Scholarship on the operas of Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) has focused on one type of female character in the composer’s work, the so-called ;;Puccini heroine.” This female protagonist is said to be weak, fragile, and usually dies tragically as exemplified in characters like Mimì from La bohème (1896) and Madama Butterfly (1904). Yet the ;;Puccini heroine” does not fully encompass the range of female characters who clearly do not fit in this category, such as Turandot and Minnie from La fanciulla del West. The dominance of the ;;Puccini heroine” in musicology literature distorts our understanding of Puccini’s operas and in turn our view of Puccini as a composer. Puccini’s heroines are dynamic and multifaceted and often cannot be fully encapsulated by a single category. Rather than uphold a limiting and false typology, I introduce a different method that accommodates the inclusion of all Puccini’s heroines to analyze and understand them more fully. After studying plays and novels that were used as sources for the libretti, Puccini’s correspondences, artistic movements of realism, naturalism, and verismo, and other socio-historical evidences such as periodicals and newspapers, three character types emerge: the Sentimental Heroine, the Femme Fatale, and the New Woman. These types are based on female typologies historically represented during Puccini’s lifetime. The three types are not mutually exclusive; instead, they overlap one another, allowing for a character to encompass elements from more than one type. Another important aspect of this project is to show how music is used to characterize these three types. This analytical process will help revise the former understanding of Puccini as a composer of limited skills in creating female characters, who depicts stereotypical representations of women in the nineteenth century, and help modern singers and interpreters of Puccini’s operas develop deeper perspectives of these heroines.
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