What was Puccini's first opera?
Giacomo Puccini
"Verismo" is a style of Italian opera that began in 1890 with the first performance of Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana", peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s. The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent – depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary lower classes. It by and large rejects the historical or mythical subjects associated with Romanticism. "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", and "Andrea Chénier" are uniformly considered to be "verismo" operas. Puccini's career as a composer is almost entirely coincident in time with the "verismo" movement. Only his "Le Villi" and "Edgar" preceded "Cavalleria rusticana". Some view Puccini as essentially a "verismo" composer, while others, although acknowledging that he took part in the movement to some degree, do not view him as a "pure" "verismo" composer. In addition, critics differ as to the degree to which particular operas by Puccini are, or are not, properly described as "verismo" operas. Two of Puccini's operas, "Tosca" and "Il tabarro," are universally considered to be "verismo" operas. Puccini scholar Mosco Carner places only two of Puccini's operas other than "Tosca" and "Il tabarro" within the "verismo" school: "Madama Butterfly", and "La fanciulla del West." Because only three "verismo" works by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", and "Andrea Chénier"), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to the genre.
La Vie de Bohème
Two operas were later based on the novel and play, "La bohème" by Giacomo Puccini in 1896 and "La bohème" by Ruggero Leoncavallo in 1897. Puccini's became one of the most popular operas of all time, spawning several later works based on the same story.
Ignatz Waghalter
He championed the music of Giacomo Puccini, whose operas had previously failed to win public acceptance in Germany. The first performance of Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" in Germany was conducted by Waghalter in March 1913 at the Deutsche Opernhaus. Its triumphant reception secured for Puccini's operas a permanent place in the repertoires of Germany's opera houses. Waghalter also conducted the German debut performances of Tosca and La Bohème and also of Ralph Vaughan Williams' second symphony in 1923.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini died in Brussels on 29 November 1924, aged 65, from complications after the treatment; uncontrolled bleeding led to a heart attack the day after surgery. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of "La bohème". The opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin's "Funeral March" for the stunned audience. He was buried in Milan, in Toscanini's family tomb, but that was always intended as a temporary measure. In 1926 his son arranged for the transfer of his father's remains to a specially created chapel inside the Puccini villa at Torre del Lago.
Giacomo Puccini
In 1909, Puccini's wife Elvira publicly accused Doria Manfredi, a maid working for the Puccini family, of having an affair with the composer. After being publicly accused of adultery, Doria Manfredi committed suicide. An autopsy determined, however, that Doria had died a virgin, refuting the allegations made against her. Elvira Puccini was prosecuted for slander, and was sentenced to more than five months in prison, although a payment to the Manfredi family by Puccini spared Elvira from having to serve the sentence. Some music critics and interpreters of Puccini's work have speculated that the psychological effects of this incident on Puccini interfered with his ability to complete compositions later in his career, and also influenced the development of his characters such as Liù (from "Turandot"), a slave girl who dies tragically by suicide.
Tosca
In October 1899, Ricordi realized that some of the music for Cavaradossi's act 3 aria, "O dolci mani" was borrowed from music Puccini had cut from his early opera, "Edgar" and demanded changes. Puccini defended his music as expressive of what Cavaradossi must be feeling at that point, and offered to come to Milan to play and sing act 3 for the publisher. Ricordi was overwhelmed by the completed act 3 prelude, which he received in early November, and softened his views, though he was still not completely happy with the music for "O dolci mani". In any event time was too short before the scheduled January 1900 premiere to make any further changes.
Festival Puccini
The Festival Puccini (Puccini Festival) is an annual summer opera festival held in July and August to present the operas of the famous Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.
Antonio Bazzini
Bazzini was one of the most highly regarded artists of his time and influenced the great opera composer Giacomo Puccini. His most enduring work is his chamber music, which is written in the classic forms of the German school and has earned him a central place in the Italian instrumental renaissance of the 19th century. Of particular note is his String Quartet No. 1, which won the Milan Quartet Society's first prize in 1864. His music is characterized by a highly virtuosic technique that is expressive without too much sentiment. Bazzini played a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri, which after his death passed to M. Soldat-Roeger.
Elena Mauti Nunziata
She initially attended the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Palermo where she was taught by Gina Cigna, and made her unofficial debut in Sicily as Musetta in "La Boheme". Her first recognized success on the stage was as Palermo in Bellini's "I Puritani". A "soprano lirico", she gained notability playing Violetta in the opera "Traviata", a remarkable 1977 production in Madrid, and afterwards played the popular Nedda in the opera "Pagliacci". Other notable performances include leading roles in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" and Verdi's "Trovatore" and Forza del Destino. While she ended her international career playing Magda in "La Rondine" and Tosca from the famous opera by Puccini, during the 1990s she performed again in the Teatro Regio di Torino in the role of Francesca da Rimini.
Il trittico
Il trittico ("The Triptych") is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, "Il tabarro", "Suor Angelica", and "Gianni Schicchi", by Giacomo Puccini. The work received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini's career extended from the end of the Romantic period into the modern period. He consciously attempted to 'update' his style to keep pace with new trends, but did not attempt to fully adopt a modern style. One critic, Anthony Davis has stated: "Loyalty toward nineteenth-century Italian-opera traditions and, more generally, toward the musical language of his Tuscan heritage is one of the clearest features of Puccini's music." Davis also identifies, however, a "stylistic pluralism" in Puccini's work, including influences from "the German symphonic tradition, French harmonic and orchestrational traditions, and, to a lesser extent, aspects of Wagnerian chromaticism." In addition, Puccini frequently sought to introduce music or sounds from outside sources into his operas, such as his use of Chinese folk melodies in Turandot.
Giuseppe Borgatti
In 1892 (some sources say 1893), Borgatti made his operatic debut at Castelfranco Veneto, singing the role of Faust in the opera of the same name by Charles Gounod. A string of performances at other Italian opera houses ensued in mainly lyric parts. Eighteen ninety-four saw Borgatti successfully undertake the role of the Chevalier des Grieux in a notable production in Venice of Giacomo Puccini's "Manon Lescaut". Later that same year he appeared at another major venue, the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, as "Lohengrin" (his first assumption of a Wagnerian part). His career was now gaining real momentum but he would not become a major opera star until 1896 when, at Milan's La Scala, he sang in the premiere performance of "Andrea Chénier" to great acclaim.
Giacomo Puccini
In his work on Puccini, Julian Budden describes Puccini as a gifted and original composer, noting the innovation hidden in the popularity of works such as "Che gelida manina". He describes the aria in musical terms (the signature embedded in the harmony for example), and points out that its structure was rather unheard of at the time, having three distinct musical paragraphs that nonetheless form a complete and coherent whole. This gumption in musical experimentation was the essence of Puccini's style, as evidenced in his diverse settings and use of the motif to express ideas beyond those in the story and text.
