Giacomo Puccini

by Georg Predota, Interlude

“Inspiration is an awakening”

Giacomo Puccini

One of the most important and influential composers in the history of opera, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) produced works of emotional depth, melodic beauty, and rich orchestration. Bringing a new level of realism and expressiveness to the genre, Puccini’s masterworks are famous for their vivid characterisations and the ability to convey complex human emotions.

As Michele Girardi writes, “Puccini revolutionised Italian opera by mastering the orchestra and introducing bold harmonic progressions, aligning with European trends rather than traditional Italian styles. His innovative blending of lyrical vocal lines with intricate orchestral textures produced tender moments of sublime vocalism nestled within the passionate “verismo” style.” On the occasion of Puccini’s birthday on 22 December, let us explore this revolutionary composer through his music. 

Giacomo Puccini: Turandot, “Nessun Dorma” 

Early Days

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini, born on December 22, 1858, in Lucca, Italy, was part of a prominent musical family that had held the position of maestro di cappella for over a century. His father, Michele, was a church organist and choirmaster who died when Puccini was only six, marking a significant turning point in his life. Despite early academic struggles, including a reputation for being a bit of a troublemaker, Puccini pursued music under his uncle and later at the Pacini School of Music, eventually earning a diploma in 1880.

Giacomo Puccini continued his studies at the Milan Conservatory, composing his first Mass and submitting the Capriccio Sinfonico, a work that earned him recognition, as his graduation project. His first opera, Le Villi, dates from 1884 and was the result of a collaboration with poet Ferdinando Fontana. Puccini continued to revise and expand the opera, and the final version was issued in 1889. In terms of harmonic delicacy and dramatic orchestration, it laid the foundation for his future opera career.

Giacomo Puccini: Le Villi, “Torna ai felici di”

Edgar and Beyond

Giacomo Puccini’s Edgar

Based on a poem by Alfred de Musset, Puccini’s next opera Edgar premiered at La Scala in 1889. Lacking dramatic cohesion and despite a number of revisions, the work was poorly received and ultimately was Puccini’s only true failure. However, Puccini clearly learned his lesson and Manon Lescaut of 1893 became a great success. The libretto underwent a rather complicated development until librettist Luigi Illica strengthened the score and improved the drama.

A scholar writes, “drawing from Wagner’s idea of the leitmotif and combining it with the Italian dramma in musica, Puccini advanced the integration of music and drama.” In other words, Puccini uses recurring themes to represent the emotions and destinies of his characters, as Manon’s theme is repeated throughout the opera, symbolising the heroin’s fate and relationship with her lover. According to scholars, “Puccini’s skilful use of symphonic structures and thematic relationships in Manon Lescaut pushed the boundaries of the operatic genre.”

Giacomo Puccini: Manon Lescaut, “Sola perduta abbandonata”

Realism and La Bohème

Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème

La Bohème is based on Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de Bohème, a collection of loosely related stories all set in the Latin Quarters of Paris. Puccini collaborated with librettists Illica and Giacosa to create a seamless integration of text and music. In fact, a good many people consider it Puccini’s finest libretto. La Bohème, premiered in 1896, stands out for its blend of realism and poetry. Puccini moved beyond traditional operatic forms by using continuous music to reflect everyday life.

Puccini uses lyrical melodies, varied orchestration, and recurring motifs to deepen emotional and narrative impact. The opera’s realism is highlighted in the second scene with dynamic and fast-paced action as cinematic events bring the environment to life. A scholar writes, “a cyclical structure elevates the personal tragedy to a universal level, leaving the sorrow fixed in the timeless realm of art.” In Bohème, Puccini was able to achieve that perfect balance of realism and romanticism, of comedy and pathos, which makes it one of the most satisfying works in the operatic repertory.

Giacomo Puccini: La Bohème, “Quando m’en vo” 

Realism and Tosca

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca poster

In Tosca, Puccini focused on personal conflicts rather than social status. The story pits the passionate opera singer Floria Tosca and the painter Mario Cavaradossi against the heinous chief of police, Baron Scarpia. The opera explores the fleeting nature of Tosca and Cavaradossi’s love against a backdrop of political and religious conflict. The operatic realism is grounded in historical details and in the choice of three famous Roman locations.

