What is Giacomo Puccini?
[[File:Puccini7.jpg|thumb|Giacomo Puccini]] '''Giacomo Puccini''' (23 December 1858 - 29 November 1924) was the most famous [[Italy|Italian]] [[opera]] [[composer]] after [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]. He wrote 16 operas. Most of them are [[performance|performed]] very often today. Many of his operatic [[song]]s are known by many people, especially the [[aria]] ''Nessun dorma'' from ''[[Turandot]]'' which was sung by [[Luciano Pavarotti]] for the [[BBC|BBC’s]] [[television]] coverage of the [[Football World Cup]] which was held in Italy in 1990. == Early life == Puccini was born in [[Lucca]], [[Tuscany]] into a musical family. He was expected to follow the family [[tradition]] and become a [[church]] [[pipe organ|organist]]. He started playing the organ in churches near Lucca. He liked to [[improvisation|improvise]] on the organ, playing popular [[music|tunes]] from Verdi’s operas. He soon realized that he wanted to be an opera composer. Eventually he persuaded his family to let him study at the [[Milan]] Conservatory. His earliest compositions showed that he had a great [[talent]] for writing beautiful [[melody|melodies]] and that he was good at writing for the [[orchestra]]. His first opera to be published, ''Edgar'', had a story similar to that of [[Georges Bizet|Bizet’s]] ''[[Carmen]]'', but it was not a suitable story for Puccini. ==Works== ''[[Manon Lescaut]]'' was the first opera for which Puccini chose the story himself. It is the same story as [[Massenet|Massenet’s]] opera ''[[Manon]]''. This made Puccini internationally famous. His next opera, ''[[La bohème]]'', produced in 1896, is often thought to be his best opera. He worked with two poets on this opera and, although they quarrelled a lot, the result was a work in which the music flowed beautifully like a conversation. His next opera was ''[[Tosca]]''. When it was first performed in [[Rome]] in 1900 there were rumours that a [[bomb]] would be thrown, but nothing happened. ''Tosca'' was a great success. However, ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' was hissed and [