Rinuccio was sung by the Canadian tenor Edward Johnson, a future general manager of the Met. Johnson later recalled that, at the composer's request, he had dragged a mock-reluctant Puccini from the wings to acknowledge the house's applause. In 1919, Puccini visited London to discuss plans for the following year's Covent Garden premiere of . This took place on 18 June 1920; King George V and Queen Mary were present, and called Puccini to their box to give him their congratulations. With Toscanini not considered, Puccini hoped that Sir Thomas Beecham would conduct the premiere, but he declined and Gaetano Bavagnoli conducted. Once again, only was received with real warmth. Other early performances included the October 1920 production of in German, at the Vienna State Opera. In the years following the premiere, Puccini made modifications to the three operas, but required few. The principal change was to Rinuccio's arioso, , which was set in a higher pitch to take better advantage of the tenor voice. By 1920 Puccini was facing increasing pressure, not only from impresarios but also from his publishing firm, Casa Ricordi, to allow to be broken up and presented separately. Opera houses first wanted to omit , which had proven the least popular of the three, but some wished to omit as well. Puccini had left London confident that would gain a place in the Covent Garden repertoire, but soon learned that the opera house's director, Henry V. Higgins, had removed , feeling that the audience disliked it. In fact, Higgins would never stage it again. Puccini vociferously objected, as did his longtime London friend, Sybil Seligman, to no avail. Higgins then decided to remove , and stage together with a Russian ballet presentation. Puccini retorted, "This is a real betrayal", but in the end gave in and permitted the performance. Puccini, however, was still convinced that the three works should be performed together and that his original conception was being "brutally torn to pieces". The Metropolitan Opera joined in the dismemberment: after 1920, it would not again present the three operas together until 1975. Later performances returned to the Met in 1926, after Puccini's death, shorn of the other two parts of its operatic triptych, but instead mated to Ruggero Leoncavallo's two-act opera . The 1926 production, by Wilhelm von Wymetal, featured sets by Joseph Novak. In the following years at the Met, would form part