Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini
Born Lucca, 22 December 1858.
Died Brussels, 29 November 1924.
Italian composer.
As the nineteenth century drew to a close and Verdi's long and incomparable operatic career came to an end with Falstaff, there was inevitably something of a scrum among young Italian composers to produce a successor. If the winner was in doubt for a few years, by the time of Verdi's death at the turn of the century there was no longer any question. Puccini came from a long-established dynasty of musicians in Lucca. While he did not provide his own texts, he also had the steely character required to ensure that his librettists provided material tailored to his specific requirements. La bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly are justifiably among the most popular works in the repertoire, and his other pieces are nowadays given more than used to be the case. Only the first two, Le villi and Edgar, composed when he was still obliged to accept a poorly drafted libretto without quibble, have little chance of appearing with any regularity.
Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold. The list at the bottom has links to the details on each opera, which in turn have links to previous casts.
01 Le villi (Milan 1884) (Fontana)
02 Edgar (Milan 1889, rev Ferrara 1892) (Fontana)
03 Manon Lescaut (Turin 1893) (Leoncavallo, Praga, Oliva, Illica, G Ricordi & cpsr)
04 La bohème (Turin 1896) (Giacosa & Illica)
05 Tosca (Rome 1900) (Giacosa & Illica)
06 Madama Butterfly (Milan, rev Brescia 1904) (Giacosa & Illica)
07 La fanciulla del West (New York 1910) (Civinini & Zangarini)
08 La rondine (Monte Carlo 1917) (Adami)
09 Il tabarro (New York 1918) (Adami)
10 Suor Angelica (New York 1918) (Forzano)
11 Gianni Schicchi (New York 1918) (Forzano)
12 Turandot (comp Alfano, ed Toscanini) (Milan 1926) (Adami & Simoni)
© Copyright Opera Scotland 2024
Site by SiteBuddha