Puccini wrote this hymn to the Virgin Mary around the time of his first

opera, and, as he so often did, reworked some of the melodic themes of

a song into his opera. (For example, Chrysanthemums and Sole e amor

both reappear in La Boheme.

The text of the hymn is in Italian, except for the line "Salve Regina, "

which is in Latin. The author, Antonio Ghislanzoni, published it in a

collection of song texts in 1882, and Puccini set it to music fairly

recently thereafter.

This hymn is much more like an art song or earlier church music than most

of Puccini's later music. It makes more extensive use of ornamentation,

such as grace notes, and the melody is more elusive than those found in

most of his later operatic works. However, the meditative organ part

after the first two verses does give a hint of the strongly atmospheric

orchestral music that Puccini would later compose.

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