PUCCINI, Giacomo
b Lucca, 22 December 1858
d Brussels, 29 November 1924, aged sixty-five

He came from a musical family A visit to Pisa to see Aida when he was eighteen was the beginning of his interest in opera. He studied first at the Pacini Conservatory in Lucca, then in Milan at the Reale Conservatory, under Ponchielli. The publisher Ricordi became his mentor, and the success of Manon Lescaut in 1893 established him. In 1891 he acquired a house in Torre del Lago, where he lived nearly all the rest of his life. He died of cancer of the throat.

1884 (26)

Le Villi, opera

1889 (31)

Edgar, opera

1893 (35)

Manon Lescaut, opera

1896 (38)

La Boheme, opera

1900 (42)

Tosca, opera

1904 (46)

Madam Butterfly, opera

1910 (52)

Girl of the Golden West (La Fanciulla del West), opera

1917 (59)

La Rondine, opera

1918 (60)

Il Trittico, three contrasted one-act operas to be produced in a single evening:

Suor Angelica

Il Tabarro

Gianni Schicchi

Performed posthumously:

1926 Turandot, opera