Pagliacci
In 1907, "Pagliacci" became the first opera to be recorded in its entirety, with the Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli as Canio and under Leoncavallo's personal supervision. In 1931, it became the first complete opera to be filmed with sound, in a now-obscure version starring the tenor Fernando Bertini as Canio, in his only film, with the San Carlo Opera Company. Franco Zeffirelli directed his 1981 La Scala production with Plácido Domingo and Teresa Stratas for a 1982 television airing, which has since been released on DVD. The movie's soundtrack received a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording. "Pagliacci" was also recorded in English in 1997, and released commercially in 1998, for the Chandos "Opera in English" label with Dennis O'Neill as Canio, Alan Opie as Tonio, and Rosa Mannion as Nedda.
Edgar (opera)
The first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 21 April 1889. The opera was not a success. Puccini repeatedly revised it, before eventually giving up in frustration, declaring the work irredeemable.
Festival Puccini
In 2000, 70th anniversary of Forzano and Mascagni's initiative, the 46th Puccini Festival presented two major new productions, "Madama Butterfly" and "Tosca". In addition, the program included Puccini's first opera, "Le Villi", presented in concert, with performances by Katia Ricciarelli and Josè Cura. In 2004 the Puccini Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary by a season featuring two great events: one was a new production of "Madama Butterfly" celebrating the centenary of its première in Brescia on 28 May 1904. It was conducted by Plácido Domingo with Daniela Dessì and Fabio Armiliato in the leading roles. The second was a special evening dedicated to Puccini's heroines, presenting the most beloved arias from the Maestro's favourite characters, with Plácido Domingo narrating as Puccini.
La rondine
In Italy, Puccini offered the work to his editor Tito Ricordi, who declined to buy it, dismissing it as "Bad Lehár"; thus Ricordi's rival, Lorenzo , obtained the right to give the first performance outside Austria-Hungary and moved the premiere to Monégasque neutral territory. At the premiere in Monte Carlo in 1917 the initial reception by the public and press was warm. However, despite the artistic value of the score, "La rondine" has been one of Puccini's less successful works; "In box office terms, [it] was the poor cousin to the other great hits." There is no established final version of it, Puccini being dissatisfied, as often, with the result of his work; he revised it many times to the point of making three versions (1917, 1920, 1921), with two completely different endings, but died before clearly deciding on a final version.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini wrote orchestral pieces, sacred music, chamber music, solo music for piano and organ and songs for voice and piano, most notably his 1880 mass "Messa di gloria", his "Preludio Sinfonico" of 1882, and his 1890 string quartet movement "Crisantemi". However, he is primarily known for his operas:
Giacomo Puccini
"La rondine" was initially conceived as an operetta, but Puccini eliminated spoken dialogue, rendering the work closer in form to an opera. A modern reviewer described "La rondine" as "a continuous fabric of lilting waltz tunes, catchy pop-styled melodies, and nostalgic love music," while characterizing the plot as recycling characters and incidents from works like 'La traviata' and 'Die Fledermaus'.
Teatro Capranica
More than 50 works (including operas, oratorios, cantatas, and plays) have premiered at the Teatro Capranica. The first opera to be premiered there was Pasquini's "Dov'è amore è pietà" which inaugurated the theatre in 1679. The 1728 premiere of Riccardo Broschi's "L'isola di Alcina" was marked by the presence of his brother, the celebrated castrato singer Farinelli, in the role of Ruggiero. Like most of the operas premiered at the Capranica prior to 1750, it was an "opera seria". The premieres at the theatre after 1750 were almost exclusively of the "opera buffa" genre, such as Galuppi's "La cantarina" (1756) or Piccinni's "La donna di spirito" (1770). Many of the shorter ones, such as Antonio Sacchini's "La vendemmia" (1760), were specifically written to be performed as comic intermezzos for prose plays. Other operas premiered at the Capranica include:
Milka Ternina
Ternina famously sang the title role in the 1901 American premiere of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", performing the part at the Met to considerable acclaim on 18 further occasions. The previous year she had been London's first Floria Tosca, too, with the composer, who had been in the audience at Covent Garden that night, describing her interpretation as "ideal". She thus became the English-speaking world's most renowned interpreter of this particular Puccini heroine.
Antonio Pini-Corsi
On 1 February 1896, Pini-Corsi portrayed the role of Schaunard in the original production of Puccini's "La bohème" at the Teatro Regio Torino. He later reprised the role in several productions throughout Italy. He appeared in another new opera, Franchetti's "Signor di Pourceaugnac", in both Genoa and Rome in 1898.
Philadelphia Civic Opera Company
The PCOC performed all of their productions at Philadelphia's Metropolitan Opera House (MOH) up through the spring of 1928. The company's first performance was of Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème" on November 6, 1924 with Anna Fitziu as Mimì, Romeo Boscacci as Rodolfo, Alfredo Gondolfi as Marcello, Emily Stokes Hagar as Musetta, and Smallens conducting. Occasionally the company presented more rarely heard works, including the American premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "Der Ring des Polykrates" (February 10, 1927), Manuel de Falla's "El amor brujo" (March 17, 1927), Richard Strauss's "Feuersnot" (December 2, 1927), and Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos" (November 1, 1928). However, the company mainly presented works from the standard opera repertory.
La bohème
The first production of "La bohème" at the Salzburg Festival did not occur until as late as July 2012. However, that festival has not shown much interest in the operas of Puccini, only ever having one production each of "Tosca" and "Turandot" in its entire history.
Supernatural beings in Slavic religion
The first opera completed by Giacomo Puccini, "Le Villi", makes free use of the same thematic material. It had its debut in May 1884 at the Teatro Dal Verme, Milan, and was revised for a more successful reception at the Royal Theater, Turin, that December.
Hariclea Darclée
Giacomo Puccini "Manon Lescaut" (Manon Lescaut) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in première for Teatro alla Scala of Milan on 27 March 1897;
Gianni Schicchi
At the time of the New York premiere, "Il trittico" was in rehearsal in Rome in preparation for an Italian premiere at the Teatro Costanzi. Puccini wrote Tito Ricordi that the rehearsals were going slowly, but that the orchestra sounded fine, at least in "Gianni Schicchi". The Italian premiere, more important to Puccini than the New York world premiere, took place on 11 January 1919. "Gianni Schicchi" was again warmly received, more so than the first two operas of "Il trittico". Among those dissatisfied by the triptych was Puccini's friend, the conductor Arturo Toscanini, who was in the audience for the Rome premiere. Toscanini was disgusted by the "verismo" of "Il tabarro", and left the performance after the first curtain. This caused a rift in his relationship with Puccini, who stated that he would not allow "this god" to conduct the London premiere, though the two were later reconciled. At the Rome premiere, the part of 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.
