Mitch Friedfeld wrote:

>Sigh.  One of my musical heroes, Puccini, seems to have been a person
>with not a few less than admirable qualities.  Still, it's difficult
>to define "undisciplined and shiftless." I guess you have to ignore the
>unfaithfulness to his wife, the obvious self-centeredness, and so forth.
>Maybe the most prominent example was his duplicity around the libretto of
>Tosca.  He convinced a rival -- who had the rights to it -- that it was not
>viable.

Franchietti.  Puccini sent Illica and Ricordi to convince F that the
subject was too violent, politically incorrect, etc.  Franchietti gave
in and Puccini got the rights from Sardou the next day.

He also pulled a shot of sorts with La Boheme.  When Puccini announced he
was going to write it, Leoncavallo protested that he had already thought of
the idea, had engaged artists, etc.  (I think Puccini had also dismissed
Leoncavallo from the project of producing a libretto for Manon Lescaut,
too.) Anyway, Puccini said, fine, we'll have a contest to see whose Boheme
is better.

We all know who won.

Roger Hecht