Giovanni Rosadi, “antico amico” di Giacomo Puccini

Abstract

The essay aims to illustrate the “ancient” friendship between Giovanni Rosadi and Giacomo Puccini, which began in their early teens and lasted uninterrupted until the year of Puccini’s death. Valuable evidence can be found in the correspondence between the two. In addition to distant memories, the two were also linked by their relationship with their hometown, from which they lived more or less distant.

An exchange of correspondence from 1911 provides an opportunity to examine one of Rosadi’s many legislative initiatives, that of the reform of the copyright law. Rosadi had proposed a reduction of the period of protection on musical works to only ten years. Puccini had also publicly expressed his strong dissent on the matter, joining the choral reaction of composers that had found wide space in the press.

The episode did not interrupt the correspondence or break the friendship: Puccini’s last letter to Rosadi, written on 30 October 1924, a few days before he departed for Brussels, bears witness to this.