Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s dream is about to become reality with the opening of a new outdoor music venue in Torre del Lago, reports Adrian Mourby
Summer is a time for open-air music festivals, and in Torre del Lago, on the shores of dreamy Lake Massaciuccoli, work is almost completed on Europe’s latest alfresco music venue, the second to stand on this site.
The whole thing was originally Giacomo Puccini’s idea. In 1924 the composer stood among the reeds of the lake and confided to a friend: “Io vado sempre qui davanti a poi con la barca vado a cacciare i beccacini. Ma na volta vorrei andare qui davanti ad ascoltare una mia opera all’aperto.” (“I always stand here so I can hunt snipe. But sometimes I’d like to stand here to listen to one of my operas in the open.”)
The lake was a favourite hunting ground of the composer. Here he wrote some of the most popular operas the world has ever known: La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. The new theatre, il Gran Teatro all’Aperto, stands opposite his house, Villa Puccini.
Giacomo Puccini was born 25km from Lake Massaciuccoli, in the old Roman garrison town of Lucca. In 1884 rumours erupted in the city that the young composer was having an affair with the wife of a friend, Narciso Gemignani. To spare his family the shame of this scandal, Puccini fled to the coast and holed up among the community of bohemian artists and fishermen who lived in the village of Torre del Lago on Lake Massaciuccoli. Here he worked on his music and, in due course, Gemignani’s wife Elvira left her husband and came with her daughter to join Puccini.
It was several more years before Puccini’s career took off, but following the success of Manon Lescaut in Turin (1893), he brought the family back to Torre del Lago, where he rented an old customs tower from the dukes of Parma. Later, after the success of La Boheme and Tosca, he redeveloped the tower as a villa and bought part of the lakeside and its hunting rights from Count Caproni.
In 1924 Galileo Chini, a designer who was working on the composer’s last opera, Turandot, was told of the maestro’s wish. He drew up plans for a great outdoor performing space, but this was never built. Soon it was all too late. Puccini had already been diagnosed with cancer of the throat and on 29 November 1924 he died after an operation in Brussels.
His body was brought back to Italy and entombed first in Milan, then in Villa Puccini, the little house where he had been so happy. Six years later, in 1930, librettist Giovacchino Forzano and composer Pietro Mascagni brought a mobile theatre to the village of Torre del Lago and a performance of La Boheme was given on the lakeside to honour the composer and his wishes.
From this a tradition gradually developed of performing Puccini’s operas in a piazza that was built out into the lake in front of Villa Puccini. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Festival Pucciniano got its own home, a theatre of 4,000 seats known as Teatro dei Quadramilia, designed by local chartered surveyor Adone Spadaccini.
Spadaccini was the son of Puccini’s mechanic, the man who had looked after the composer’s motorcars and the boat that he used to take out on Lake Massaciuccoli. The new theatre was a large, fan-shaped metal structure that could be constructed and taken down each summer.
Spadaccini built it on reclaimed land that could be accessed by a Japanese-style bridge across the little harbour west of Villa Puccini.
The first festival in the new theatre was held in 1967. Unfortunately the acoustics were never ideal as too much sound was lost into the skies. The lavatories were in portakabins and fire regulations soon dictated that certain seats were unsafe and the theatre shrank to be a Teatro dei 3,250.
Nevertheless, the magic of listening to Puccini’s music so close to where it was written, and with such a view of the lake, mitigated these problems. The festival became an annual fixture on the summer opera circuit. Many celebrated interpreters of Puccini – Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto and Ghena Dimotrova – sang in Torre del Lago.
By 1981 Spadaccini’s theatre was feeling its age and had rusted so badly that it couldn’t be taken down and reconstructed any more, so it was left up. A decision was taken to build a permanent structure that would one day replace it.
The fund-raising process was a long one. Rebuilding was repeatedly delayed, the theatre grew dilapidated, queues for the portakabin lavatories grew no shorter and acoustics didn’t improve, but audiences increased every year all the same. People came from all over the world because of the music and the setting.
Last year work finally began on the €17m theatre, which will sit in a new sculpture park, Parco della Musica di Giacomo Puccini. The old theatre was knocked down in just four days in November. Access will still be over the narrow harbour bridge, but the facilities will be substantially improved.
The New Great Open Air Theatre still faces down the lake, but it’s built of concrete faced with Pietra Sierra stone and wood laminate.
This time there will be only 3,200 seats, but from the top-most rows the audience will be able to see not just the performance down below, but the lake stretching towards Pisa, with the dome of the Baptistry and the famous leaning tower visible on a clear evening.
The new theatre will open formally on 15 June with a gala concert, conducted by Riccardo Chailly, that features extracts from Puccini’s Trittico and Turandot. The summer festival itself begins a month later on 11 July with a new production of Turandot. It will also feature the first Torre del Lago performance of Puccini’s little-known early opera Edgar as well as Tosca and La Boheme.
Summer of music
Festivals of fine music can be found all over Europe this year
International Weeks of Chamber Music
Italy
60km from Naples airport
1 July–12 September
www.ravelloarts.org
Evenings of trio, duets and solo performances hosted by the Ravello Concert Society at the Church of Saint Rosa in Conca dei Marini on the historic Amalfi coast.
