Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (22 December 1858 – 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer best known for writing operas. He is considered the most successful and important supporter of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccini came from a family of composers who lived during the late Baroque era. His early works followed traditional styles of late-nineteenth-century Romantic Italian opera, but later, he helped develop a realistic style called verismo, becoming one of its main creators.

His most famous operas include La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (unfinished, completed later by Franco Alfano). These works are among the most often performed and recorded in the history of opera.

Family and education

Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in 1858. He was the sixth of nine children born to Michele Puccini (1813–1864) and Albina Magi (1830–1884). The Puccini family had been important in Lucca’s musical history for many years. Giacomo’s great-great-grandfather, also named Giacomo (1712–1781), helped establish the family as a local musical dynasty. This first Giacomo Puccini, sometimes called Jacopo, served as maestro di cappella (music leader) of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca. His son, Antonio Puccini, and later Antonio’s son, Domenico, and then Domenico’s son, Michele, held the same position. Each generation of Puccini studied music at Bologna, and some also studied elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied with Giovanni Paisiello for a time. All of them composed music for the church. Domenico wrote several operas, and Michele wrote one opera. Michele Puccini was well-known across northern Italy, and when he died in 1864, many people mourned him publicly. The composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem at his funeral.

By the time Michele Puccini died in 1864, the Puccini family had held the position of maestro di cappella for 124 years (1740–1864). It was expected that Michele’s son, Giacomo, would take over the role when he grew older. However, Giacomo was only six years old when his father died and could not assume the position. As a child, he still took part in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, first as a member of the boys’ choir and later as a substitute organist.

Puccini received his general education at the San Michele seminary in Lucca and later at the cathedral’s seminary. His uncle, Fortunato Magi, helped teach him music. In 1880, Puccini earned a diploma from Lucca’s Pacini School of Music, where he studied with Magi and later with Carlo Angeloni, who also taught Alfredo Catalani. A grant from Queen Margherita and help from another uncle, Nicholas Cerù, allowed Puccini to continue his studies at the Milan Conservatory for three more years. At the conservatory, he studied composition with Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti, Amilcare Ponchielli, Amintore Galli, and Antonio Bazzini. He shared a dormitory with Pietro Mascagni. Later that year, Puccini composed his Mass, which marked the end of his family’s long tradition of creating music for religious ceremonies in Lucca.

Early career and first operas

As part of his final project at the Milan Conservatory, Puccini composed an orchestral piece called Capriccio sinfonico ("Symphonic caprice"). His teachers, Ponchielli and Bazzini, were impressed by his work. The piece was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on July 14, 1883, with Franco Faccio conducting. The Capriccio received good reviews in the Milan newspaper La Perseveranza, helping Puccini gain recognition as a promising young composer in Milan.

After the Capriccio premiered, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility of Puccini writing an opera next. Ponchielli invited Puccini to his villa, where he met Ferdinando Fontana. They agreed to work together on an opera, with Fontana writing the libretto (the text of an opera). Puccini submitted his opera, Le Villi ("The Fairies"), to a competition organized by Casa Musicale Sonzogno in April 1883. The competition sought new, unperformed operas inspired by Italian traditions. A panel of judges, including Galli and Ponchielli, would evaluate the entries. However, Puccini’s submission was disqualified because the manuscript was hard to read. In 1889, the competition was won by Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana.

Despite the disqualification, Le Villi was later performed at the Teatro Dal Verme on May 31, 1884. Casa Ricordi helped by printing the libretto for free. Many students from the Milan Conservatory played in the orchestra. The performance was successful enough for Casa Ricordi to buy the opera. After revisions, Le Villi was performed at La Scala in Milan on January 24, 1885. However, Ricordi did not publish the score until 1887, which limited further performances.

