Torre del Lago presents the correspondence between Ferruccio Pagni and Giacomo Puccini

On Saturday, July 27, theAuditorium Simonetta Puccini in Torre del Lago will host the presentation of the volume Caro Ferro. Il carteggio tra Ferruccio Pagni e Giacomo Puccini nell’Archivio di Torre del Lago, edited by Francesca Degiorgio and published by Ricordi in the “Carteggi” series, which publishes the documents preserved in thehistorical archives of the Villa Museo. Francesco Cesari, musicologist, and Daniele Galleni, art historian, will present the book and recount the relationship between composer Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 1858 - Brussels, 1924), painter Ferruccio Pagni (Livorno, 1866 - Torre del Lago, 1935) and the other artists who animated the cultural life of Torre del Lago. Manuel Rossi, scientific director of the Simonetta Puccini Foundation, will coordinate and the curator will speak.

Ferruccio Pagni, a Leghorn painter who trained at the “school” of Giovanni Fattori (Leghorn, 1825 - Florence, 1908), was an exponent of the group of artists who settled on the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli and came to be known as the "Painters of the Lake." Pagni landed there in 1890, at the age of twenty-four, and found a particularly stimulating context there, suited to his bohemian personality and able to offer him the right artistic inspiration. During that same period Giacomo Puccini retired to Torre del Lago to work in complete tranquility on the composition of Manon Lescaut, and here he formed friendly relations with the circle of painters with whom he loved to spend cheerful evenings in the company of.

His correspondence with Pagni, presented in the volume for the first time, had begun in 1891, at the time when they had become acquainted. When the friendly atmosphere that characterized those cherished places began to change, some relations deteriorated and the bond with Pagni cooled. However, correspondence became regular again when the painter returned from Argentina, where he had moved to and founded an Academy of Fine Arts, becoming a professor of drawing and painting.

In the documentation left by Puccini and preserved in the Torre del Lago Archives, the correspondences are of particular value: the epistolary network he weaved with friends, relatives and collaborators constitutes a good testimony for the reconstruction of his life and the creative process linked to his works, but it also gives back a more everyday and confidential cross-section of the artist and his correspondents, often shedding light on unpublished aspects of their intimate life and character. The “Carteggi” series was created precisely to publish documents from Puccini’s most important and significant interlocutors.

Torre del Lago presents the correspondence between Ferruccio Pagni and Giacomo Puccini

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