Antonio Magini-Coletti
In 1880, Magini-Colleti made his operatic debut at Rome's Teatro Costanzi, as Valentin in Gounod's "Faust". He continued to perform regularly at that opera house for the next seven years, in addition to making guest appearances in Venice, Florence, Naples and other Italian cities. In 1887 he joined the roster at La Scala, Milan, remaining there for three seasons and singing a variety of leading baritone roles. Most notably, he appeared as the character Frank in the world premiere of Puccini's second opera, "Edgar", in 1889. A year later, he performed his first Count Di Luna in Verdi's "Il trovatore" at La Scala. This part became an especial favourite of his, and he reprised it in numerous houses during the remainder of his career.
Francis Neilson
In New York, he befriended director Anton Seidl who took him to Germany and introduced him to Richard Wagner's family in Bayreuth. This led him out of the United States and back to London. He came back to London as a stage director for Charles Frohman at the Duke of York Theater. Later Neilson was invited to direct the national opera at Covent Garden, which he remodelled completely in 1900. The first opera to be produced there was Puccini's, 
"Tosca". Puccini himself was at the theatre supervising the production. The encounter of the two men triggered an interest that took Neilson to invite Puccini to see a private performance of the play "Madame Butterfly", playing then at the Duke of York Theater. Puccini later requested Neilson to direct the opera at La Scala in Milan; however, this never came to pass due to Neilson's other commitments.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini completed "La fanciulla del West", based on a play by David Belasco, in 1910. This was commissioned by, and first performed at, the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910 with Met stars Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn for whom Puccini created the leading roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie. Toscanini, then the musical director of the Met, conducted. This was the first world premiere of an opera at the Met. The premiere was a great success. However, the compositional style employed in the opera, with few stand-alone arias, was criticized at the time and remains a barrier to the opera's complete acceptance into the standard repertoire. Some contemporaries also criticized the opera for failing to achieve an "American" tone. However, the opera has been acclaimed for its incorporation of advanced harmonic language and rhythmic complexity into the Italian operatic form. In addition, one aria from the opera, "Ch'ella mi creda", has become a staple of compilation albums by operatic tenors. It is said that during World War I, Italian soldiers sang this aria to maintain their spirits. The 2008 Italian film, "Puccini e la fanciulla" ("Puccini and the Girl"), is based on the period of his life when he was composing the opera.
Florence Easton
Giacomo Puccini wrote a trio of operas named "Il trittico" comprising "Il tabarro", "Suor Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi". Florence created the role of Lauretta at the world premiere of Puccini¹s "Gianni Schicchi" on 14 December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; she was the first to sing the famous aria "O mio babbino caro" ("O My Beloved Papa"). Puccini could not get to New York for the premiere, so the Met's general manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza sent a telegram to Puccini after the performance of the Trittico:
Tosca discography
This is a discography of Tosca, an opera by Giacomo Puccini. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. "Tosca" has been one of the most frequently recorded operas, dating back to a nearly complete acoustical recording in 1918.
Janet Pavek
In 1961 Pavek married veteran musical theatre actor Joe Cusanelli and that same year made her operatic debut with the New York City Opera. After leaving "Camelot", Pavek made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on November 9, 1963 singing Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème" with John Alexander as Rodolfo, Nicoletta Panni as Mimì, Calvin Marsh as Marcello, and Fausto Cleva conducting. She reprised the role of Musetta for her debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1964. She went on to make several more opera appearances during the 1960s and 1970s, including performances at the Pittsburgh Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Cincinnati Opera. Her operatic repertoire included the title role in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut", Liu in Puccini's "Turandot", Nedda in "Pagliacci", and Rosalinda in "Die Fledermaus" among several other leading soprano roles. She also appeared in concert and recitals throughout the United States, Europe, Israel and South America. In addition to her work on the stage, Pavek sang on a number of television programs, including "The Bell Telephone Hour", "The Tonight Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show". After she retired from performing she taught singing out of a private studio.
Giuseppe Adami
Adami was born in Verona. He graduated at the University of Padua in Law but dedicated his career as a writer, theatre playwright, and then music critic. After the death of Puccini, Adami published a collection of the composer's letters in "Epistolario" (1928). He also published his personal recollections, "Giacomo Puccini" (1935), which was one of the earliest biographies of the composer. He wrote a second biography "Il romanzo della vita di Giacomo Puccini" ("The life of Giacomo Puccini") in 1942.
Edgar (opera)
"Edgar", Puccini's second opera, was composed on a commission from the publisher Ricordi after the successful reception of his first stage work, "Le Villi". The plot indicates the influence of Wagner's "Tannhäuser". Both centre on medieval knights struggling between a life of sensual indulgence and ideal love. Edgar is "torn between the sacred love of Fidelia and the profane love of Tigrana"; Wagner's hero indulges himself with Venus while pining for the love of Elizabeth. The gypsy-like figure of Tigrana (supposedly the child of "wandering Moors") also parallels the anti-heroine of Bizet's "Carmen".
Festival Puccini
Nevertheless, on 24 August 1930, together with Pietro Mascagni, who had been fellow student of Puccini's, Forzano produced the first performances of a Puccini opera on the lake shore, in front of the Maestro's house. In a provisional theatre, the "Carro di Tespi Lirico" with its stage built on piles stuck in the lake, a travelling opera company performed "La bohème" directed by Forzano and conducted by Mascagni. The same company came back in 1931 when Beniamino Gigli and Adelaide Saraceni performed in "La bohème", while Rosetta Pampanini and Angelo Michetti performed "Madama Butterfly". This was the beginning of what was to become a major opera festival.
Turandot
A newspaper report published the day before the premiere states that Puccini himself gave Toscanini the suggestion to stop the opera performance at the final notes composed by Puccini:
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(A few weeks before his death, after having made Toscanini listen to the opera, Puccini exclaimed: "If I don't succeed in finishing it, at this point someone will come to the footlights and will say: 'The author composed until here, and then he died.'" Arturo Toscanini related Puccini's words with great emotion, and, with the swift agreement of Puccini's family and the publishers, decided that the evening of the first performance, the opera would appear as the author left it, with the anguish of being unable to finish).
Tosca
Puccini saw Sardou's play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, obtained the rights to turn the work into an opera in 1895. Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. "Tosca" premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances. Despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public.
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi () is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's "Divine Comedy". The work is the third and final part of Puccini's "Il trittico" (The Triptych)—three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together. Although it continues to be performed with one or both of the other "trittico" operas, "Gianni Schicchi" is now more frequently staged either alone or with short operas by other composers. The aria "O mio babbino caro" is one of Puccini's best known, and one of the most popular arias in opera.
