Concerto de Natal by Puccini, št 22 dec 2022, Od (2022/2022), Dirigent Antonio Pirolli, Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite, Almada, Portugal

Messa di Gloria is the apocryphal title by which a Mass by Giacomo Puccini for orchestra, 4-voice choir and soloists is now universally known, composed and premiered in 1880 in Lucca, the composer's birthplace. Written in his youth, the work emerged as an exercise to obtain a diploma at the Instituto Musicale Luigi Boccherini in his city, the institution where the first world performance took place. Parts of the Mass (the «Credo», for example) had already been written and thought of as autonomous compositions. Some of his music would also be reused in early operas, such as Manon Lescaut («Agnus Dei») or Edgar («Kyrie»). Despite the good reception it received at its premiere, the work would almost fall into oblivion for more than half a century and would only be presented again in 1952. The cause of this strange indifference, at a time when Puccini's lyrical work was one of the most loved and heard in the world, perhaps it was the fact that none of the solo voices were female.