FRIENDS OF BOHEME with Alessio Boni

In the heart of the fervent Italian musical scene of the 19th century, two young talents, Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, portrayed on this occasion by Alessio Boni and Marcello Prayer met at the conservatory, giving rise to a friendship that would mark the history of Italian music. In the year of Puccini’s celebrations, this reading explores the deep bond between Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, from humble origins to worldwide success, revealing to the public their poetics, personal lives, victories, and challenges that characterized their careers. Pietro and Giacomo were also, like the protagonists of Puccini’s most famous opera, “Friends of Bohème”, two young artists with a great desire to make music, and their bohemian lifestyle was lived in Milan. Here, a strong and fraternal friendship was born between the two. The young musicians, favorite pupils of Maestro Ponchielli, both in precarious economic conditions, shared the same room in a modest apartment on the top floor for a long period. They shared meals, study hours, and together they bought Wagner and Boito’s scores to study them. It was Pietro who organized a fundraiser for Giacomo to stage, in 1884, the opera “Le Villi”, the first operatic composition that no impresario wanted to perform. It was Pietro who stayed behind the scenes throughout the performance to be among the first to embrace his friend at the end. So in 1890, after the premiere of “Cavalleria”, the first congratulatory telegram received by Pietro was from his friend Giacomo. Those times always remained vivid in Mascagni’s memory, even after achieving fame. It was he who wrote a desperate letter on November 27, 1924, from Vienna to Adriano Belli, a music journalist, for the death of his friend Giacomo. In 1930, with Forzano, Mascagni inaugurated the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, conducting “La Boheme” in honor of his friend. This reading celebrates this extraordinary friendship, emphasizing the strength of a bond that has overcome challenges, nourishing creativity and mutual inspiration. The pages of Italian music history are enriched by this epic symphony of friendship that has immortalized the names of Mascagni and Puccini in the world of music.