TeachOpera : Composers




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			Gaetano Donizetti
			Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
			Giacomo Puccini
			Gioacchino Rossini
			Bedrich Smetana
			Giuseppe Verdi

Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy on December 22, 1858. Though not a child prodigy, he did display musical talent, and began playing the organ at the age of fourteen. By sixteen, he was composing religious music and beginning studies at a local conservatory.

In Milan he studied with the opera composer, Ponchielli, and produced his first stage work, Le Villi, in 1883. This opera attracted the attention of three of the most influential men in the opera world: librettist Arrigo Boito, composer Giuseppe Verdi, and publisher Giulio Ricordi. Ricordi acquired the rights to Le Villi and Puccini became a worldwide success.

His second opera, Edgar was not as successful. Then came Manon Lescaut in 1893. This work marked the beginning of Puccini's mature style and of his careful attention to the opera libretto. The next three works are his most famous: La Boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904).

Later in life he composed La Fanciulla del West (1910); La Rondine (1917); and Il Trittico (1918), which is made up three one-act operas � l Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi. His last work, Turandot, was left incomplete at his death and was finished by Franco Alfano.

Puccini's personal life was an interesting one. He was exceedingly fond of hunting, smoking, attractive woman, mechanical devices of any kind, and acquiring houses. He died in 1924 from a heart attack while undergoing treatment for throat cancer.