Encouraged by Le Villi, music publisher Giulio Ricordi asked Puccini to write a second opera, Edgar. Fontana began planning the story for the libretto in 1884. Puccini completed the main composition in 1887 and the orchestration in 1888. Edgar premiered at La Scala on April 21, 1889, but the audience response was weak. The opera was revised after its third performance. Ricordi defended Puccini’s talent in a Milan newspaper but criticized Fontana’s libretto. A revised version of Edgar was successful when it premiered in Puccini’s hometown of Lucca on September 5, 1891. Further revisions in 1892 shortened the opera from four acts to three, and it was well received in Ferrara, Turin, and Spain. Puccini made more changes in 1901 and 1905, but the opera never became popular. Without Ricordi’s support, Edgar’s failure might have ended Puccini’s career. At the time, Puccini had left his wife to be with his former piano student, Elvira Gemignani. Ricordi’s associates tolerated Puccini’s personal life as long as he was successful. When Edgar failed, they suggested Ricordi stop supporting Puccini, but Ricordi refused and continued to fund him until his next opera.

When Puccini began work on his next opera, Manon Lescaut, he announced he would write the libretto himself to avoid "a foolish librettist" ruining it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept Ruggero Leoncavallo as the librettist, but Puccini soon asked Ricordi to remove him. Four other librettists were involved as Puccini changed his mind about the opera’s structure. By chance, the final two librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, completed the work together.

Manon Lescaut premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on February 2, 1893. Around the same time, Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff, premiered on February 9, 1893. Before Manon Lescaut’s premiere, La Stampa wrote that Puccini was a young man with "great hopes" that were "not empty dreams." However, because of Edgar’s failure, another failure with Manon Lescaut could have ended Puccini’s career. Although Ricordi supported Puccini during the opera’s development, the Casa Ricordi board considered cutting his financial support. Regardless, Manon Lescaut was Puccini’s first and only uncontested success, praised by both critics and the public. After its London premiere in 1894, George Bernard Shaw said, "Puccini looks to me more like the heir of Verdi than any of his rivals."

Manon Lescaut’s success made Puccini the most promising young composer of his time and the likely successor to Verdi as Italy’s leading operatic composer. Illica and Giacosa returned as librettists for Puccini’s next three operas: La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, which are considered his greatest successes.

Middle career

After Manon Lescaut, Puccini's next opera was La bohème ("The bohemian lifestyle"), a four-act work based on the 1851 book La Vie de Bohème by Henri Murger. La bohème premiered in Turin in 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Within a few years, it was performed in many major European opera houses, including in Britain and the United States. It became a popular success and is still one of the most frequently performed operas in the world.

The opera’s story, adapted from Murger’s book, mixes humor and sadness. It shows the struggles of young, poor characters, such as the young seamstress Mimí, who dies. Puccini’s own life as a young man in Milan influenced the story. While studying at a music school and before writing Manon Lescaut, he faced poverty similar to the characters in La bohème, including a lack of food, clothing, and money for rent. Though he received a small monthly allowance from a charity in Rome, he often had to sell his belongings to pay for basic needs. Early biographers, such as Wakeling Dry and Eugenio Checchi, noted similarities between Puccini’s life and events in the opera. Checchi referenced a diary Puccini kept as a student, which described a time when four people shared one herring for dinner, just as in Act 4 of the opera. Puccini once said, “I lived that Bohème, when there wasn’t yet any thought of writing an opera about it.”

Puccini’s work on La bohème led to a public disagreement with composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo. In 1893, both composers learned they were writing operas based on Murger’s book. Leoncavallo had started first and claimed priority, but Puccini said he had no knowledge of Leoncavallo’s project. He wrote, “Let him compose. I will compose. The audience will decide.” La bohème premiered a year before Leoncavallo’s opera, which quickly faded from popularity, while Puccini’s work remains a favorite.

After La bohème, Puccini’s next opera was Tosca (1900), considered his first work in verismo, a style that shows real life, including violence. Puccini had wanted to write an opera based on Victorien Sardou’s play Tosca since 1889. He asked his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, to get permission to adapt the play, saying, “I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music.”

