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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The Very Best of Puccini's La bohème
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Gianna d' Angelo
Opera - Released by Remaster Classics on 14 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Turandot, Puccini, Grandes Óperas
Opera - Released by Piros - Lucas on 7 Jul 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Renata Tebaldi, Tito Gobbi
Opera - Released by Past Classics on 14 Mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Suor Angelica
Opera - Released by Past Classics on 18 Nov 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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E Lucevan Le Stelle
Opera - Released by Intermusic S.A. on 17 Aug 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Madame Butterfly
Classical - Released by Zyx - Classic on 15 May 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Bohème Vol 1
Orquesta del Teatro Alla Scala, Coro del Teatro alla Scala
Classical - Released by Piros Comercial Digital on 14 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Best Opera Singers, Vol. II
Opera - Released by SB Clasic on 22 Nov 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
30th Anniversary of Puccini‘s Death (Live)
Giacomo Puccini, Orchestra Sinfonia di Roma della RAI, Alberto Paoletti, Giuseppe Taddei, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Renata Tebaldi
Opera - Released by Archipel on 17 Jul 2020
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Šℯxępëal (delux)
Hip-Hop/Rap - Released by 3478748 Records DK on 22 Dec 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The University of Southern Mississippi Wind Ensemble February 13, 2010
The University of Southern Mississippi Wind Ensemble
Classical - Released by Tresona on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Smallbany (feat. Wole King)
Hip-Hop/Rap - Released by 3478748 Records DK on 21 Nov 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Il Tabarro
Opera - Released by Heritage Records on 26 Mar 2015
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Jussi Björling (1911-1960) - Anniversary
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Naxos on 24 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Bohème
Opera - Released by Heritage Records on 23 Feb 2015
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La Fanciulla Del West (Highlights)
Opera - Released by Stage Door on 15 Jan 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Opera - Released by Heritage Records on 28 Feb 2015
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Concertgebouw Series: Grace Moore, Betty van den Bosch, Ria Ginster, Ruth Horna, Jo Vincent
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Grace Moore, Jo Vincent
Classical - Released by Intermusic S.A. on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Highlights from Madama Butterfly
Opera - Released by Stage Door on 1 Jan 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo