What are some reasons you like or dislike Puccini?
I check the first box. I have been a Pucciniphile since I was 15. Reason number one: Because he managed to solve an age-old dilemma. The audience likes melodies, but a steady stream of melodies could get tiresome. Some opera composers alternated melodies with dry recitatives. Other opera composers gave the audience a steady stream of melodies anyway. Puccini had creative ways of resolving this dilemma. He might write an orchestral motif, such as the well-known Scarpia motif. Or he might make a motif out of one of the vocal lines (“Mi chiamano Mimi,” “Manon Lescaut mi chiamo.”) Or he might write an orchestral melody, as in the card scene in La Fanciulla. Reason number two: Because he is creative in writing accompaniments for his melodies. There is very little of Verdi’s rink-chink-chink’s or Bellini’s arpeggio’s. Reason number three: Because he shows immunity to hexadecaphilia (addiction to 16-measure melodies). One would expect nice, neat, square melodies in La Rondine, since Puccini i
