Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late Baroque era. His greatest successes were: La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (left incomplete).
Puccini was the last descendant of a family that for two centuries had provided the musical directors of the Cathedral of San Martino in Lucca. Orphaned at the age of five by the death of his father, the municipality of Lucca supported the family with a small pension and kept the position of cathedral organist open for Giacomo until he came of age.
The majority of Puccini’s operas illustrate a theme defined in Il tabarro (1916): “Chi ha vissuto per amore, per amore si morì” (“He who has lived for love, has died for love”).
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