Giacomo Puccini

Many people enter the world of opera through the door of Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924) who composed from the late nineteenth century until his death in 1924.  He was insanely popular during his lifetime, and three of his operas--Tosca, La Bohème and Madama Butterfly--are still in the top 10 most popular operas.

Puccini is a representative of a style called verismo, a kind of reality check for opera.  Instead of gods and kings, the heroes and heroines are ordinary people, living, falling in love, killing and dying in sordid ordinary ways.  His music is characterized by beautiful melodies, lush romantic harmonies, rich orchestration and full voices.  As with all composers, how full each character's voice is varies from one opera to another.  The biggest voices for Puccini are in Turandot and La fanciulla del west.

His most popular operas are:

• Manon Lescaut, #40, libretto by Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva (1 February 1893)  [I recommend Met on Demand 29-Mar-80]  [blog post], [blog post],
• La bohème, #4, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (1 February 1896)  [I recommend Met on Demand 15-Mar-77] [blog post],
• Tosca, #6, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (14 January 1900)  [I recommend Met on Demand 10-Oct-09] [blog post],
• Madama Butterfly, #8, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (17 February 1904)  [I recommend Met on Demand 7-Mar-09] [blog post],
• La fanciulla del West, #100, libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini (10 December 1910)  [I recommend Met on Demand 8-Apr-92] [blog post],
• La rondine, libretto by Giuseppe Adami (27 March 1917)  [I recommend Met on Demand 10-Jan-09] [blog post],
• Il trittico (14 December 1918)  [blog post], [blog post],
  • Il tabarro, #97, libretto by Giuseppe Adami
  • Suor Angelica, #74, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
  • Gianni Schicchi, #43, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
• Turandot, #15, libretto by Renato Simoni and Giuseppe Adami (incomplete at the time of Puccini's death, completed by Franco Alfano: 25 April 1926)  [I recommend Met on Demand 7-Nov-09] [blog post],

For a first opera one generally recommends La Bohème.