Giacomo Puccini
Gustav Kobbé, the original author of "The Complete Opera Book", a standard reference work on opera, wrote in the 1919 edition: "Puccini is considered the most important figure in operatic Italy today, the successor of Verdi, if there is any." Other contemporaries shared this view. Italian opera composers of the generation with whom Puccini was compared included Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945), Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919), Umberto Giordano (1867–1948), Francesco Cilea (1866–1950), Baron Pierantonio Tasca (1858–1934), Gaetano Coronaro (1852–1908), and Alberto Franchetti (1860–1942). Only three composers, and three works, by Italian contemporaries of Puccini appear on the Operabase list of most-performed works: "Cavalleria rusticana" by Mascagni, "Pagliacci" by Ruggero Leoncavallo, and "Andrea Chénier" by Umberto Giordano. Kobbé contrasted Puccini's ability to achieve "sustained" success with the failure of Mascagni and Leoncavallo to produce more than merely "one sensationally successful short opera." By the time of Puccini's death in 1924, he had earned $4 million from his works.
Il trittico
Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, largely because of the success of Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana". Originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dante's "Divine Comedy". However, he eventually based only "Gianni Schicchi" on Dante's epic poem. The link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini's next work after "Manon Lescaut" was "La bohème", a four-act opera based on the 1851 book by Henri Murger, "La Vie de Bohème". "La bohème" premiered in Turin in 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Within a few years, it had been performed throughout many of the leading opera houses of Europe, including Britain, as well as in the United States. It was a popular success, and remains one of the most frequently performed operas ever written.
Hariclea Darclée
Giacomo Puccini "Tosca" (Floria Tosca) – opera composed for her voice; the soprano’s aria was requested to Puccini by Hariclea Darclée suggesting the principal musicals elements, too; the opera was interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 14 January 1900 and in première at Teatro Regio of Turin on 20 February 1900, Teatro alla Scala of Milan on 17 March 1900, Lisbon on 19 January 1901, Bucharest National Theatre on 18 January 1902 and Monte-Carlo Opera on 28 March 1903;
Franco Faccio
At La Scala, he conducted the first Italian performance of "Aida" in 1872 and this was followed by the first performance of Verdi's "Otello" in 1887, which starred his long-time lover Romilda Pantaleoni as Desdemona, Francesco Tamagno as Otello and Victor Maurel as Iago. Other premieres of the revised versions which he conducted included "Simon Boccanegra" in 1881 and "Don Carlo" in 1884. Faccio helped to launch Puccini's career, conducting his graduation piece from the Milan Conservatory, "Capriccio sinfonico", in 1884.
Giacomo Puccini
"Manon Lescaut" was a great success and established Puccini's reputation as the most promising rising composer of his generation, and the most likely "successor" to Verdi as the leading exponent of the Italian operatic tradition.
Illica and Giacosa returned as librettists for Puccini for his next three operas, probably his greatest successes: "La bohème", "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly".
La Tosca
The most famous adaptation of "La Tosca" was Giacomo Puccini's Italian opera "Tosca" which premiered in Rome on 14 January 1900 with Hariclea Darclée in the title role and went on to successful premieres in London, New York, and Paris. The Paris premiere at the Opéra-Comique in 1903 was performed in a French translation by Paul Ferrier with Sardou himself taking charge of the rehearsals. Unlike Sardou's play, Puccini's opera has achieved an enduring popularity. More than 100 years after its premiere, "Tosca" ranks sixth in the list of most frequently performed operas worldwide, and has over 100 commercial recordings as well as several film versions (see Tosca discography). Puccini had seen "La Tosca" in Italy when Bernhardt toured the play there and asked his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, to negotiate with Sardou for the adaptation rights. Before Puccini obtained the rights, the composers Alberto Franchetti and Giuseppe Verdi had both expressed interest in turning "La Tosca" into an opera, although Verdi thought the ending had to be changed. Puccini's librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, likewise tried (unsuccessfully) to convince Sardou to accept a new ending, with Tosca going mad rather than committing suicide. The Sardou ending stayed, but Illica and Giacosa did make several significant changes to the play, primarily to tighten the action.
Michael Ching
Ching's opera "Buoso's Ghost" is a comedic sequel to Puccini's one-act comic opera "Gianni Schicchi". It had its first full staging with the Pittsburgh Opera in 1996, and its official premiere at Opera Memphis in 1997. Starting where "Gianni Schicchi" ends, the new opera, with a libretto by the composer, opens with "Schicchi"s final chords and carries the plot forward by following the sinister dealings of Buoso Donati's family, who apparently had poisoned Buoso, and the continued machinations of Schicchi, who tries to exploit this growing suspicion on his part. In reviewing the work the "Chicago Sun-Times" wrote that ""Buoso's Ghost" soared ... [it] offered highly charged acting atop a deft, tuneful score... Ching, General/Artistic Director of Opera Memphis, studied with Robert Ward and Carlisle Floyd, and the unashamed flow of natural, singing melody ... reflects the profile of his teachers." And the "Chicago Tribune" reported that "Composer and librettist Ching ... borrows snatches of Puccini tunes and weaves them into his own conservative-eclectic idiom, tossing in bits of American pop ... for merry measure. The vocal writing is expert, the orchestration light enough to allow the singers to project the text clearly. "Buoso" is charming and unpretentious ..." "Opera News" noted that Ching uses "a more modern musical mode, yet avoiding excessive atonality. The score subtly introduces brief tongue-in-cheek quotations from other works, ranging from Mozart to Sondheim, plus one unmistakable interjection of Shostakovich." The work has been performed throughout the U.S. as an ideal pairing with "Gianni Schicchi", the most popular of Puccini's three "Il trittico" one-act operas.
Paul Potts
Potts first sang opera in the minor roles of the Prince of Persia and the Herald in Puccini's "Turandot" for Bath Opera, an amateur company, in 1999. He then performed leading roles on four occasions: Don Basilio in Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" in 2000; Don Carlos in Verdi's "Don Carlos" in 2001; Don Ottavio in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in 2003; and Radames in Verdi's "Aida" in 2003. He also performed the role of the Chevalier des Grieux in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" for the Southgate Opera Company in London, an amateur company, in May 2003. Additionally, he sang with a small ensemble from the Royal Philharmonic in front of an audience of 15,000 and toured northern Italy as a soloist as part of his music classes there.
La rondine
As part of a 1958 celebration marking the centenary of Puccini's birth, the Teatro di San Carlo at Naples, Italy, staged a revival of "La rondine", at that time one of Puccini's least-performed operas. The revival was well-received, with audiences and critics deeming it a success.
La bohème
In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a commemorative performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the performance was later released by RCA Victor on vinyl record, tape and compact disc. It is the only recording ever made of a Puccini opera by its original conductor (see "Recording history" below).