Tosca is the most Wagnerian of Puccini’s operas. It musically relies on a web of musical leitmotivs, providing glimpses of a character’s thoughts and emotional state. Puccini’s musical language, featuring diatonic melodies and successions of unrelated chords, perfectly complements the theatrical and dramatic aspects of the work, and his blending of dramatic realism with modern operatic technique “marked his entry into the 20th century.”

Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, “Vissi d’arte” 

The Exotic

Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly

Puccini saw the one-act play Madame Butterfly, written and produced by the American playwright David Belasco in London in 1900. Drawn to the emotional depth of the story, Puccini crafted a powerful exploration of love, delusion, and tragedy. In terms of music, Puccini was striving for a sense of Japanese authenticity, engaging in exhaustive research to find, or at least approximate that sense of musical identity.

In all, Puccini revised his Butterfly for a grand total of five times, with the 1907 version considered to be his final say. In Butterfly, Puccini found a wonderful balance between the sentimental and the overwhelming, as moments of great delicacy alternate with emotional outbursts. The conflict is both personal and cultural, and through his unforgettable melodies, not to mention his sophisticated style of orchestration that cleverly aligns specific instrumental groups and orchestral timbres to match distinct dramatic moments, Puccini’s timeless creation will continue to resonate on a variety of psychological and cognitive levels.

Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly, “Vogliatemi bene” 

Evolution

Giacomo Puccini’s La fanciulla del West poster

Puccini called his opera La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) his “greatest work.” The work had been seven years in the making and originated during a period of severe family strife. As his long-time collaborator Luigi Illica had died in 1906, Puccini struggled to find a replacement. Puccini was also looking for new directions as he had grown disillusioned with conventional opera genres. A scholar writes, “La fanciulla departs from his earlier operas’ reliance on strict realism and instead delves into more symbolic, emotional expression.”

The opera’s dramatic complexity, innovative use of orchestration, and its departure from rigid realism show a composer at the height of his powers, experimenting with new ways to connect with modern audiences. Clearly, he was not able to please everyone as a good many commentators suggested that Puccini’s music represented a debasement and cheapening of pure Italian values. And his considerable fame abroad was seen as proof that the composer had “wilfully sacrificed national character for cheap commercial exploitation.”

Giacomo Puccini: La fanciulla del West, “Ch’ella mi creda libero e lontano” 

Unity

Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico recording cover

After the success of La fanciulla and La Rondine, Puccini eagerly explored this convergence of theatre and music. He began work on a one-act opera in 1913, however, he ended up with a collection of three one-act operas entitled Il Trittico. Comprising Il Tabarro (The Cloak), Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica), and Gianni Schicchi, Puccini attempted to draw together three different operatic genres, the dramatic, sentimental and comic, respectively, in a single project.

In Il trittico, Puccini shows himself to be the undisputed master of musical-dramatic continuity. This continuity becomes apparent within both the constraints of each singular one-act opera, as well as spanning a whole evening of operatic entertainment. This fascinating exploration of contrasting genres continues to be “one of the most innovative and complex works in the operatic canon.”

Giacomo Puccini: Gianni Schicchi, “O mio babbino caro” 

Final Effort

Poster of Turandot‘s performance

Puccini began working on his opera Turandot in the winter of 1919/20, urging his librettists Adami and Simoni to supply him with an Italian translation of Schiller’s adaptation of Carlo Gozzi’s play. Depicting distant lands and customs was a centuries-old musical tradition and Puccini demanded to “find a Chinese element to enrich the drama and relieve the artificiality of it, and to make use of Chinese syllables to give it a Chinese flavour.”

Puccini, once again, looked for a sense of authenticity in this musical characterisation. He visited a former diplomat in China, who owned a music box of genuine Chinese tunes. Three melodies from this music box ultimately found their way into the operatic score. Puccini left his last and most ambitious project unfinished, and Turandot has been described as “the last great Italian opera.”

However, much of the work is not Italian, as it draws on other cultures. Yet, it is in no way authentically Chinese either. A scholar writes, “it is a Western projection of the East, rife with contradictions, distortions, and racial stereotypes, and yet is also one of the most exhilarating and impressive works ever to take the operatic stage.”