The music of Tosca uses themes tied to specific characters and emotions, similar to techniques used by Richard Wagner. Some critics believed this showed Wagner’s influence, but others disagreed. A critic who reviewed the opera’s premiere in Torino in 1900 said, “I don’t think you could find a more Puccinian score than this.”

On February 25, 1903, Puccini was seriously injured in a car crash during a nighttime drive from Lucca to Torre del Lago. The car, driven by his chauffeur, carried Puccini, his future wife Elvira, and their son Antonio. The vehicle went off the road, flipped over, and landed several meters below. Elvira and Antonio escaped with minor injuries, but Puccini was pinned under the car with a broken leg and chest injuries. A doctor and another person helped rescue him. His injuries took months to heal, and medical tests later revealed he had diabetes. The accident delayed the completion of his next opera.

The original version of Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala on February 17, 1904, with Rosina Storchio in the lead role. It was poorly received, likely due to poor rehearsals. During the performance, Storchio’s kimono lifted, and some audience members shouted, “The butterfly is pregnant” and “There is the little Toscanini,” referencing her public relationship with Arturo Toscanini. The opera had two acts, but after its failure, Puccini revised it and staged it again in Brescia in May 1904 and later in Buenos Aires, London, the United States, and Paris. In 1907, he made final changes, creating the “standard version” now most commonly performed. The original 1904 version is occasionally performed and recorded, but the standard version is the most widely seen today.

Later works

After 1904, Puccini composed fewer operas. In 1906, Giacosa died, and in 1909, a scandal occurred when Puccini’s wife, Elvira, wrongly accused their maid, Doria Manfredi, of having an affair with Puccini. In 1912, the death of Giulio Ricordi, Puccini’s editor and publisher, marked the end of a productive time in his career.

Puccini completed La fanciulla del West ("The Damsel of the West"), based on a play by David Belasco, in 1910. This opera was commissioned by and first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on December 10, 1910. It featured stars Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn, who played the main roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie. Arturo Toscanini, the Met’s musical director at the time, conducted the performance. This was the first opera world premiere at the Met. The performance was successful, but the opera’s style, which had few separate arias, was criticized. Some people also said the opera did not sound very American. However, the opera is praised for using advanced musical techniques and for including a famous aria, Ch’ella mi creda, which became a favorite among tenors. During World War I, Italian soldiers sang this aria to keep their spirits up. A 2008 Italian film, Puccini e la fanciulla ("Puccini and the Girl"), is based on the time Puccini composed this opera.

Puccini completed the score for La rondine ("The Swallow") in 1916, using a libretto by Giuseppe Adami. It premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo on March 27, 1917. The opera was originally planned for Vienna’s Carltheater, but World War I prevented its premiere there. Ricordi’s company rejected the opera, as Tito Ricordi, Giulio’s son, called it "bad Lehár." Lorenzo Sonzogno, a competitor, arranged the first performance in neutral Monaco. Puccini continued revising this opera, his least-known mature work, until his death.

La rondine was first planned as an operetta, but Puccini removed spoken dialogue, making it more like a traditional opera. A modern reviewer described it as having "a continuous fabric of lilting waltz tunes, catchy pop-styled melodies, and nostalgic love music," while noting that its plot reused characters and events from operas like La traviata and Die Fledermaus.

In 1918, Il trittico ("The Triptych") premiered in New York. This work includes three one-act operas, each about hiding a death: Il tabarro ("The Cloak"), a horror-themed piece inspired by Parisian Grand Guignol; Suor Angelica ("Sister Angelica"), a sentimental tragedy; and Gianni Schicchi, a comedy.

Turandot, Puccini’s final opera, was left unfinished when he died in November 1924. Franco Alfano completed the last two scenes based on Puccini’s sketches. The libretto was adapted from a play by Carlo Gozzi. The opera uses pentatonic musical themes to create an Asian-inspired sound. It includes memorable arias, such as Nessun dorma.

Librettists

The libretto of Edgar was a major reason for the opera's failure. After this, especially during his middle and late years, Puccini was very careful in choosing subjects for his operas, but sometimes he struggled to decide. Puccini was deeply involved in writing the libretto, and he often asked for many changes to its structure and text. His relationships with the people who wrote the libretti were sometimes difficult. His publisher, Casa Ricordi, often had to help solve disagreements between Puccini and his librettists.

