Biography of Giacomo Puccini Born Dec. 22, 1858 in Lucca, Italy; There was a long break before his next premiere, partly due Died Nov. 29, 1924 in Brussels, Belgium to a tragedy in his domestic life. Puccini had begun living with a married woman, Elvira Gemignani, only able to marry Born in 1858 into a long line of musicians in the Italian her himself when her first husband died. Their marriage town of Lucca, Giacomo Puccini was trained as an was not an easy one and eventually Elvira accused Puccini organist. At the age of 18, after hearing a performance of having an affair with a servant girl. The tension in the of Aida, Puccini resolved to become an opera composer household became intolerable and the girl committed and eight years later he began his studies at the Milan suicide. A court case determined that she had not had an Conservatory. Puccini was surrounded by compositional affair with Puccini and Elvira was jailed for five months. The geniuses in Milan: one of his instructors was Amilcare resulting publicity caused Puccini to withdraw for a while Ponchielli (composer of the opera La Gioconda, 1876). and also separate from his wife. They later reconciled but He and Ponchielli shared accommodations with Pietro their marriage was damaged permanently. Mascagni (composer of the opera Cavalleria Rusticana, 1890). In 1882 Puccini entered his first opera Le villi (The In 1910, he composed La fanciulla del West (The Girl of Witches) into a competition run by the publishing firm of the Golden West) for the Metropolitan Opera in New York Sonzogno. It didn’t win but it garnered the attention of the as well as Il trittico, a trio of one-act operas which also publisher Giulio Ricordi, with whom Puccini was to enjoy a premiered at the Met, in 1918. He died in 1924 of throat lifelong association. cancer before he could finish the final scene of his last opera Turandot. The opera was eventually completed by After several moderately successful operas, his first major Franco Alfano and premiered in 1926 at La Scala. international success was Manon Lescaut, premiered in 1893 in Turin. One of Puccini’s best known works La Puccini wrote almost nothing but operas. A meticulous Bohème, premiered in 1896 and was not a great success composer, he worked intensely on his scores, constantly when it was first produced. It has since become one of revising his work until he was satisfied. Although his style the most loved and performed operas in the world. Tosca is firmly rooted in the 19th-century Italian tradition, his later premiered successfully in Rome in 1900 and Madama works reveal cosmopolitan musical tastes, including the Butterfly followed in 1904 at La Scala. influence of French impressionist composers. Canadian Opera Company ~ Education and Outreach ~ Madama Butterfly Study Guide 2009/2010 ~ coc.ca ~ 416-306-2392.