54. Mentìa l'avviso

The composition sets to music a scene from Felice Romani’s melodrama La Solitaria delle Asturie ossia La Spagna ricuperata. Romani (1788–1865) was the librettist of numerous operas by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and many others. The parts requiring music for the melodrama itself have frequently been set to music since 1838 (for further details, see Kaye 1987).
As confirmed by the manuscripts, this composition was required for Puccini’s final examination at the Milan Conservatory. The autograph annotations in 54.A.1 prove that it was a homework assignment. It was probably already begun in the evening of 10 June 1883 and finished the following night. The definitive version (54.B.1) was certainly written out immediately upon completion for presentation to the board of examiners. The existence of the lithographed copies in the Milan Conservatory library is remarkable, suggesting that the conservatory itself considered publishing the work.
Often, the indication “Ideale” on the first page of 54.A.1 has been misinterpreted in the literature about Puccini as the title of one of his compositions. However, as reported in Kaye 1987 (p. 33), “ideale” actually signifies the examination category of a freestyle form of composition. Furthermore, despite clear wording in the autograph manuscripts — and probably due to the copyist’s error in 54.C.1
— the first words of the text have often incorrectly been spelled and even sung as “Menti all’avviso”.
The presence of the autograph indication “violini 2^a volta col canto sempre” in 54.A.1 substantiates the possibility mentioned by Magri and Kaye that Puccini at least considered orchestrating the accompaniment.
The theme of the brief aria (from bar 83 on) was reused by Puccini some years later for Des Grieux’s aria, “Donna non vidi mai”, in Act 1 of Manon Lescaut (64).