Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini was the most important composer of Italian opera after Verdi. He wrote in the verismo style, a counterpart to the movement of Realism in literature and a trend that favored subjects and characters from everyday life for opera. On his often commonplace settings Puccini lavished memorable melodies and lush orchestration. It was around the turn of the 20th century that he reached his artistic zenith, composing in succession his three most popular and effective operas, La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.
Young Giacomo took organ lessons early on from his uncle, Fortunato Magi, and later from Carlo Angeloni. At ten, he sang in local church choirs and by age 14 was freelancing as an organist at religious services. His first compositions were for organ, often incorporating operatic and folk elements. By age 18, under the spell of Verdi's Aida, he decided he would study composition with a view to writing opera. At around this time, he composed his first large-scale work, a cantata, Preludio Sinfonico, for an 1877 competition. Other pieces came in the next few years, but none of significance.
In 1880, Puccini entered the Milan Conservatory, where he studied for three years under Ponchielli and Bazzini. While there, he wrote his first opera, Le villi, which he once more entered in a competition. Though he lost, Arrigo Boito and, more importantly, publisher Giulio Ricordi helped arrange a premiere in Milan on May 31, 1884. The work was enthusiastically received, and Puccini was on his way.
Around this time the composer met Elvira Gemignani, wife of a merchant in Lucca. They carried on an illicit affair, and she gave birth to his son in 1886. When her husband died in 1904, the two were married. Puccini's next opera, Edgar, was poorly received at its 1889 premiere. Subsequent revisions failed to rescue it from its encumbering libretto. His next effort, however, Manon Lescaut, was a sensational success at its 1893 Turin premiere. Subsequent performances in Italy and abroad bolstered the composer's growing reputation.
Puccini's next three operas confirmed his preeminence in Italian opera. La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904) were not immediately as successful as Manon Lescaut, but in time achieved greater acclaim. By the middle of the 20th century, they had become -- and remain today -- his most often performed and recorded works.
Puccini suffered a creative dry spell for a time and was unable to finish another opera until the moderately successful La fanciulla del West (1910), which premiered in New York with Toscanini conducting and Caruso singing the role of Johnson. His sluggishness of inspiration owed much to charges by his wife that he was having an affair with a servant girl, charges that drove the hapless, and as it turned out, innocent young girl to suicide in 1909.
In 1913, Puccini accepted a lucrative commission from Vienna interests, which resulted in La rondine. Received warmly at its 1917 Monte Carlo premiere, it faded under the judgment it was the least of his operatic efforts. Puccini followed this disappointment with his trilogy of one-act operas, Il trittico -- comprised of Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi -- all premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1918. Only the latter work, a comedy, was well received.
While Puccini was working on his last opera, Turandot, he was diagnosed with throat cancer (1923). During radiation treatment in Brussels, he suffered a heart attack and died on November 29, 1924.
© Robert Cummings /TiVo
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Giuseppe Di Stefano Sings Verdi and Puccini
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Eugenia Ratti, Maria Callas
Opera - Released by Prima Voce on 1 jan. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Madama Butterfly, Act II: Un bel dì vedremo
Opera - Released by Prima Classic on 6 okt. 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Turandot
Opera - Released by Heritage Records on 4 mrt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Quartetto Di Cremona: String Quartets by Ottorino Respighi, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi and Luigi Boccherini (Italian Journey)
Quartetto di Cremona, Ottorino Respighi, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Luigi Boccherini
Klassiek - Released by Rondeau Production on 15 okt. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini - Great Recordings
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 26 nov. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Puccini: Messa di Gloria
Kantorei Maulbronn, Jürgen Budday
Klassiek - Released by K&K Verlagsanstalt on 1 nov. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandi Voci – Mario del Monaco canta Puccini e il verismo - Una collana con registrazioni originali Decca e Deutsche Grammophon rimasterizzate con le tecniche più moderne che ne garantiscono eccellenza tecnica e artistica.
Giacomo Puccini, Giordano, Mario del Monaco
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 27 apr. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Mirella Freni
Klassiek - Released by Butterfly Music on 17 feb. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Bohème, Act I: Si, mi chiamano Mimì
Opera - Released by Prima Classic on 27 okt. 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Opera Classics (Various Artists)
Opera - Released by Rainbow Productions Ltd on 25 apr. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giacomo Puccini, The Organist
Klassiek - Released by Passacaille on 13 okt. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Madame Butterfly - Giacomo Puccini
Opera - Released by JamadaDigital on 25 feb. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Àries d'Òpera
Opera - Released by Àudiovisuals de Sarrià on 12 dec. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giacomo Puccini: Tosca (opera in 3 acts)
Yevgeny Svetlanov, Tamara Milashkina, Zurab Andzhaparidze
Opera - Released by Classical Records on 10 sep. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Boheme
Opera - Released by Sleeping Giant Music on 1 jan. 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini
Klassiek - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC on 3 dec. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
GRANDI VOCI MARIA CHIARA Una collana dedicata con registrazioni originali Decca e Deutsche Grammophon rimasterizzate con le tecniche più moderne che ne garantiscono eccellenza tecnica e artistica
Maria Chiara, Giacomo Puccini, Francesco Cilèa
Klassiek - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 9 jul. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Turandot (Adami & Simoni, Puccini, completed Alfano)
Opera - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 12 dec. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Night at the Opera
Christian Lindberg, Giacomo Puccini, Prince of Denmark Air Force Band, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Klassiek - Released by EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE on 31 jan. 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo