Musicians - Giacomo Puccini

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	Musicians - Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (December 22, 1858 – November 29, 1924) is regarded as one of the great operatic composers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Life

Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy into a family with a long history of music. After the death of his father when he was only five years old, he was sent to study with his uncle Fortunato Magi, who considered him to be a poor and undisciplined student. Later, he took the position of church organist and choir master, but it was not until he saw a performance of Verdi's Aida that he became inspired to be an opera composer. He and a friend walked an entire 13 miles to see the performance in Pisa.

In 1880, the Messa di Gloria (Gloria Mass -- note: the "gloria" mass, more common with Italian liturgical composers than others, only sets the opening two prayers of the Catholic Mass, the Kyrie and the Gloria. Previous examples are Rossini's of 1823, and the extensive "Gloria" settings by Vivaldi), composed at the age of 21, marked the end of Puccini's apprenticeship as a composer and the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca. The work offers fascinating glimpses of the dramatic power that Puccini was soon to unleash on Milan's stages. The orchestration and the overall feeling of drama conveyed by his music establish a dialogue with Verdi's Requiem and perhaps already constitute a prediction of the future operatic career Puccini would embrace for life.

From 1880 to 1883 he studied at the Milan Conservatory under Amilcare Ponchielli and Antonio Bazzini. In 1882, Puccini entered a competition for a one-act opera. Although he did not win, Le Villi was later staged in 1884 at the Teatro dal Verme; it also caught the attention of Giulio Ricordi, head of G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, who commissioned a second opera (Edgar) 1889. From 1891 on, Puccini passed more and more of his time at Torre del Lago, in the Tuscan countryside. In this place on the border of the Massaciuccoli lake, where he passed lots of time hunting, he found refuge from the crowded city. Later he built a villa and moved there definitively in 1900. It was to remain his home and workplace until the very last years of his life. He is buried in the villa's chapel.

Manon Lescaut 1893, his third opera, was a great success and it also began his relationship with the librettests Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, who worked with him on his next three operas. The first of these, La bohème 1896 (based on a story by Henri Murger), is considered one of his best works, as well as one of the most romantic operas ever composed. His next opera, Tosca, 1900 was Puccini's first foray into verismo. Madama Butterfly 1904 (based on a play by David Belasco) was greeted with great hostility at its opening (mostly orchestrated by his rivals), but after some reworking it has become another of his most successful operas.

Composition was slow after this. In 1903 he was injured in an automobile accident. In 1906, Giacosa died. In 1909, there was scandal after Puccini's wife, Elvira, falsely accused their maid of having an affair with Puccini. The maid then committed suicide. And in 1912, Puccini's editor, Ricordi, died.

Nonetheless, in 1910, Puccini completed La fanciulla del West, which he later on thought of as his most powerful opera, and, in 1917, finished the score of La rondine, a piece he reworked from an operetta he had attempted to compose only to find that his style and talent were incompatible with the genre.

In 1918, Il Trittico premiered. This work is composed of three one-act operas in the style of the Parisian Grand Guignol: a horrific episode (Il Tabarro), a sentimental tragedy (Suor Angelica) and a comedy or farce (Gianni Schicchi). Of the three, Gianni Schicchi is the most popular and Il Tabarro the least. Gianni Schicchi, which takes place in Florence, is sometimes performed as a double-bill with a one act opera such as Cavalleria Rusticana or I Pagliacci.

A habitual chain smoker of cigarettes, Puccini began to complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923. A diagnosis of throat cancer led his doctors to recommend a new and experimental treatment called radiation therapy, which was being offered in Brussels, Belgium. He died there on November 29 1924 from complications from the treatment. Uncontrolled bleeding led to a heart attack one day after undergoing 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, but in 1926 his son ordered the transfer of his father's remains to the chapel in his house at Torre del Lago where he still lies together with his wife and son. His death marked the end of opera as a popular art form. Turandot, his last opera was left unfinished. The last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano. When the opera was premiered by Toscanini he had chosen not to perform the score by Alfano. The performance progressed to the last measures that Puccini himself completed and orchestrated, and at this point, the orchestra stopped, and the performers froze in position. Toscanini turned to the audience and said: "Here the opera finishes, because at this point the Maestro died". Only in 2001 an official new completion was made by Luciano Berio.

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