Giacomo Puccini | Messa di Gloria

We all know Puccini as the great master of post-Verdi Italian opera, who gave the world such immortal works as Madame Butterfly, La Bohème, Tosca and Turandot. But seldom do we hear his youthful pieces, some of which were so poorly notated that publishers rejected them as illegible.

One such creation is his Mass for Four Voices and Orchestra, which was first performed in the town of Lucca in 1880 when Puccini was barely 22, then more or less forgotten. It wasn’t until 1951 that the piece was renamed Messa di Gloria in celebration of the march from the Gloria movement and given its rightful place in concert halls and on recordings.

“The fact that it was originally considered ‘a little theatrical’ in the manner of so much 19th-century Italian church music has clearly done it no harm,’’ notes Conrad Wilson in his 1997 biography on the composer.

The work is patchwork of musical styles that range from Palestrina to Verdi and unfolds in five movements: Kyrie (Lord have mercy), Gloria (Glory be to thee), Credo (I believe in God the father), Sanctus (Holy, holy, holy), and Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). Its character is in the mold of traditional church music but with the lyrical expressiveness of opera, and the lengthy second movement includes no less than nine contrasting sections. The Mass would be the last major piece of religious music Puccini would write, as he devoted himself to the stage works that continue to be performed in every opera house around the world.

Program notes by Kurt Loft, former music critic for the Tampa Tribune who has covered the arts for more than 40 years. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he lives in St. Petersburg.