Puccini was a very sociable man, quote often putting this before his composing.\u00a0 Even when he was working hard, he maintained an active social life:<\/p>\n
With the opening of the 1894-1895 season not far way, Puccini began steady work on La Boh\u00e8me<\/span> in Torre.\u00a0 But he also needed a place to relax, so his “second home” became a caf\u00e9 that was housed in a shack near the lake.\u00a0 Patched together out of slab timbers and scrap lumber, it was roofed with marsh hay.\u00a0 Two sides had large panels that could be opened in the summer for ventilation.\u00a0 The proprietor, Giovanni Gragnani, was nicknamed Blackbird Legs, Stinchi di merlo.\u00a0 He served wine, bread, salami, and other salted meets, and let the local artists, peasants, and fisherman play scopa and briscola, among other legal and illegal card games.\u00a0 Crude practical jokes became the daily fare.\u00a0 After Gragnani departed Torre for Brazil, he left behind a relative, Arnaldo, who later helped Puccini with little errands.\u00a0 In 1896 the caf\u00e9 was christened the Club la Boh\u00e8me, and an absurd set of rules was drawn up by the composer and his friends.\u00a0 The members should swear and drink well, and eat better; the president could act as conciliator but had to stop the treasurer from collecting dues whenever possible; the treasurer was allowed to abscond with the money; the room should be lighted by an oil lamp, but candles could be used if the oil ran out; all legal gambling was prohibited; silence was forbidden; wise men were not allowed; and grouches, professional types, and a number of hapless [people were not admitted or, if there, could be thrown out by any member.<\/p>\n
Eventually, an old upright piano was installed, presumably for Puccini, but in truth the “members” only played card games, talked and drank.\u00a0 Puccini helped to furnish it in summer 1896, asking Clausetti to send him used items such as painted vases, blinds and wall hangings or rugs.\u00a0 Early and late, Puccini fled to it, using it as a source of refuge from the problems he had at home.\u00a0 Above all Club La Boh\u00e8me became recognized as his headquarters, a place where he met neighbors and treated them as equals, something the much more reserved Verdi never did in Sant’Agata.\u00a0 Puccini was always a man of the people, freely available during hsi visits to Gragnani’s bar, and later, the Club La Boh\u00e8me.\u00a0 Because he always composed at night, he would spend whole days at the club, meeting almost everyone in that tiny community.\u00a0 According to many accounts, he also took several club members at home with him at night.\u00a0 They chatted and played cards while he worked.\u00a0 They repaid him with loyalty and even with love.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (2002) Puccini: A Biography.\u00a0 Boston: Northeaston University Press, p.96-97.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Puccini was a very sociable man, quote often putting this before his composing.\u00a0 Even when he was working hard, he maintained an active social life: With the opening of the 1894-1895 season not far way, Puccini began steady work on La Boh\u00e8me in Torre.\u00a0 But he also needed a place to relax, so his “second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551,701],"tags":[1289,608],"class_list":["post-4944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personalities-of-the-musicians","category-works","tag-la-boheme","tag-puccini"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4945,"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions\/4945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedgebillmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}