33. Ah! Se potesse

According to Morini, this song was discovered by a certain Vittorio Giuliani and begins with the lines “Ah! se potesse / a nuova vita un fiore / rinascer sul suo stelo / e favellar d’amore / si! quel ch’io feci / ancor faria per te.” The poet is unknown.
The missing autograph is said to consist of 4 pages, dated “Lucca 15 – 7 – 1882”. At one time the mansucript was reported to have been the property of Albina Del Panta († 1978), who obtained it from her mother Ramelde Franceschini (Puccini’s sister). In the accessible parts of Albina Del Panta’s now scattered estate, the manuscript does not exist.
The presumed date seems doubtful because on the same day (15 July 1882) the first performance of Puccini’s Preludio sinfonico took place at the Milan Conservatory (see 32). It is very unlikely that Puccini was not present at that performance and at the rehearsals in the preceeding days. So how could he have dated a manuscript in Lucca the same day? (The train from Lucca to Milan took at least five hours, and the concert began at two o’clock in the afternoon.)