Giulio Ricordi

So the most traditional source that you're always going to go to to do any kind of serious edition is usually the composer's manuscript.

Um, and with La Rondine, that was actually a really fascinating experience because La Rondine was the only opera Puccini wrote that wasn't published by Casa Ricordi.

Um, it was published by Casa Sonzogno, the big publishing rival-

The rival.

Exactly

... famously the rival.

Um, and I think for a lot of time there was this idea floating around that the reason this happened was because Ricordi didn't like La Rondine, which even if you, you know, you start to do a little bit of research, doesn't make any sense, not least because actually, um, Giulio Ricordi, who was, you know, the, one, one of the huge names of Ricordi, was actually an operetta composer in his spare time, so he loved operetta.

Um, so there was a history of operetta definitely within the Ricordi firm.