Puccini is considered to be the last big figure in the field of Italian opera. The composer's extraordinary talent has been fully demonstrated in his opera works, and the excellence and uniqueness of his opera art have been recognized by later generations. . Puccini's full name is very long - Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Second Maria Puccini (Giacomo Atonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini), who was born in Lucca, Italy on December 22, 1858. He died in Brussels, Belgium on November 29, 1924, at the age of 66. Puccini was born into a musical family that has been passed down for five generations. His father was a choir conductor and organist. However, due to his father's early death, he completed his studies under the hard training of his mother. At the age of 14, he entered the Lucca Music School to study harmony and counterpoint with Angeloni, and was later employed as choir leader and organist in a village church. He lived in poverty. When he was 17 years old, he walked 13 miles to Pisa to listen to Verdi's opera "Aida". This opera moved him so much that he determined to become an opera composer. With the support of Queen Margaret, Puccini entered the Milan Conservatory of Music in 1880 and studied composition for three years with composers Bazzini and Ponchielli. All this seemed to come a little late, but under Puccini's hard work began the three periods of his opera creation.

In the early days of Puccini's opera creation, he showed his unique insights into the art of opera. Although he also encountered difficulties and setbacks, he persisted in creating as always, laying the foundation for future opera achievements. a solid foundation. The creation of works during this period mainly followed the style of traditional opera creation, using myths, legends, fables and other imaginary stories as themes, coupled with Puccini's unique musical creation, the script would be paired with "evocative" music as soon as it was written by him. The melody "will make me cry anytime I hear it" makes the characters vivid, detailed and truly touching.

Puccini's first opera "Dance with the Monsters" was based on the folklore of Southeast Europe. After it was performed in Milan in 1884, it immediately received an order from Teatro alla Scala, which brought the composer Comes career success and financial income. But unfortunately, his second opera "Edgar" failed miserably, and his mother's death brought a great blow to him. After three years of ideological struggle, he wrote the opera "Manon Lescaut", using bright, strong and powerful colors to express it in music. Such as the parallel use of fifths, the sound pattern of the ostinato, the melodious cantabile melody enhanced by unison string instruments, and small but incisive motives, all can be found in this opera. A newspaper at the time commented: "This can be called a work of genius." He realized his own power. He was the master of art - the creator and perfecter. This opera created the beginning of his success. opportunity. It seems that the difficulties faced by Puccini were an inspiration to him from the beginning. His peculiar nature of challenging obstacles and desperate situations is reflected in his creations; in the requirements for script writers , and constantly revealed his uncompromising and intolerant side. It is precisely because of these characteristics that he achieved success in the future and created the excellence and uniqueness of his operatic art. From then on, Puccini entered a period of creative maturity and established his reputation at home and abroad.

During the mature period of Puccini's creation, he created three of the most successful works in his life. Puccini himself was a romantic and handsome man. There were countless women who loved the young composer at that time. Although Puccini was suspected of being a playboy, he always loved his wife deeply. What's more interesting is that he opera The protagonists in the novel are all single-minded in love, and most of them are innocent women. This also establishes that his works of this period mainly feature innocent women as the heroines, and the music portrayal also mainly expresses the characteristics and sadness of women. This creative period was the most prosperous stage of realism, and Puccini stood out. His operas were often based on the fate and life of the bottom characters in real society, rather than pursuing the eternity and epicness of the subject matter; the protagonists in operas often It is not a tall and perfect hero, but a disadvantaged little person; opera music does not pursue the replication of real life sounds, but absorbs the advantages of romantic grand opera, focusing on portraying people's psychology and emotions and strengthening the dramatic effect of music. The expression of the process, and adding exotic touches from time to time to keep it fresh.

Puccini is not a real realist composer. His operas are not set in the "present tense" and many of them are in unusual environments. However, intensifying people's emotional state in realism is a very important feature of his works. Big features.

