Celle – Monsagrati The house of the Puccinis, Celle The house of the Puccinis, Celle The great-grandfather of Giacomo Puccini, who had the same name, was born in Celle on 26 January 1712. After losing his father, the first Giacomo had moved to Lucca in 1719 with his mother Isabella Maria Giusti and his brother (later Rev.) Michele, and had set his roots in Lucca, giving rise to the glorious dynasty. But property and family memories remained in Celle, never forgotten from generation to generation, and invigorated by the holiday periods, mostly in Autumn, after the festival of the Holy Cross in Lucca. Giacomo also spent holiday periods in Celle with his brothers, but after the death of his father Michele (1864) his mother Albina was forced to sell properties one after the other. Perhaps the link with his place of origin would have been lost had it not been for Ramelde, the most beloved among the sisters: her husband Raffaello Franceschini bought a house, where their daughters, especially Alba and Nelda, were to continue to spend their holidays until the beginning of the 1970s. On 26 October 1924, a few days before his departure for Brussels, Celle welcomed Puccini with a great celebration with seventeen triumphal arches, which bore the titles of the operas, from the bridge of Pedogna to the houses of Fondo al Cantone, along the mule track, from Acqua gelata to the entrance of the village, with a triumph of coloured flags, up to the house of his ancestors, where a plaque was unveiled. TO REMEMBER HE WHO IN THIS HOUSE LEGACY OF HIS FATHERS FREQUENTLY LIVED GIACOMO PUCCINI CELEBRATED AUTHOR OF IMMORTAL MUSIC THE FASCIST TOWN OF PESCAGLIA DECREED AND LAID XXVI OCTOBER MCMXXIV. In 1974, the ancestral home became a museum, after purchase and preparation by the Associazione Lucchesi nel Mondo. Villa Mansi, Monsagrati Villa Mansi, Monsagrati In 1898, Puccini was looking – as was his habit – for a villa to spend the Summer, and took into account the possibility of some villas in Mutigliano, but then chose the Villa Mansi di Monsagrati where, between July and September, he composed part of Act I and II of Tosca and orchestrated almost the entire Act I (many nearby residents remembered that they had learned to love the melodies of Tosca before it went on stage!). On 31 July he wrote to Giulio Ricordi: “I am in a bad, hateful location, between woods and pine trees where one is suffocated for a view, barred by mountains and illuminated by the darts of the sun, without a bit of wind. The evening, however, is delightful, and the night, lovely … I hope to stay here until October (I say hopefully, because I do not know if I can resist, not so much for me, but for my family who are really sacrificed”. A plaque commemorates this stay: IN THIS VILLA IN THE SUMMER OF 1898 GIACOMO PUCCINI GUEST OF THE MARQUIS RAFFAELLO MANSI LIVED AND COMPOSED THE FIRST ACT OF TOSCA FOR ART IS SUBSTANTIATED WITH VARIOUS BEAUTIES. THE HIDDEN HARMONY OF THESE ROMANTIC SLOPES RANG OUT MAYBE IN THE MIND AND HEART OF THE MAESTRO WITH NOTES OF PASSION AND GAVE TO THE WINGS OF THIS MASTERPIECE THE FIRST TREMOURS FOR ITS IMMORTAL FLIGHT. R.SARDI
