Puccini’s Adagetto for small orchestra (without trumpets, trombones, and timpani) was probably written in the early 1880s while the composer was still a student in Milan. A few years later he reused the work’s theme in his opera Edgar, where it appears in Act 3 during Fidelia’s aria “Addio, mio dolce amor” as she laments Edgar's supposed death.

This touching piece is now available as a separate edition from Volume II.1 of the Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Giacomo Puccini (Carus 56.002) ...