Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini's work

Considered as following in the tradition of Giuseppe Verdi, Manon Lescaut (1893) brought the composer fame beyond the frontiers of Italy. Puccini began to master opera. He called upon good librettists and composed works whose success would be resounding: La Bohème, Tosca (greatly admired by Arnold Schoenberg), Madame Butterfly. He became rich and divided his time between composition, hunting and sports cars.

After briefly turning to operetta, La Rondine (1917), in 1918 Puccini produced his great masterpiece, his trilogy, the Triptych. He was accustomed to describing it as “Without melody, fresh and poignant, it is not an opera”. The composer therefore based his conception of music on fundamental emotions and composed works where the art of beautiful song seemed innate. The lyrical surges are irresistible, sustained by a superbly harmonic backcloth. Beneath the apparent simplicity or evidence of his music, Puccini left complex works. Frequently the key “bursts” according to Schoenberg. The dramatic efficiency of his works is remarkable and his orchestration always voluptuous. Puccini succumbed to cancer in 1924 leaving one of his most daring operas, Turandot, unfinished.