Le Willis

Here, appearing for the first time, is the piano vocal score of Le Willis, Giacomo Puccini’s first stage work, whose full score remained unpublished until 2020, when it was issued by Casa Ricordi (NR 139546). The critical edition by Martin Deasy is based, as far as the first six Numbers are concerned, on the autograph score that Puccini reutilized for composing Le Villi. The autograph pages incorporating the final Number – pages that were later removed, in order to make space for the new material produced for Le Villi– are also proposed as the principal text. Pursuing an innovative philological approach, the editor has, furthermore, taken into due consideration the contemporaneous printed editions of the piano vocal score, on the assumption that they constitute the principal collateral sources, if one considers 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 proves that the vocal material produced for the first performance of Willis was not copied 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.