Luigi Mancinelli, Giulio Ricordi y Francesco Tamagno, figuras fundamentales en la recepción del primer Puccini en España: el estreno de Edgar en el Teatro Real (1892)

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) only travelled to Spain once. This trip took place during the months of February and March 1892, when he came to Madrid to supervise the rehearsals of Edgar and attend its subsequent premiere at the Teatro Real. Unlike Giuseppe Verdi years earlier, Puccini barely had time to visit other Spanish cities. The rehearsals took up all of his time and, after the premiere, he quickly returned to Milan. Edgar was Puccini’s first opera to be premiered outside Italy, hence its importance for understanding the composer’s reception abroad and particularly in Spain. This article thus seeks to examine the premiere of Puccini’s first opera in Spain, the reception of the work and the Italian composer in Madrid, as well as his visit to the city.