Sadly, there is little or none of Puccini's later music on any format
of music roll. I guess it just hadn't made it's way into the public
consciousness by the time roll production ceased.
Giacomo Puccini (1857-1925) wrote 12 operas, and little else. He was
by far the most financially successful composer of his time, and was the
first composer to earn more from audio recordings than from sheet music
sales or performance royalties. Most of his arias are just the right
length to fit snugly onto a Phonograph cylinder or disc. Since his
death, his popularity has continued to rise.
The three operas of his middle period (La Boheme, 1896, Tosca, 1900,
and Madame Butterfly, 1904) are well represented on roll, on just about
all formats but the later works, although revered now (The Girl of the
Golden West, 1910, La Rondine, 1916, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and
Gianni Schicci, 1918, and Turandot, 1926, incomplete at his death)
are not, as far as I know, represented at all (though I have a nagging
feeling that I have seen reference to a 65-note roll of selections from
The Girl of the Golden West). This is all the more surprising as The
Girl of the Golden West, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicci
were all premiered at the Met in New York.
There is an interesting situation regarding Puccini, his opera Tosca,
and the 1920 Al Jolson song "Avalon" (written by Al Jolson, Buddy
DeSylva and Vincent Rose). The tune's opening melody resembles the
main theme of the tenor aria "E lucevan le stelle" from the opera
Tosca, but in the major key. Puccini's publishers, Ricordi, sued
the song's composers in 1921 for use of the melody, and were awarded
$25,000 and all subsequent royalties of the song by the court!
The phenomenal popularity of Nessun Dorma is fairly recent, since the
1980s, and has a lot to do with Football and Pavarotti. A few years
ago I made an arrangement of Nessun Dorma for 58-note Orchestrelle
Roll, a few copies of which were sold by Kevin McElhone in the UK.
Best wishes from the UK,
Rowland Lee
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