Puccini considered many subjects for his operas but rejected them only after spending a lot of time and effort, such as creating a libretto. Some of the subjects he seriously thought about but later gave up on included Cristoforo Sly, Anima Allegra (based on a play by Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero), Two Little Wooden Shoes (I due zoccoletti) (a short story by Maria Louise Ramé, also known as Ouida), the life of Marie Antoinette, Margherita da Cortona, and Conchita (based on the novel La Femme et le pantin – The Woman and the Puppet by Pierre Loüys). Some of these subjects were later used by other composers to create operas. For example, Franco Vittadini wrote an opera based on Anima Allegra, Pietro Mascagni's opera Lodoletta was inspired by Two Little Wooden Shoes, and Riccardo Zandonai eventually composed Conchita.

Torre del Lago

From 1891, Puccini spent most of his time at Torre del Lago, a small community about fifteen miles from Lucca. This place is located between the Ligurian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli, just south of Viareggio. Torre del Lago was the main place where Puccini enjoyed hunting. He once said, "I love hunting, I love cars: and for these things, in the quiet of Torre del Lago, I keep the faith." ("Amo la caccia, adoro l'automobile: e a questo e a quella nelle solitudini di Torre del Lago serbo intera la mia fede.")

By 1900, Puccini had bought land and built a villa on the lake, now called "Villa Puccini." He lived there until 1921, when pollution from peat production on the lake forced him to move to Viareggio, a few kilometers north. After his death, a mausoleum was built in Villa Puccini. Puccini is buried there in the chapel, along with his wife and son, who died later.

The Villa Museo was owned by his granddaughter, Simonetta Puccini, until her death. It is now open to the public. An annual Festival Puccini is held at Torre del Lago.

Marriage and affairs

In the autumn of 1884, in Lucca, Puccini began a relationship with Elvira Gemignani, a married woman who had previously studied piano with him. Elvira’s husband, Narciso Gemignani, was known for not stopping his behavior with other women, and their marriage was unhappy. Elvira became pregnant with Puccini’s child, and their son, Antonio, was born in Monza in 1886. To avoid gossip, Elvira left Lucca before the pregnancy was visible and gave birth elsewhere. After the birth, Elvira, Antonio, and Elvira’s daughter from her previous marriage, Fosca, began living with Puccini. Narciso died on February 26, 1903, one day after Puccini was in a car accident. Only in early 1904, after Narciso’s death, did Puccini and Elvira marry and officially recognize Antonio as their son.

Puccini and Elvira’s marriage faced challenges due to infidelity. Puccini had many affairs, including with famous singers such as Maria Jeritza, Emmy Destinn, Cesira Ferrani, and Hariclea Darclée. In 1906, during the opening of Madama Butterfly in Budapest, Puccini fell in love with Blanke Lendvai, the sister of his friend Ervin Lendvai. They exchanged love letters until 1911, when Puccini began an affair with Baroness Josephine von Stangel, which lasted six years.

In 1909, Elvira accused Doria Manfredi, a maid in the Puccini household, of having an affair with Puccini. After the accusation, Doria Manfredi committed suicide. However, a medical examination showed that she had died a virgin, proving the claims were false. Elvira was charged with slander and sentenced to more than five months in prison. Puccini paid the Manfredi family to avoid Elvira serving her sentence. Some critics have suggested that this event may have affected Puccini’s ability to complete his compositions later in life and may have influenced characters like Liù from Turandot, a slave girl who dies tragically by suicide.

In 2007, documents found by Nadia Manfredi, a descendant of the Manfredi family, suggested that Puccini was having an affair with Giulia Manfredi, Doria’s cousin. These documents led the press to claim that Puccini may have fathered Giulia’s son, Antonio, making Nadia a possible granddaughter of Puccini.

