Abstract
Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss led the music market of the early twentieth century, continuing the Italian-German dichotomy represented by Verdi and Wagner. Starting their professional life at the peak of the nationalist movements (Italy had been created in 1870 and Germany in 1871), both earned important incomes from their composing activities, Puccini basically from opera and Strauss from conducting and from his symphonic and operatic compositions. The significant amount of money that Puccini earned allowed him to live in luxury. Strauss, who lived more modestly, was considered a money grubber, always worried about his financial situation, especially after the WWII. This chapter study the incomes of both composers who were also among the first to get revenues from new technologies, such as the gramophone.
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Notes
- 1.
For Richard Strauss in Vienna, see Wagner-Trenkwitz, 1999.
- 2.
Apparently, in 1923, the Viareggio Fascist party made Puccini an honorary member and sent him a membership card. Puccini also held two meetings in November and December 1923 with Mussolini in order to seek support for the creation of a national theatre in Viareggio.
- 3.
It should be noted that he celebrated his 80th birthday conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
- 4.
It was agreed that this amount would not be received in full: 20,000 lire in 20 monthly instalments of 1,000 lire; 30,000 lire in instalments of 6,000 lire after every 10 performances (variable) and the remaining 20,000 lire upon delivery of the score. In addition, it was stipulated that Puccini would be received 35% of the theater's income (Schickling 2007, p. 210).
- 5.
There even exist a short recording of Puccini in his own voice giving a farewell speech in New York.
- 6.
Curiously Puccini had for a while also considered to write an opera based on this famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes. And Strauss later discussed with Stefan Zweig the possibility of writing together an opera based on another noted Spanish work, La Celestina.
- 7.
Hence, the press would later be able to announce sensationally that: “The contract between Richard Strauss and his publisher Adolf Fürstner has been concluded. Adolf Fürstner has paid the amount of 50,000 dollars for the royalties on the score of the new opera. This fee is the highest ever paid for an opera or a theatre play” (Panofsky, 1988, p. 175).
- 8.
Strauss signed a ten-year contract as conductor in Berlin for which he would receive 18,000 marks for the first three years and 20,000 marks from the fourth year onwards, with two months’ holiday in summer and one month in winter (Panofsky 1988, p. 52).
- 9.
In addition to the cost of maintaining the vehicles, which was significantly higher than today´s, there was also to add the salary of the driver, as Puccini did not particularly like to drive.
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Galindo-Martín, MÁ., Méndez-Picazo, MT., Baumert, T. (2023). Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss: The Economics of Music Up to the Dawn of Fascism. In: Baumert, T., Cabrillo, F. (eds) On Music, Money and Markets. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43226-2_10
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