Giacomo Puccini

Le Villi

What is being presented here is the piano vocal score of Le Villi, Giacomo Puccini's first stage work, the full score of which was published by Casa Ricordi (NR 141755) in 2020. The premiere of Le Villi took place at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 27 December 1884, and was followed by a Milanese performance at Teatro alla Scala on 24 January 1885: both productions were quite well received by critics and public alike.

The critical edition by Martin Deasy is based on the autograph score that Puccini initially prepared for the one-act version (Willis), and later modified for the two-act, revised version (Villi). Pursuing a groundbreaking philological approach, the editor has, furthermore, taken into proper consideration the contemporaneous printed editions of the piano vocal score, which constitute, in his view, the principal collateral sources, if one is to consider the particular genesis of this work. For it is certain that Puccini, upon entering the Sonzogno competition, submitted a score of Willis that lacked proper orchestration in a few pages and displayed, above all, incomplete vocal lines. However, he also provided a manuscript reduction for piano and vocal score (now lost, except for the final Number of Willis) that was undoubtedly more detailed, as far as the vocal lines were concerned. The editor demonstrates that the vocal material realized for the first performance of Willis was not derived from the autograph score, but from the lost score reduction. The latter also served as the basis for the preparation of Ricordi's printed edition of the piano vocal score.