64 Facts About Puccini

Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas.

Puccini's most renowned works are La boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, all of which are among the most frequently performed and recorded of all operas.

Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca, Italy, in 1858.

Puccini was the sixth of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi .

The Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccini's great-great-grandfather – named Giacomo .

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Puccini was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonio's son Domenico, and Domenico's son Michele .

Puccini's father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem.

However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, and thus not capable of taking over his father's job.

Puccini was given a general education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca, and then at the seminary of the cathedral.

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 instructed Alfredo Catalani.

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.

Puccini wrote an orchestral piece called the Capriccio sinfonico as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory.

Puccini's work was favorably reviewed in the Milanese publication La Perseveranza, and thus Puccini began to build a reputation as a young composer of promise in Milanese music circles.

Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Ferdinando Fontana.

Puccini finished primary composition in 1887 and orchestration in 1888.

Puccini made further revisions in 1901 and 1905, but the work never achieved popularity.

Puccini had eloped with his former piano student, the married Elvira Gemignani, and Ricordi's associates were willing to turn a blind eye to his lifestyle as long as he was successful.

On commencing his next opera, Manon Lescaut, Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist" could spoil it.

Four other librettists were then involved with the opera, as Puccini constantly changed his mind about the structure of the piece.

Early biographers such as Wakeling Dry and Eugenio Checchi, who were Puccini's contemporaries, drew express parallels between these incidents and particular events in the opera.

Puccini himself commented: "I lived that Boheme, when there wasn't yet any thought stirring in my brain of seeking the theme of an opera".

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.

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.

In 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version, which has become known as the "standard version".

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Puccini completed La fanciulla del West, based on a play by David Belasco, in 1910.

Puccini completed the score of La rondine, to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami in 1916 after two years of work, and it was premiered at the Grand Theatre de Monte Carlo on 27 March 1917.

La rondine was initially conceived as an operetta, but Puccini eliminated spoken dialogue, rendering the work closer in form to an opera.

Thereafter, especially throughout his middle and late career, Puccini was extremely selective, and at times indecisive, in his choice of subject matter for new works.

Puccini was deeply involved in the process of writing the libretto itself, requiring many iterative revisions of his libretti in terms of both structure and text.

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.

From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time, when not traveling on business, at Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca situated between the Ligurian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of Viareggio.

Puccini lived there until 1921, when pollution produced by peat works on the lake forced him to move to Viareggio, a few kilometres north.

Elvira became pregnant by Puccini, and their son, Antonio, was born in Monza.

In 1906, while attending the opening of Madama Butterfly in Budapest, Puccini fell in love with Blanke Lendvai, the sister of Hungarian composer Ervin Lendvai .

Blanke and Puccini exchanged love letters until 1911, when he started an affair with German aristocrat Baroness Josephine von Stangel, which lasted for six years.

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 influenced the development of his characters such as Liu, a slave girl who dies tragically by suicide.

Press reports at the time when these documents were discovered alleged that Nadia Manfredi was Puccini's granddaughter, by a son, Antonio Manfredi, born to Giulia.

Puccini was criticized during the war for his work on La rondine under a 1913 commission contract with an Austrian theater after Italy and Austria-Hungary became opponents in the war in 1915 .

Puccini did not participate in the public war effort, but privately rendered assistance to individuals and families affected by the war.

In 1919, Puccini was commissioned to write music to an ode by Fausto Salvatori honoring Italy's victories in World War I The work, Inno a Roma, was to premiere on 21 April 1919, during a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of Rome.

Puccini had some contact with Benito Mussolini and the Italian Fascist Party in the year preceding his death.

However, evidence that Puccini was actually a member of the Fascist party is ambiguous.

Puccini hoped to attain this honor, which had been granted to Verdi, and undertook to use his connections to bring about the appointment.

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Puccini wished to establish a national theater in Viareggio, a project which would require government support.

Puccini met with Mussolini twice, in November and December 1923, seeking support for the theater project.

At the time Puccini met with Mussolini, Mussolini had been prime minister for approximately a year, but his party had not yet taken full control of the Italian Parliament through the violence and irregularities of the 1924 general election.

Puccini was no longer alive when Mussolini announced the end of representative government, and the beginning of a fascist dictatorship, in his speech before the Chamber of Deputies on 3 January 1925.

Chain smoker of Toscano cigars and cigarettes, Puccini began to complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923.

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.

Puccini was buried in Milan, in Toscanini's family tomb, but that was always intended as a temporary measure.

Puccini's career extended from the end of the Romantic period into the modern period.

Puccini consciously attempted to 'update' his style to keep pace with new trends, but did not attempt to fully adopt a modern style.

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.

In orchestration, Puccini frequently doubled the vocal line in unison or at octaves in order to emphasize and strengthen the melodic line.

Between 2004 and 2018, Puccini ranked third in the number of performances of his operas worldwide, as surveyed by Operabase.

Italian opera composers of the generation with whom Puccini was compared included Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea, Baron Pierantonio Tasca, Gaetano Coronaro, and Alberto Franchetti .

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 Chenier by Umberto Giordano.

Puccini succeeded in mastering the orchestra as no other Italian had done before him, creating new forms by manipulating structures inherited from the great Italian tradition, loading them with bold harmonic progressions which had little or nothing to do with what was happening then in Italy, though they were in step with the work of French, Austrian and German colleagues.

Puccini describes the aria in musical terms, 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.

Puccini has consistently been the target of condescension by some music critics who find his music insufficiently sophisticated or difficult.

Puccini willingly stops himself at minor genius, stroking the taste of the public.

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.