Giacomo Puccini - his music and his life

 

Puccini is one of the most beloved of all opera composers La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot still play to packed opera houses the world over. Generally snubbed by the critics, Puccini was a serial adulterer whose greatest passions (apart from women) were massacring the local duck population and hurtling around in high-speed cars and boats. Yet behind the macho image, he was a creative artist of profound sensitivity and dramatic flair. This essential music companion provides a compelling overview of the constant tension between Puccini's indulgent personal life, his status as an international celebrity and his excruciatingly high standards as a composer.

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini started the operatic trend toward realism with popular works such as 'La Bohème' and 'Madama Butterfly.'

Who Was Giacomo Puccini?

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini started the operatic trend toward realism with his popular works, which are among the most often performed in opera history. But the fame and fortune that came with such successes as La Bohème, Madama Butterfly and Tosca were complicated by an often-troubled personal life. Puccini died of post-operative shock on November 29, 1924.

Early Life

Giacomo Puccini was born on December 22, 1858, in Lucca, Italy, where since the 1730s his family had been tightly interwoven with the musical life of the city, providing five generations of organists and composers to the Cathedral of San Martino, Lucca’s religious heart. It was therefore taken for granted that Puccini would carry on this legacy, succeeding his father, Michele, in the role first held by his great-great grandfather. However, in 1864 Michele passed away when Puccini was just 5 years old, and so the position was held for him by the church in anticipation of his eventual coming of age.

But the young Puccini was disinterested in music and was a generally poor student, and for a time it seemed that the Puccini musical dynasty would end with Michele. Puccini’s mother, Albina, believed otherwise and found him a tutor at the local music school. His education was also subsidized by the city, and over time, Puccini started to show progress. By the age of 14 he had become the church organist and was beginning to write his first musical compositions as well. But Puccini discovered his true calling in 1876, when he and one of his brothers walked nearly 20 miles to the nearby city of Pisa to attend a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. The experience planted in Puccini the seeds of what would become a long and lucrative career in opera.

From Milan to 'Manon'

Motivated by his newfound passion, Puccini threw himself into his studies and in 1880 gained admission to the Milan Conservatory, where he received instruction from noted composers. He graduated from the school in 1883, submitting the instrumental composition Capriccio sinfonico as his exit piece. His first attempt at opera came later that year, when he composed the one-act La villi for a local competition. Although it was snubbed by the judges, the work won itself a small group of admirers, who ultimately funded its production.

Premiering at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan in May 1884, La villi was well received by the audience. But more importantly, it caught the attention of the music publisher Giulio Ricordi, who acquired the rights to the piece and commissioned Puccini to compose a new opera for La Scala, one of the most important opera houses in the country. Performed there in 1889, Edgar was an utter failure. But Ricordi’s faith in Puccini’s talents remained unshakable, and he continued to support the composer financially as he set to work on his next composition.

Blaming the failure of Edgar on its weak libretto (the lyrical portion of an opera), Puccini set out to find a strong story on which to base his new work. He decided on an 18th-century French novel about a tragic love affair and collaborated with the librettists Guiseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica on its adaption. Manon Lescaut premiered in Turin on February 2, 1893, to great acclaim. Before the year was out, it was performed at opera houses in Germany, Russia, Brazil and Argentina as well, and the resulting royalties paid the 35-year-old Puccini quite handsomely. Despite this overwhelming success, however, his best was still to come.

The Big Three: 'La Bohème' and 'Madama Butterfly'

With their accessible melodies, exotic subject matter and realistic action, Puccini’s next three compositions are considered to be his most important; over time they would become the most widely performed in opera history. The result of another collaboration between Puccini, Giacosa and Illica, the four-act opera La Bohème was premiered in Turin on February 1, 1896, again to great public (if not critical) acclaim. In January 1900, Puccini’s next opera, Tosca, premiered in Rome and was also enthusiastically received by the audience, despite fears that its controversial subject matter (from the novel of the opera’s same name) would draw the public’s ire. Later that year, Puccini attended a production of the David Belasco play Madam Butterfly in New York City and decided that it would be the basis of his next opera. Several years later, on February 17, 1904, Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala. Though initially criticized for being too long and too similar to Puccini’s other work, Butterfly was later split up into three shorter acts and became more popular in subsequent performances.

His fame widespread, Puccini spent the next few years traveling the world to attend productions of his operas to ensure that they met his high standards. He would continue to work on new compositions as well, but his often-complicated personal life would see to it that one would not be immediately forthcoming for some time.