Giacomo Puccini

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was born on 22 December 1858 in Lucca, where he later became church organist and choirmaster. He studied initially with his uncle, and a performance of Verdi's Aida inspired him to write his own operas. From 1880 he studied composition with Amilcare Ponchielli and Antonio Bazzini at the Conservatory in Milan. Whilst there he wrote the one act opera La Villi for a competition. It didn't win, but it was later noticed by Giulio Ricordi, who commissioned him to write a second opera Edgar (1889).

From 1891 he lived mostly at Torre del Lago, near Lucca, and after a few years (and the notable success of his third opera, Manon Lescaut, of 1893) he acquired some land and built the villa now known as the Villa Museo Puccini. Manon Lescaut was his first collaboration with librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. They all went on to produce La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904), Puccini's most popular operas.

After this, his rate of completing operas decreased, following a car accident, some domestic scandal and the death of his publisher Giulio Ricordi. La Fanciulla del West was completed in 1910, La Rondine in 1917 and Il Trittico (three one-act operas) was premièred in New York in 1918.

The end came quite quickly for Puccini in the guise of throat cancer, probably caused by his chain smoking of cigars. He went to Brussels for radiation therapy, where he died on 29 November 1924 from complications caused by the treatment. Turandot, his final opera, hadn't been finished, but it was completed from sketches by Franco Alfano. (Toscanini, who conducted the première, made a second version, based on Alfano's, and a new ending was made by Luciano Berio in 2002, after going back to the original sketches, but Toscanini's version is normally used in performance).

There are contradictions - concerning both the man and his music. Mussolini claimed that Puccini had applied to join the National Fascist Party, although the composer didn't appear to be active in politics. Was he secretive to avoid losing his friendship with the anti-fascist Toscanini?

Puccini's popular style, emphasising melody and influenced strongly by Verdi and to some extent Wagner, uses orchestral colour to create atmosphere, yet there is a common perception that this style lacks depth.