Politics

Puccini was not involved in politics, unlike Wagner and Verdi. A biographer named Mary Jane Phillips-Matz wrote, "During World War I and the time after, Puccini showed almost no interest in politics, as he had throughout his life. He seemed uninterested in matters like local elections in Viareggio or government positions in Rome." Another biographer suggested that Puccini might have supported a monarchy if he had a political belief.

Puccini’s lack of political interest caused problems during World War I. His close friendship with Toscanini was broken for nearly a decade after an argument in 1914, when Puccini said Italy could benefit from German organization. He also faced criticism during the war for working on La rondine, a piece commissioned by an Austrian theater in 1913. Italy and Austria-Hungary became enemies in 1915, but the contract was later canceled. Puccini did not join public war efforts, but he helped individuals and families affected by the war privately.

In 1919, Puccini was asked to write music for an ode by Fausto Salvatori celebrating Italy’s World War I victories. The piece, Inno a Roma (Hymn to Rome), was meant to be performed on April 21, 1919, during a Rome anniversary event. It was delayed until June 1, 1919, when it was played at a gymnastics competition opening. Though not created for the Fascists, Inno a Roma was later used in Fascist parades and ceremonies.

Before his death, Puccini had some contact with Benito Mussolini and the Italian Fascist Party. In 1923, the Fascist Party in Viareggio honored Puccini with an honorary membership card. However, there is no clear proof he was a party member. Puccini hoped to become an honorary senator, a title given to people who made cultural contributions to Italy, like Verdi. He worked to gain this honor and sought government support for a national theater in Viareggio. Puccini met Mussolini twice in 1923 to ask for help with the theater project. Though the theater was never built, Puccini was named a lifetime senator shortly before his death.

When Puccini met Mussolini, Mussolini had been prime minister for about a year, but his party had not yet fully controlled the Italian Parliament through the violent and unfair 1924 election. Puccini died before Mussolini ended representative government and started a fascist dictatorship in his speech on January 3, 1925.

Death

Giacomo Puccini, who smoked many cigars and cigarettes, started experiencing a long-lasting sore throat by the end of 1923. His doctors diagnosed him with throat cancer and suggested a new type of radiation treatment being tested in Brussels. Puccini and his wife did not fully understand the seriousness of his illness because the information was only shared with his son.

Puccini died in Brussels on November 29, 1924, at the age of 65, due to complications from the treatment. Uncontrolled bleeding caused a heart attack the day after his surgery. Even though he was not a very religious Catholic, Puccini received the last religious rites from Cardinal Clemente Micara, who was also a cellist, a fellow musician, and a personal friend of the composer. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème. The opera was stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin’s Funeral March for the shocked audience.

Puccini’s funeral took place at Saint Mary’s Royal Church in Schaerbeek, Brussels. He was buried in Milan, in Toscanini’s family tomb, but this was meant to be temporary. In 1926, on the second anniversary of his death, his son arranged to move his father’s remains to a special chapel built inside the Puccini villa at Torre del Lago.

Style and critical reception

Giacomo Puccini composed music in the style of the late Romantic period, a time in classical music history. Music historians also describe Puccini as part of a group called the giovane scuola ("young school"), which included composers like Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo. These composers began creating operas in Italy as Giuseppe Verdi's career ended. Puccini is often called a verismo composer, a style of Italian opera that focuses on realistic stories from everyday life.

Puccini's career began during the Romantic period and continued into the modern era. He tried to update his style to match new trends but did not fully adopt modern techniques. A critic named Andrew Davis said that Puccini's music strongly honored traditions from 19th-century Italian opera and his Tuscan heritage. However, Davis also noted that Puccini used many different musical styles, including elements from German symphonies, French orchestration, and some aspects of Wagner's music. Puccini also included sounds from other cultures in his operas, such as Chinese folk melodies in Turandot.

All of Puccini's operas include at least one special musical section for a main character, called an aria. Most of his operas have several of these. At the same time, Puccini moved away from operas made up of many separate set pieces and instead used a more connected, continuous style. His music is known for its strong, memorable melodies. Puccini often used the orchestra to play the same notes as the singers, which made the melodies sound louder and more powerful.