Jacopo Puccini
Jacopo (Giacomo) Puccini (; 26 January 1712 16 May 1781) was an 18th-century Italian composer who lived and worked primarily in Lucca, Tuscany. He was the first of five generations of composers, the most famous of whom was his great-great-grandson, the opera composer Giacomo Puccini.
Alice Cucini
Cucini made her professional opera debut in 1891 at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples as Lola in "Cavalleria rusticana", a role which she repeated later that year at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. She spent the next several years singing in performances throughout Italy, including productions in Trieste, Milan, Venice, and Florence. In 1897 she sang the role of Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila" at the Teatro Regio di Torino to great acclaim. Cucini became particularly associated with this role and portrayed in numerous productions throughout the next fourteen years, including the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1899), Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo (1900), Teatro Regio di Parma (1902), Teatro Colón (1910), and a few performances of the role in Spain.
Turandot discography
This is a partial discography of "Turandot", an opera by Giacomo Puccini. The first performance was held at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 25 April 1926, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
Giacomo Puccini
After the premiere of the "Capriccio sinfonico", Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccini's next work might be an opera. Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Ferdinando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto. The work, "Le Villi", was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883 (the same competition in which Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" was the winner in 1889). Although it did not win, "Le Villi" was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, premiering on 31 May 1884. G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge. Fellow students from the Milan Conservatory formed a large part of the orchestra. The performance was enough of a success that Casa Ricordi purchased the opera. Revised into a two-act version with an intermezzo between the acts, "Le Villi" was performed at La Scala in Milan, on 24 January 1885. However, Ricordi did not publish the score until 1887, hindering further performance of the work.
Gioconda Vessichelli
She is in the annual book of Italian opera singer for having sung in the first world edition of contemporary opera at "Teatro comunale di Modena", broadcast on Italian state radio RAI. Gioconda is the first singer in the premiere world ever of the contemporary opera “Lavinia fuggita” by Matteo d’Amico. She has two degrees in opera singing and musicology from Italian conservatory "Santa Cecilia" and international high school of opera "H.Wolf". The tenor Luciano Pavarotti has been her teacher, among other opera singers who selected her as one of the best students. She was selected as best singer at accademia rossiniana in Pesaro and she debuts the role of "Madama cortese" in "il viaggio a Reims" by Rossini with the symphonic orchestra of Rof at Rossini theatre in Pesaro. She sings again in a Rossini opera at Ercolano international opera season in "Il barbiere di Siviglia" and at teatro Politeama opera season in Lecce. After Rossini she debuts "Carmen" by Bizet. Her interpretation of the role "Mimì" in the opera "La Boheme" by Puccini received positive critiques.
Gaspare Pacchierotti
His first appearance on his final return to Italy was for the inauguration of another opera house: the new Teatro la Fenice in Venice, where on 16 May 1792 he sang the leading role of Alceo in "I giuochi d'Agrigento" by Paisiello alongside Brigida Banti. The following season he made his last operatic appearance in the same theatre, in the premiere production of Giuseppe Giordani's "Ines de Castro", which opened on 27 January 1793, during the Carnival season.
Domenico Puccini
Puccini was born in Lucca into a Tuscan musical family of at least five generations: his father was Antonio Puccini, his grandfather was Giacomo Puccini (senior), his son was Michele Puccini, and his grandson was the opera composer Giacomo Puccini.
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Puccini's publisher, Ricordi, had been against any project based on Prévost's story because Jules Massenet had already made it into a successful opera, "Manon", in 1884. While Puccini and Ricordi may not have known it, the French composer Daniel Auber had also already written an opera on the same subject with the title "Manon Lescaut", in 1856.
Pollione Ronzi
As a composer, Ronzi is best known for his operas. His first opera, "Gastone di Anverse", premiered at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in the autumn of 1853. This was followed in 1854 by "Buon Gusto" which was first performed at the Teatro di San Carlo. His opera, "Dea", premiered at the Vienna State Opera on 4 August 1894. In the early 20th century, he was active as a voice teacher in Naples and Milan. His notable pupils included soprano Isa Kremer and tenor Franco De Gregorio.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini wrote an orchestral piece called the "Capriccio sinfonico" as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccini's teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccini's work was favorably reviewed in the Milanese publication "Perseveranza", and thus Puccini began to build a reputation as a young composer of promise in Milanese music circles.
Rosa Raisa
On October 7, 1924, less than two months before Puccini died, Angelo Scandiani, administrative director of La Scala, wired Herbert Johnson of the Chicago Opera that Puccini and Toscanini had cast three Chicago Opera artists, Rosa Raisa, Edith Mason, and Giaccomo Rimini, for the lead roles in the upcoming "Turandot". At that time it was thought that the premiere would take place in April 1925, but Puccini's death at the end of November 1924 postponed these plans; Franco Alfano was selected to compose the final scene from Puccini's sketches.
La bohème discography
This is a partial discography of Giacomo Puccini's opera "La bohème", which premiered on 1 February 1896, at the Teatro Regio in Turin, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
Errico Petrella
None of his early works, premiered between December 1829 and 1839, were particularly successful. It was not until "Il carnevale di Venezia" (Naples, Nuovo, 20 May 1851) that he really became noticed. "Elena di Tolosa" (Naples, Fondo, 12 August 1852) followed. Finally, in 1854, he took the Italian operatic world by storm with "Marco Visconti" (Naples, San Carlo, 1854). "L'assedio di Leida" (La Scala, 1856) was his fourth straight triumph, while "Jone" (La Scala, 1858) was a major event and remained in the repertory well into the 20th century. With two exceptions ("La Contessa d'Amalfi" and "I Promessi Sposi") his operas during the 1860s generally failed.
Roland (Piccinni)
"Roland" was the first opera Piccinni wrote for Paris. He had been hired by the Académie royale de musique in 1776, in spite of his ignorance of the French language. Piccinni still knew no French when he was composing "Roland" and had to be helped all the way by his librettist Marmontel, who provided a translation of every word along with details on how to accentuate it correctly. Marmontel also helped Piccinni come to terms with the French style of opera, which was very different from the Italian. The French preferred short arias, accompanied recitative and plenty of dance movements. In spite of these obstacles, "Roland" was a great success at its premiere.
Puccini (film)
Puccini is a 1953 Italian biographical musical melodrama film directed by Carmine Gallone. It stars actor Gabriele Ferzetti in the role of Giacomo Puccini.
Gianni Schicchi
With the trilogy complete, Puccini had to decide on a place for the premiere. In 1918, travel was risky and uncertain. Puccini received an offer from Buenos Aires which he refused, unwilling to have so complex a work first performed overseas in his absence. He finally agreed that the premiere could take place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, without his being there, on the basis of performing instructions which he supplied to the conductor. "Gianni Schicchi" proved to be the last opera completed by Puccini.