Festival Jardins de Cap Roig
Spain
100km from Barcelona airport
July/August – TBC
www.festival.caproig.cat
Another stunning Mediterranean setting, Girona plays host to an eclectic mix of music. Last year Joan Baez and José Carreras rubbed shoulders with Elvis Costello and a performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Festival d’Aix en Provence
France 25km from Marseille airport
27 June – 23 July
www.festival-aix.com
One of Europe’s major music and arts festivals and some say the best. Always an operatic dream ticket, this year Aix offers two Mozart operas, Händel’s Belshazzar, Haydn’s L’Infedeltà Delusa and Wagner’s Siegfried.
Bregenz Festival Austria
120km from Zurich airport
23 July – 23 August
www.bregenzerfestspiele.com
One of the most spectacular festivals in Europe, Bregenz always makes an impact with its main stage performance, which takes place on a huge floating open-air stage built out over Lake Constance. This year features Puccini’s Tosca.
FR L’héritage de Puccini au bord du lac
Sur les rives du lac de rêve Massaciuccoli à Torre del Lago, les préparatifs de ce que sera le dernier lieu de concert d’opéra en plein air d’Europe touchent à leur fin.
Au départ, c’était une idée de Giacomo Puccini. En 1924 le compositeur se tenant au milieu des roseaux du lac confia à un ami: “Je me tiens souvent ici pour chasser la bécasse. Mais parfois j’aimerais y venir pour écouter l’un de mes opéras en plein air.”
Le designer Galileo Chini qui avait entendu le souhait du maître dessina des plans pour un espace de représentation extérieur, mais il ne fut jamais construit. On avait diagnostiqué un cancer chez Puccini qui mourut à Bruxelles le 29 novembre 1924.
En 1930, le compositeur Pietro Mascagni apporta un théâtre mobile à Torre del Lago où l’on donna une représentation de La Bohème selon les vœux du défunt compositeur. C’est ainsi que démarra la tradition de jouer les opéras de Puccini, sur une place construite sur le lac.
Ce n’est qu’à partir des années 1960 que le Festival Pucciniano disposa de son propre bâtiment, un lieu de concert de 4 000 places conçu par Adone Spadaccini, où l’on accédait par un pont de style japonais à la Madame Butterfly, au-dessus du petit port. Malheureusement l’acoustique n’était pas idéale, les toilettes n’étaient autres que des cabines portables et suite aux règles en matière d’incendie décrétant que certains sièges ne répondaient pas aux normes de sécurité, l’opéra se réduisit bien vite au format de Teatro dei 3250. Quoi qu’il en soit, le festival devint un rendez-vous annuel sur le circuit estival de l’opéra.
En 1981 le bâtiment d’Adone Spadaccini commençait à accuser la fatigue de l’âge et il fut décidé de le reconstruire. L’année dernière les travaux commencèrent pour bâtir une nouvelle salle estimée à €17m. L’accès se fera toujours par le pont étroit, mais les infrastructures seront totalement rénovées.
Le Nuovo Gran Teatro all’Aperto ouvrira le 15 juin avec un concert présentant des extraits du Trittico et Turandot de Puccini. Le festival d’été s’ouvrira le 11 juillet avec une nouvelle production de Turandot.
NL Puccini’s erfenis aan het meer
In Torre del Lago, aan het dromerige Massaciuccoli-meer, wordt de laatste hand gelegd aan Europa’s nieuwste openluchtopera.
Dit was oorspronkelijk een idee van Giacomo Puccini. Toen de componist in 1924 tussen het riet van dit meer stond, vertrouwde hij een vriend toe: ‘Ik sta hier altijd om op watersnip te jagen. Maar soms wil ik hier staan om in de openlucht naar een van mijn opera’s te luisteren.’
Designer Galileo Chini hoorde van de maestro’s wens en tekende plannen voor een openluchtopera, maar die werd nooit gebouwd. Puccini kreeg kanker en stierf op 29 november 1924 in Brussel.
In 1930 bracht componist Pietro Mascagni een mobiel theater naar Torre del Lago. La Bohème werd er opgevoerd als eerbetoon aan de wens van de componist. Hieruit groeide de traditie om Puccuni’s opera’s op te voeren op een piazza die in de richting van het meer werd uitgebreid.
Het Festival Pucciniano kreeg pas in de jaren ’60 een eigen onderkomen: een theater voor
4.000 toeschouwers ontworpen door Adone Spadaccini, dat werd betreden via een Japanse ‘Madame Butterfly’-brug door de kleine haven. De akoestiek was helaas niet ideaal, de toiletten waren ondergebracht in containers en volgens de brandvoorschriften waren bepaalde zitplaatsen onveilig. Het theater slonk al snel tot een Teatro dei 3250. Toch werd het festival een jaarlijkse zomerafspraak in het operacircuit.
Tegen 1981 begon Adone Spadaccini’s theater te bezwijken onder het gewicht van de jaren en werd besloten een plaatsvervanger te bouwen. Vorig jaar werd gestart met de bouw van het theater van 17 miljoen euro. De toegang verloopt nog steeds via de smalle brug, maar de faciliteiten zullen flink worden verbeterd.
Het Nuovo Gran Teatro all’Aperto opent zijn deuren op 15 juni met een concert met fragmenten uit Puccini’s Trittico en Turandot. Het zomerfestival begint op 11 juli met een nieuwe uitvoering van Turandot.
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