Verismo is a style of Italian opera that started in 1890 with Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. It became popular in the early 1900s and lasted until the 1920s. Verismo operas focus on realistic, sometimes harsh or violent, stories about everyday people, especially those from lower social classes. These operas usually avoid the historical or mythical themes common in Romantic opera. Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier are examples of verismo operas. Puccini's career overlapped almost entirely with the verismo movement. His first two operas, Le Villi and Edgar, were written before Cavalleria rusticana. Some people consider Puccini a verismo composer, while others believe he was not entirely part of the movement. Two of his operas, Tosca and Il Tabarro, are widely seen as verismo works. A scholar named Mosco Carner also included Madama Butterfly and La Fanciulla del West as verismo operas. Because only three verismo operas not written by Puccini are still performed regularly, Puccini's contributions to the genre have had a lasting impact.

During his lifetime and after, Puccini was more successful than most other Italian opera composers of his time. Between 2004 and 2018, Puccini's operas were performed third most often worldwide, after Verdi and Mozart. Three of his operas—La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly—were among the ten most frequently performed operas globally.

Gustav Kobbé, the author of The Complete Opera Book, wrote in 1919 that Puccini was "the most important figure in operatic Italy today, the successor of Verdi, if there is any." Other composers of Puccini's time included Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and Umberto Giordano. Only three operas by Puccini's contemporaries—Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, Pagliacci by Leoncavallo, and Andrea Chénier by Giordano—appear on Operabase's list of most-performed works. Kobbé noted that Puccini achieved long-term success, unlike Mascagni and Leoncavallo, who had only one or two highly successful operas. By the time of Puccini's death in 1924, he had earned $4 million from his works.

Although Puccini's music was very popular and his skill as a composer was widely recognized, critics have always had mixed opinions about its artistic value. Julian Budden, a music scholar, described Puccini as a talented and original composer who used creative techniques, such as the structure of the aria "Che gelida manina," which combined three musical sections into a unified whole. However, some critics have criticized Puccini's music as not complex enough. Budden explained that Puccini's ability to balance popular appeal with technical skill remains a topic of debate among academics.

Puccini studies

The Centro di studi Giacomo Puccini was established in 1996 in Lucca. It studies Puccini's work in many different ways. In the United States, the American Center for Puccini Studies focuses on presenting uncommon versions of the composer's music. It also shares less known or forgotten Puccini pieces. This organization was created in 2004 by Harry Dunstan, a singer and director.

Works

Puccini composed orchestral music, sacred music, chamber music, solo piano and organ pieces, and songs for voice and piano. Among his notable works are his 1880 mass Messa di gloria, his 1882 Preludio Sinfonico, and his 1890 string quartet movement Crisantemi. However, he is best known for his operas:

• Le Villi, libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (one act – premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme, 31 May 1884)
• Edgar, libretto by Ferdinando Fontana (four acts – premiered at La Scala, 21 April 1889)
• Manon Lescaut, libretto by Luigi Illica, Giuseppe Giacosa, Marco Praga, and Domenico Oliva [it] (four acts – premiered at the Teatro Regio, 1 February 1893)
• La bohème, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (four acts – premiered at the Teatro Regio, 1 February 1896)
• Tosca, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (three acts – premiered at the Teatro Costanzi, 14 January 1900)
• Madama Butterfly, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (two acts – premiered at La Scala, 17 February 1904)
• La fanciulla del West, libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini (three acts – premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, 10 December 1910)
• La rondine, libretto by Giuseppe Adami (three acts – premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, 27 March 1917)
• Il trittico (premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, 14 December 1918) Il tabarro, libretto by Giuseppe Adami Suor Angelica, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano Gianni Schicchi, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
• Turandot, libretto by Renato Simoni and Giuseppe Adami (three acts – incomplete at the time of Puccini's death, completed by Franco Alfano: premiered at La Scala, 25 April 1926)