[V]
"EDGAR"
With his second work for the stage, Edgar—the libretto being by Fontana, the author of the opera-ballet Le Villi—Puccini adopts the designation of lyric drama. Edgar is in three acts, and with it the composer attained to the dignity of a first performance at the Scala, Milan. It saw the light on April 21, 1889, with the following cast, the conductor being Faccio:
| Edgar | Gabrielesco. |
| Gualtiero | Marini. |
| Frank | Magini Coletti. |
| Fidelia | Aurelia Catareo. |
| Tigrana | Romeida Pantaleone. |
The vocal score was not published by Ricordi until 1905.
The theme of the drama is the familiar one of a man tempted by passion, who swerves from the "strait and narrow path," and who afterwards makes atonement. In the case of our hero, Edgar, the atonement comes too late, and the end, as in Carmen—which in general dramatic outline may be called the foremost if not the first operatic exploitation of the idea—is Tragedy.
PUCCINI IN HIS STUDY AT TORRE DEL LAGO
In front of his book Fontana places a foreword to the effect that we are all Edgars, because fate brings to each of us love and death. He winds up with a moral statement, true if trite, that it is wrong to let ourselves be dragged away from pure love to mere sensual passion.