The last king of Italian opera
Giacomo Puccini inherited Verdi's crown and never let it go. La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot remain among the most performed operas on the planet, and no composer has ever broken hearts more efficiently: a single phrase of "Nessun dorma" or "O mio babbino caro" can move people who have never set foot in an opera house. His secret was simple and unrepeatable — melodies so direct they feel like memories, wrapped in some of the most luxurious orchestration ever written.
From church organ to world stage
Puccini was born into a Lucca dynasty that had supplied the city's church musicians for five generations, and the organ loft was his destiny — until, at eighteen, he walked some thirty kilometres to Pisa to hear Verdi's Aida and came home an opera composer. Success arrived with La bohème and never left, making him rich, famous and thoroughly modern: he was one of the first Italians to own a car and lived like a star at his lakeside villa between premieres in London, Vienna and New York. He died in 1924 leaving his final masterpiece, Turandot, unfinished. At its premiere Toscanini stopped the orchestra mid-act, turned to the audience and announced that here, at this very bar, the Maestro had laid down his pen.
Puccini and Prague
Prague fell for Puccini early: by the turn of the century his operas were conquering both of the city's rival opera houses, Czech and German alike. The connection soon became personal — when Puccini cast the world premiere of La fanciulla del West at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1910, with Caruso singing and Toscanini conducting, he chose the Czech soprano Ema Destinnová as his leading lady; she had already starred in Madama Butterfly's London premiere. His operas have never left Prague's stages since, and his great arias crown the city's opera-gala concerts to this day.