"La Bohème" (also known as "The Artist's Life"), created in 1896, describes the love tragedy of the embroiderer Mimi and the poet Rodolfo, and reflects the state of mind of the poor artists in the Latin Quarter of Paris. , which combines liveliness and melancholy, laughter and tears, is a deeply touching work. The two arias in the play, "Cold Little Hands" and "People Call Me Mimi" are the most famous. This work established his status as a master and was also a leap forward. In this work, he completely got rid of all external influences and spoke entirely in his own voice for the first time. "Tosca", created in 1900, is adapted from the original French tragedy. It is a sad and gloomy work. Among them, "Starlight", the farewell song to the world, has become Puccini's most famous and very famous work. A unique stroke of genius. In this work, he used cognitive motives more clearly than before. The introduction of the work, the three bluntly connected chords B, A-flat, and E, are the symbols of Spicapias. In this way, the chilling ghost of the police chief pervades the entire play from beginning to end. "Tosca" represents the pinnacle of Puccini's operatic art. "Madama Butterfly", which was created in 1904 and is popular around the world, describes a tragic love story between a geisha in Nagasaki, Japan and an American naval officer. The play directly uses seven folk songs such as "Edo Nihonbashi" and "Sakura" to exaggerate the Japanese sentiment in the music and try the exotic sentiment for the first time. There are countless exciting places in it, and they are wonderful. The symphonic prelude to the opera, a rapid fugue, is like an exquisite watercolor painting, bringing the audience into the charming and refreshing world of Japanese bamboo houses. It is Puccini's most wonderful flash of inspiration. "One Sunny Day" is the most famous aria in the play. These three operas have been popular in Europe and even the world for a long time. Puccini is not a truly realist composer. His operas are not set in the "present tense". Many of them are in unusual environments, but in The enhancement of people's emotional state in realism is indeed the biggest feature of his works of this period.

In the next 20 years, Puccini persisted in creating four operas, but none of them could surpass his previous artistic achievements. "Girl of the West" is an opera with a purely American theme. This work completely realized the composer's creative intention and incorporated elements of "modern music". Therefore, he consciously abandoned the sweet and cantabile melody and melodic scenes. In 1918, he created a one-act triptych with different tastes, namely "Sister Angelica", "The Jacket" and "Gianni Schicchi". "Sister Angelica" describes a completely unique musical picture. The strange static and depressive colors are all displayed in the music. The soprano's warm timbre is embedded in the soft and gorgeous orchestration, and the exotic colors of the harmony, The artistic style of the theme music melody sliding downwards, etc. The creation of "Coat" shows the truest and most outstanding Puccini: compact structure, meticulous character and scene portrayal. "Gianni Schicchi" is the "most Italian" work among his creations. The music is filled with the vitality and vitality of the Mediterranean region, exuding warm and lively emotions, a harsh music picture like military music, in which " "My Dear Dad" is its famous aria. There is also "Swallow", into which Puccini incorporated many of his philosophy of life. However, this is just an exploration in Puccini's creative process and has not become a repertoire in the world music scene. Puccini was depressed and depressed for most of the last twenty years of his life, but it was definitely not caused by changes in the field of music, but by a depressive nature that became more and more intense with age. , exhibiting a morbid fear of growing old. In his later creations, he kept swinging between intense creative impulse and "fatal indifference," making the choice of new opera themes increasingly difficult.

"Turandot" is Puccini's last opera, and it is also the opera most familiar to Chinese people. It is based on a Chinese-themed story compiled by Italian playwright Gozzi, recreating Puccini's glorious moments. This opera describes a beautiful but hard-hearted princess. In order to avenge the insult to her motherland by foreign invaders, she asked the foreign suitors to guess three riddles. If they failed to guess, she would be beheaded. However, she was eventually devoured by the Tatar prince. The story of Calaf's conquests.

