Giacomo Puccini: One of Opera’s Greatest Composers
Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Turandot were among his best
Giacomo Puccini was one of the greatest opera composers of all time. He was unusual among modern composers in writing no mature works that were not operas, having committed himself to this medium from an early age.
He was born in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, on 22nd December 1858, the fifth of seven children of the organist and choirmaster of Lucca’s San Martino Cathedral. This was a position that had been held by the Puccini family for four generations and Giacomo was pencilled in as the next incumbent. However, his father died when Giacomo was only five and he was sent to study with his uncle, who had taken over the position until Giacomo would be old enough to move into his father’s job.
However, Giacomo saw a production of Verdi’s “Aida” at Pisa in 1876 and decided that opera was far more interesting to him than being an organist. He therefore enrolled at Lucca’s Conservatorio Pacini, completing his studies in 1880. He then moved to Milan, which was the Mecca for all budding opera composers, and studied at the Conservatorio Reale between 1880 and 1883.
An uncertain start
While there he entered a competition for a one-act opera, sponsored by a music…