Succeeding Puccini: The Operatic Career of Italo Montemezzi, 1875-1952

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth, this first critical biography of Italo Montemezzi (1875-1952) offers fascinating new insights into the life and work of an important opera composer, seventeen years younger than Puccini, who became internationally famous with L'amore dei tre re (1913). From 1905, when he was signed up by Puccini's publisher, Casa Ricordi, Montemezzi was often seen as Puccini's heir apparent. Inspired most of all by late Verdi, and by Wagner's works, Montemezzi...