Giacomo Puccini Biography

Giacomo Puccini

(Lucca, present-day Italy, 1858-Brussels, 1924) Italian composer.Heir to the great Italian lyrical tradition, but at the same time open to other currents and styles typical of the turn of the century, Puccini became the great dominator of the international lyrical scene during the first decades of the 20th century.He was not a prolific creator: without counting a few instrumental pieces and some religious pieces composed in his youth, twelve operas make up the bulk of his production, an insignificant figure compared to those of his predecessors, but enough to make him a key author of the repertoire.operatic and one of the most appreciated and applauded by the public.

Puccini

Giacomo Puccini was born into a family, some of whose members had held, since the 18th century, the position of chapelmaster from Lucca Cathedral.On the death of his father, Michele, in 1863, little Giacomo, despite not having shown a special musical talent, was destined to follow the family tradition, so he began to receive lessons from his uncle Fortunato Magi, with little results.hopeful.

It was at the age of fifteen that the director of the Pacini Music Institute in Lucca, Carlo Angeloni, managed to awaken his interest in the world of sounds.Puccini was then revealed as a good pianist and organist whose presence was disputed in the main halls and churches of the city.

In 1876, Verdi's Aida audition in Pisa was a real revelation for him; under its influence, he decided to devote all his efforts to operatic composition, even if it meant abandoning the family tradition.His years of study at the Milan Conservatory confirmed him in this decision.Amilcare Ponchielli, his teacher, encouraged him to compose his first work for the stage: Le villi , an opera in one act premiered in 1884 with more than appreciable success.

With his third opera, Manon Lescaut , Puccini already found his own voice.The premiere of the work marked his consecration, confirmed by his later work, La bohème , one of his most acclaimed productions.In 1900 the most dramatic opera in his catalog, Tosca , saw the light of day, and four years later the exotic Madama Butterfly .

His style, characterized by skillfully combining stylistic elements from different backgrounds, was already fully configured.In it, the Italian vocal tradition was integrated into a fluid and continuous musical discourse in which the differences between the different numbers of the score were diluted, at the same time that a discreet use was made of some recurring themes, in the manner of Wagner.To this must be added the personal and unmistakable melodic sense of its author, one of the keys to the great acceptance that it has always had among the public.

However, despite his success, after Madama Butterfly Puccini was driven to renew a language that threatened to become a mere formula.With La fanciulla del West he began this new stage, characterized by giving greater importance to the orchestra and by opening up to new harmonies, sometimes at the limits of tonality, which revealed the composer's interest in music by Claude Debussy and Arnold Schönberg.Along the same lines, the Lucca musician promoted the renewal of the arguments of his operas, distanced himself from the conventional themes treated by other composers and advocated greater realism.

All these novelties contributed to the fact that his new operas, including those that make up Il trittico , did not reach, despite their quality, the same degree of popularity as his previous works.His last opera, the most modern and risky of the many he wrote, Turandot , was left unfinished at his death.The task of putting it on top, based on the sketches left by the master, fell to Franco Alfano.

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