Ermanno Picchi
Picchi was born in Impruneta in the Province of Florence and studied composition under Ignazio Colson. His first opera, "Marco Visconti" premiered at the Teatro del Cocomero in Florence in 1838. His second opera "Il tre novembre" premiered in 1844 at the Teatro della Pergola. Over the course of his career he composed four operas, an oratorio, numerous pieces of sacred music, music for military bands, and two piano fantasias (both published by Ricordi) on themes from Donizetti's "La fille du régiment" and Pacini's "Saffo".
Albert Dubosq
Immediately upon their accession to the directorshop of the Théâtre de la Monnaie, on 1 June 1900, Maurice Kufferath and Guillaume Guidé appointed Dubosq the Monnaie's second "peintre-décorateur attitré", next to Devis and Lynen. Dubosq's first contribution to the Monnaie was the “Quartier Latin” set for Giacomo Puccini’s "La (vie de) bohème", Act II. Premiered on 25 October 1900 under the supervision of the composer and publisher Tito Ricordi, this production enjoyed thirty performances in its first run alone and would keep the stage until 1949. Significantly, Puccini and Riccordi were so enthralled by Dubosq’s effort that they had it photographed and incorporated in Riccardo Salvadori’s new design for Act II of Puccini’s masterpiece.
Madama Butterfly
The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in lead roles; this was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, and thus inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting Act II into two (with the Humming Chorus as a bridge to what became Act III) and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia.
Italian opera
Some of the greatest Italian operas of the 20th century were written by Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924). These include "Manon Lescaut", "La bohème", "Tosca", "Madama Butterfly", "La fanciulla del West", "La rondine" and "Turandot", the last two being left unfinished. In 1926 and in 2002 Franco Alfano and Luciano Berio respectively attempted a completion of "Turandot", and in 1994 Lorenzo Ferrero completed the orchestration of the third version of "La rondine". Berio himself wrote two operas, "Un re in ascolto" and "Opera". Ferrero likewise has composed several operas including "Salvatore Giuliano", "La Conquista", and his 2011 "Risorgimento!" 
Other 20th-century Italian opera composers are:Notes
Sources
Plácido Domingo
Domingo has made over 200 recordings, most of which are full-length operas, often recording the same role more than once. As a teenager, he first appeared in very small parts on the Spanish-language original cast versions of the musicals "My Fair Lady" (1959) and "Redhead" (1960). In 1968, he released his first solo album, "Recital of Italian Operatic Arias" (also known as "Bel Canto Domingo"). The album, conducted by Nello Santi, received the Grand Prix du Disque. The following year, Domingo recorded his first recital album for RCA Red Seal and his first complete opera in the studio, "Il trovatore", with Leontyne Price and Sherrill Milnes, also for RCA. Domingo recorded primarily for RCA throughout the 1970s. He and Milnes would record together several more times, in both complete operas and recital discs. Domingo followed "Il trovatore" with a steady stream of complete recorded operas from the 1970s through the early years of the next century. Starting with "Il tabarro" in 1970 and ending with "Edgar" in 2006, Domingo has recorded all of Puccini's operatic roles for tenor. Among his albums is a box set of every tenor aria Verdi composed, including several rarely performed versions in languages different from the original operas and written only for specific performances. He has also recorded the vocal parts in many symphonic works and has conducted on some of his albums.
In August 2005, EMI Classics released a highly anticipated and publicized studio recording of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", in which Domingo and Operalia winner Nina Stemme sang the title roles. A review, headlined "Vocal perfections", in the 8 August 2005 issue of "The Economist" called the recording "monumental" and praised it for having "a musical lyricism and a sexual passion that make the cost and the effort entirely worthwhile". The review also characterized Domingo's July 2005 performance of Siegmund in Wagner's "Die Walküre" at Covent Garden as "unforgettable" and "luminous". More recently Domingo has appeared with Angela Gheorghiu on a recording of "Fedora", an opera in which he often appeared onstage, and as the baritone in a live version of "Giovanna d'Arco" with Anna Netrebko. In September 2011, aged 70, he signed an exclusive record contract with Sony Classics. His first operatic recording for the label was a collection of Verdi baritone arias, which won a Latin Grammy Award. Placido has studied, travelled, and performed and his love of music has become very strong.
Recondita armonia
"Recondita Armonia" is the first romanza in the opera "Tosca" (1900) by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by the painter Mario Cavaradossi when comparing his love, Tosca, to a portrait of Mary Magdalene that he is painting.
La fanciulla del West
"La fanciulla del West" was commissioned by, and first performed at, the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910 with Met stars Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn for whom Puccini created the leading roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie. However, after Puccini saw Gilda dalla Rizza as Minnie at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 1921, he remarked, "At last I have seen my true Fanciulla." Also in the cast was Pasquale Amato as Jack Rance. The Met's music director Arturo Toscanini conducted. This was the first world premiere of an opera at the Met, and it was initially well received in the United States. However, it was never quite as popular in Europe, except perhaps in Germany. There it enjoyed a triumphant premiere at the Deutsches Opernhaus in Berlin (now known as the Deutsche Oper) in March 1913, under the musical direction of Ignatz Waghalter.
Messa (Puccini)
Puccini composed the Mass as his graduation exercise from the Istituto Musicale Pacini. It had its first performance in Lucca on July 12, 1880. However, the "Credo" had already been written and performed in 1878 and was initially conceived by Puccini as a self-contained work. Puccini never published the full manuscript of the "Messa", and although well received at the time, it was not performed again until 1952 (first in Chicago and then in Naples). However, he re-used some of its themes in other works, such as the Agnus Dei in his opera "Manon Lescaut" and the Kyrie in "Edgar".
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini's early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera. Later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic "verismo" style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.
Arturo Toscanini
Toscanini conducted the world premieres of many operas, four of which have become part of the standard operatic repertoire: "Pagliacci", "La bohème", "La fanciulla del West" and "Turandot". He also took an active role in Alfano's completion of Puccini's "Turandot". He also conducted the first Italian performances of "Siegfried", "Götterdämmerung", "Salome", "Pelléas et Mélisande", and "Euryanthe", as well as the South American premieres of "Tristan und Isolde" and "Madama Butterfly" and the North American premieres of "Boris Godunov" and Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7. He also conducted the world premiere of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings"
Toscanini made his first recordings in December 1920 with the La Scala Orchestra in the Trinity Church studio of the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey and his last with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in June 1954 in Carnegie Hall. His entire catalog of commercial recordings was issued by RCA Victor, save for two recordings for Brunswick in 1926 (his first by the electrical process) with the New York Philharmonic and a series of excellent recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1939 for EMI's His Master's Voice label (which was RCA Victor's European affiliate). Toscanini also conducted the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall for RCA Victor in several recordings in 1929 and 1936. He made a series of long-unissued recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra for RCA Victor in Philadelphia's Academy of Music in 1941 and 1942. All of Toscanini's commercially issued RCA Victor and HMV recordings have been digitally remastered and released on compact disc. There are also recorded concerts with various European orchestras, especially with La Scala Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
In 2012, RCA Red Seal released a new 84 CD boxed set reissue of Toscanini's complete RCA Victor recordings and commercially issued HMV recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, EMI Classics issued a 6-CD set containing Toscanini's complete HMV recordings with the BBC Symphony. 
