden writes him.

Fair enough, I do think it a little cruel to say that Budden’s writing on Puccini is bad. It's not; I found that Budden rather likes his flair for the dramatic in his theories about Puccini’s works, just because there is a sub-dominant pedal in the base while a soprano character sings their swan song does not necessarily denote that the character is weak and represents the fragility of femininity, for example. You can read an awful lot into the music and how it represents character, timbre, a sense of setting and ideas. But music, being the subjective mistress that she is, is also vastly open to interpretation. So, while I did disagree with some of Budden’s interpretations, they were no less intriguing and made one think. Personally, I think the most successful of these interpretations came in La Boheme and the discussion of character - particularly with the female characters Mimi and Musetta. My least favourite came with Turandot and Madama Butterfly, but that is due to Puccini’s gross misunderstanding and respect for Asian cultures. Sure, you could argue the case for cultural appreciation, but subverting traditional Japanese folk tunes and using them as a foil to undermine the Japanese characters didn't exactly sing to my better nature.

Music aside, you do learn some very interesting titbits about Puccini and the circumstances in Itlay in which he was writing music. He enjoyed fame, the money and the women that came with it. I did not love that he was a raging misogynist, racist to Asian cultures, and not to mention a fascist. But Budden’s excuses for Puccini do bring up an important point - can you separate the artist from their work? Puccini, as I may have mentioned, was not a nice man. His various philandering ways got him into trouble, not only with his wife but also with the law, after one such dalliance committed suicide (thanks to his wife spreading a particularly lascivious rumour), he settled with the woman's family out of court. He also joined Mussolini’s Fascist party, not because he believed in their policies, but because he wanted a national award. However, Puccini’s music is excellent and is a staple for opera houses around the world - if I were to check The Met Opera programme or the Royal Opera House, I’d be willing to bet that there is a Puccini opera in there. His works are loved and will continue to be loved for generations to come regardless of the artist character.