Progress and regression, obsolescence and novelty are mixed in an amazing way throughout the opera, so it can be said to be a wonder in the history of opera. Novelty and progress are reflected in pure music. Its orchestration art and harmonic expansion have reached their peak. It mainly focuses on the use of Eastern melodies and harmonies. The use of pentatonic scale sequences disrupts the major and minor key systems. For example, in the sound of gongs and drums in the first scene, C minor and C flat major sounded at the same time. In the minister's trio "My Home is Far Away in Henan", there is the superposition of fourths, and dissonance and colorful orchestration are also used in many places. The simplification technique of musical language is used in this rich work. appears again and again. The portrayal of the characters in the play is also outstanding, strengthening the portrayal of the characters' psychology, especially the new character Liu'er. She is the counterpart to the proud, ruthless princess; the embodiment of affectionate, devoted love, juxtaposes the polar opposite image of the princess, and as the plot develops, both of them undergo fundamental transformations: Turandot transforms from a The cold, love-rejecting woman became a loving woman, while the gentle and submissive Liu Er became as tall as a hero at the moment of her death.

The composer composed five pentatonic melodies in this work, among which Liu'er's aria "Master, please listen to me!" 》 is one of them. It's about Liu'er begging Kalaf not to risk his life and expressing her love for him. This aria is sung in Adagio, G-flat major, and 4/4 time. The melody is beautiful and sad. The harmony is mainly based on Chinese national modes. There is no clear direction of major or minor keys. When singing, you should pay attention to the fact that it is in a sad mood. The tone exaggerates the atmosphere, telling how painful she is from the first sentence, and her heart is broken, especially this sentence

It needs to be sung in a real and touching way, truly expressing Liu'er's inner emotions . The slowness that followed described Calaf's status in Liu'er's heart, and also expressed Liu'er's reluctance to give up, showing a kind of anxiety and how she hoped she could convince her master. "Your name is hope, your name is strength!" How convincing, showing dependence on him. Don't be stiff or too soft when singing, just express the reluctance and despair in your heart. These two sentences use repetition and modeling techniques in the melody, but they should be distinguished when singing and have different expressions of affection. The climax of the work is composed of a big jump of several notes.

The theme is finally emphasized and ends on B flat. The last few high notes cannot be passed over in a flash, they must be faithful to the original score and maintain (Lento). This aria seems simple, but it takes effort to really master it. Another aria by Calaf, "Nessun Dorma" is also a representative pentatonic melody. It uses the tune of the Chinese Jiangsu folk song "Jasmine" to give the melody a unique style. It deeply expresses Calaf's longing for the princess and his strong confidence in winning love:

"Turandot" makes people realize that Puccini's artistic energy is far from exhausted, and people can almost get it The impression is that this work marks the beginning of a completely new creative phase. Looking at his life, he only wrote twelve operas. However, except for the first two, the other ten were frequently performed and popular all over the world during his lifetime and after his death. In the history of opera, It's hard to beat him. That such a small number of works can occupy such an important position on the world's opera stage has to make us think about what kind of talent Puccini has and what unique artistic charm his opera art has. Puccini had the special ability to actively absorb and integrate the musical languages ??and techniques of other musicians. He was sharp-minded and innovative, integrating realism and romanticism. He boldly combined the free melodies of Italian tradition with the elements of modern music. The new elements are combined to create orchestral music that is rich in color, delicate and graceful. His works are compact in plot, attractive to the audience, and have strong shocking power. Therefore, the melody of his opera is smooth and intimate, and he uses a unique lyrical technique to delicately depict the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of the world. It is full of touching dramatic effects and makes people cry. He also wrote some exotic works from time to time, which made his music always fresh. Bernard Shaw called it "the direct successor of Verdi's creative tradition." But I think he is not only the best successor of Italian opera since Verdi, but also an opera giant who can be on par with him.

(Author’s unit: Department of Music, Hunan University of Science and Technology)

Editor in charge: Xiaofang