Toscanini's dislike of recording was well-known. He especially despised the acoustic method, and for several years he recorded only sporadically as a result. He was fifty-three years old and had been conducting for thirty-four years when he made his first recordings in 1920 and did not begin regular recording until 1938, after he became conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra at the age of seventy. As the recording process improved, so did Toscanini's negative attitude towards making records and he eventually became more interested in preserving his performances for posterity. The majority of Toscanini's recordings were made with the NBC Symphony and cover the bulk of his repertoire. These recordings document the final phase of his 68-year conducting career.
Giacomo Puccini
On 25 February 1903, Puccini was seriously injured in a car crash during a nighttime journey on the road from Lucca to Torre del Lago. The car was driven by Puccini's chauffeur and was carrying Puccini, his future wife Elvira, and their son Antonio. It went off the road, fell several metres, and flipped over. Elvira and Antonio were flung from the car and escaped with minor injuries. Puccini's chauffeur, also thrown from the car, suffered a serious fracture of his femur. Puccini was pinned under the vehicle, with a severe fracture of his right leg and with a portion of the car pressing down on his chest. A doctor living near the scene of the crash, together with another person who came to investigate, saved Puccini from the wreckage. The injury did not heal well, and Puccini remained under treatment for months. During the medical examinations that he underwent it was also found that he was suffering from a form of diabetes. The accident and its consequences slowed Puccini's completion of his next work, "Madama Butterfly".
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini was given a general education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca, and then at the seminary of the cathedral. One of Puccini's uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education. Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. A grant from Queen Margherita, and assistance from another uncle, Nicholas Cerù, provided the funds necessary for Puccini to continue his studies at the Milan Conservatory, where he studied composition with Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Antonio Bazzini. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni. In 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his "Mass", which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca.
Geraldine McMillian
McMillian's first major success was her debut performance at the New York City Opera (NYCO) in 1990 as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème". Later that year she performed the role of Bess with the NYCO and was heard as Liu in Puccini's "Turandot" with the Florida Grand Opera. In 1991 she toured to 56 North American cities with the NYCO, performing Countess Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". Music critic John Rockwell of "The New York Times" stated in his review that "[McMillian's] soprano, big and shining like a cross between Eleanor Steber and Martina Arroyo, commands attention. In January 1992 she embarked on a second NYCO national tour in the title role in Puccini's "Tosca", and in 1994 she was heard with the NYCO at their Lincoln Center home and on national tour in the title role of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly".
Madama Butterfly discography
This is a partial discography of "Madama Butterfly" ("Madame Butterfly"), an opera by Giacomo Puccini. The original version of the opera premiered on February 17, 1904, at La Scala in Milan.
Gianni Schicchi
Puccini had long considered writing a set of one-act operas which would be performed together in a single evening, but faced with a lack of suitable subjects and opposition from his publisher, he repeatedly put the project aside. However, by 1916 Puccini had completed the one-act tragedy "Il tabarro" and, after considering various ideas, he began work the following year on the solemn, religious, all-female opera "Suor Angelica". "Gianni Schicchi", a comedy, completes the triptych with a further contrast of mood. The score combines elements of Puccini's modern style of harmonic dissonance with lyrical passages reminiscent of Rossini, and it has been praised for its inventiveness and imagination.
Rosa Raisa
Raisa made her La Scala debut as Francesca upon her return from South America. She performed many Francesca's and Aida's as well as Lida in Verdi's rare early opera "La battaglia di Legnano" at the Scala. It was after her Francesca at La Scala that she encountered Giacomo Puccini, who visited her after the performance. He was very taken with her performance and potential, Raisa later told the press, that when she asked him which of his operas he thought best for her to tackle, Puccini said: "there is no opera I have written to which your voice is not suited; they are all the same for you." He told her he wanted her to create his next opera (still a work in progress, "La rondine") Whether he was more entranced with her youth and beauty or her vocal powers is unknown, but his plan for this assumption of Magda was advanced enough that in January 1917 she was announced in the world press for the premiere of this light opera in Monte Carlo. Raisa did not go to Monte Carlo as she was in the United States and was fearful of the submarine warfare at that stage of the Great War. At about the same time Puccini first encountered Raisa, Arturo Toscanini heard her and told his friends in the opera world that he considered Raisa a "female Tamagno," more appropriate for the heroic "Turandot" she would create nine years later.
Turandot (Gozzi)
Antonio Bazzini's opera "Turanda", with a libretto by Antonio Gazzoletti, was first performed at La Scala, Milan, 13 January 1867. 
Bazzini later taught composition to Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni at the Milan Conservatory.
Antonio Paoli
In Antonio Paoli, Puerto Rico had the first Puerto Rican to reach international recognition in the performing arts. He gave 1,725 performances between 1888 and 1942 and interpreted Verdi's "Otello" 575 times. To his credit, Paoli was also the first opera singer in the world to record an entire opera when he participated in a performance of "Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo in Italy in 1907.
La bohème
The first performance of "La bohème" outside Italy was at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 June 1896. The opera was given in Alexandria, Lisbon, and Moscow in early 1897. The United Kingdom premiere took place at the Theatre Royal in Manchester, on 22 April 1897, in a presentation by the Carl Rosa Opera Company supervised by Puccini. This performance was given in English and starred Alice Esty as Mimì, Bessie McDonald as Musetta, Robert Cunningham as Rodolfo, and William Paull as Marcello. On 2 October 1897 the same company gave the opera's first staging at the Royal Opera House in London and on 14 October 1897 in Los Angeles for the opera's United States premiere. The opera reached New York City on 16 May 1898 when it was performed at Wallack's Theatre with Giuseppe Agostini as Rodolfo. The first production of the opera actually produced by the Royal Opera House itself premiered on 1 July 1899 with Nellie Melba as Mimì, Zélie de Lussan as Musetta, Fernando De Lucia as Rodolfo, and Mario Ancona as Marcello.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini explored many possible subjects that he ultimately rejected only after a significant amount of effort—such as the creation of a libretto—had been put into them. Among the subjects that Puccini seriously considered, but abandoned, were: "Cristoforo Sly", "Anima Allegra" (based on the play "El genio alegre" by Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero), "Two Little Wooden Shoes" ("I due zoccoletti") (a short story by Maria Louise Ramé, a.k.a. Ouida), the life of Marie Antoinette, Margherita da Cortona, and "Conchita" (based on the novel "La Femme et le pantin" – "The Woman and the Puppet", by Pierre Loüys). Some of these abandoned subjects were taken up and turned into operas by other composers. For example, Franco Vittadini made an opera of "Anima Allegra", Mascagni's opera "Lodoletta" is derived from "Two Little Wooden Shoes", and Riccardo Zandonai eventually wrote "Conchita".
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as "Il trittico" ("Triptych"). It received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on December 14, 1918.
Gianni Schicchi
The one-act opera genre had become increasingly popular in Italy following the 1890 competition sponsored by publisher Edoardo Sonzogno for the best such work, which was won by the young Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana". With "Tosca" essentially completed by November 1899, Puccini sought a new project. Among sources he considered, before proceeding with "Madama Butterfly", were three works by French dramatist Alphonse Daudet that Puccini thought might be made into a trilogy of one-act operas.
Giacomo Puccini
In 1919, Puccini was commissioned to write music to an ode by honoring Italy's victories in World War I. The work, "Inno a Roma" (Hymn to Rome), was to premiere on 21 April 1919, during a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of Rome. The premiere was delayed to 1 June 1919, when it was played at the opening of a gymnastics competition. Although not written for the fascists, "Inno a Roma" was widely played during Fascist street parades and public ceremonies.
Giacomo Puccini
Puccini's next work after "La bohème" was "Tosca" (1900), arguably Puccini's first foray into "verismo", the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. Puccini had been considering an opera on this theme since he saw the play "Tosca" by Victorien Sardou in 1889, when he wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: "I see in this "Tosca" the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music."
The music of "Tosca" employs musical signatures for particular characters and emotions, which have been compared to Wagnerian leitmotivs, and some contemporaries saw Puccini as thereby adopting a new musical style influenced by Wagner. Others viewed the work differently. Rejecting the allegation that "Tosca" displayed Wagnerian influences, a critic reporting on the 20 February 1900 Torino premiere wrote: "I don't think you could find a more Puccinian score than this."
Vittoria Puccini
Cinema
Gianni Schicchi
After "Butterfly" premiered in 1904, Puccini again had difficulty finding a new subject. He further considered the idea of composing three one-act operas to be performed together, but found his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, firmly opposed to such a project, convinced that it would be expensive to cast and produce. The composer then planned to work with his longtime librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa, on an opera about Marie Antoinette, a project frustrated by the librettist's illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, "Will we go back to it? ["Maria Antonietta"] If I find three one-act works that suit me, I'll put off "M.A."" Puccini pursued neither project, as Giacosa's illness led to his death in September 1906.
Gino Marinuzzi
He made guest appearances at the Paris Opéra, the Royal Opera House in London, and the Monte Carlo Opera, where he conducted the world premiere of Puccini's "La rondine" in 1917. He was artistic director of the Chicago Opera Association from 1919 to 1921, and the Rome Opera from 1928 to 1934.
Ettore Panizza
He conducted Puccini's "Turandot" with the ending by Franco Alfano after the world premiere at La Scala on 25 April 1926 conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who stopped at the point where Puccini had ceased writing before his death.
Maria Zamboni
Zamboni became particularly associated with the Teatro Costanzi in Rome and La Scala in Milan. She sang regularly at the Teatro Costanzi from 1922–26 and 1929–30; most notably singing the role of Maria in the 1930 world premiere of Pizzetti's "Lo straniero". In 1924 she joined the roster at La Scala where she sang numerous roles until 1931.
Her first role with the company was as Mimi in Puccini's "La bohème". Most notably, she sang the role of Liu in the original 1926 production of Puccini's "Turandot" under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Her other roles at La Scala included Euridice in Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", Elsa in Wagner's "Lohengrin", Eva in Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", the title part in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut", and Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni".
Turandot
The opera was unfinished at the time of Puccini's death in 1924, and was completed by Franco Alfano in 1926. The first performance was held at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 25 April 1926 and conducted by Arturo Toscanini. This performance included only Puccini's music and not Alfano's additions. The first performance of the opera as completed by Alfano was the following night, 26 April, although it is disputed whether this was conducted by Toscanini again or by Ettore Panizza.
Giacomo Puccini
All of Puccini's operas have at least one set piece for a lead singer that is separate enough from its surroundings that it can be treated as a distinct aria, and most of his works have several of these. At the same time, Puccini's work continued the trend away from operas constructed from a series of set pieces, and instead used a more "through-composed" or integrated construction. His works are strongly melodic. In orchestration, Puccini frequently doubled the vocal line in unison or at octaves in order to emphasize and strengthen the melodic line.
La bohème (disambiguation)
La bohème is an 1896 opera by Giacomo Puccini.
Giacomo Puccini
In 1918, "Il trittico" premiered in New York. This work is composed of three one-act operas, each concerning the concealment of a death: a horrific episode ("Il tabarro") in the style of the Parisian Grand Guignol, a sentimental tragedy ("Suor Angelica"), and a comedy ("Gianni Schicchi"). Of the three, "Gianni Schicchi", containing the popular aria "O mio babbino caro", has remained popular.
Giacomo Puccini
The original version of "Madama Butterfly", premiered at La Scala on 17 February 1904 with Rosina Storchio in the title role. It was initially greeted with great hostility (probably largely owing to inadequate rehearsals). When Storchio's kimono accidentally lifted during the performance, some in the audience started shouting: "The butterfly is pregnant" and "There is the little Toscanini". The latter comment referred to her well publicised affair with Arturo Toscanini. This version was in two acts; after its disastrous premiere, Puccini withdrew the opera, revising it for what was virtually a second premiere at Brescia in May 1904 and performances in Buenos Aires, London, the USA and Paris. In 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version, which has become known as the "standard version". Today, the standard version of the opera is the version most often performed around the world. However, the original 1904 version is occasionally performed as well, and has been recorded.
Jacopo Puccini
His musical style incorporated elements of both the Baroque and early Classic periods. Puccini was known as an excellent organist. He wrote many dramatic and sacred works, including a "Te Deum" for four voices and instruments, a "Domine" for four voices, masses, and psalm settings. Between 1733 and 1780, Puccini wrote 31 "servizi ecclesiastici" for the annual Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Festa della Esaltazione della Santa Croce). Some of Puccini's works, including a processional motet in eight voices, continued to be performed into at least the early 19th Century. A Requiem for eight voices by Puccini was performed at the Vienna Musical Exposition of 1892, together with music by his son Antonio, grandson Domenico, and great-grandson Michele.Five generations of the Puccini family were composers in Lucca.