Tosca, SC 69
Giacomo Puccini
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Browse piano sheets by Giacomo Puccini on Zen Virtual Piano. Giacomo Puccini was the last descendant of a family that for two centuries had provided the musical directors of the Cathedral of San Martino in Lucca, so he first dedicated himself to music as a family profession rather than a personal vocation. He was orphaned at five by the death of his father, and the city of Lucca supported the family with a small pension and kept the position of cathedral organist open for him until he came of age. A post held open until a five-year-old could grow into it shows how deeply music was woven into his family’s place in Lucca. From 1880 to 1883 he attended the Milan Conservatory, where Antonio Bazzini and Amilcare Ponchielli were among his teachers, and, determined to be only a composer and not a teacher or interpreter of music, he composed his first opera immediately after the final exam. With Le Villi he took part, unsuccessfully, in the Sonzogno Competition for one-act operas, but friends organized a first performance in 1884, and that was how the publisher Giulio Ricordi first noticed him. Ricordi acquired the copyright, asked for the opera to be expanded to two acts, commissioned a new opera for La Scala and gave him a monthly stipend, and he became a staunch friend and counsellor. A publisher who adds a stipend and a commission is offering a career as well as a contract. A failed competition entry, then a performance organized by friends, then a publisher’s attention show how a single performance can redirect a career. Puccini carefully selected the subjects for his operas and spent considerable time on the preparation of the librettos, and in his own words, “The basis of an opera is its subject and its treatment.” The music for La bohème was written between 1894 and 1896, to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, and with it in 1896 he achieved even greater success, which soon reached an international level, while with Tosca in 1900 he became the most famous composer of his time, according to the Puccini Museum. Two librettists beside one composer suggest an opera that was a shared craft as much as a personal statement. A composer who valued the subject of an opera as much as its music suggests a man working as much as a dramatist as a melodist. Turandot was performed posthumously at La Scala on 25 April 1926, with Arturo Toscanini conducting and stopping at the point Puccini had reached before dying; two final scenes were completed by Franco Alfano from Puccini’s sketches. An opera that stops where its composer stopped, and then continues in another hand, shows a visible seam.
Browse piano sheets by Giacomo Puccini on Zen Virtual Piano.
Giacomo Puccini was the last descendant of a family that for two centuries had provided the musical directors of the Cathedral of San Martino in Lucca, so he first dedicated himself to music as a family profession rather than a personal vocation. He was orphaned at five by the death of his father, and the city of Lucca supported the family with a small pension and kept the position of cathedral organist open for him until he came of age. A post held open until a five-year-old could grow into it shows how deeply music was woven into his family’s place in Lucca.
From 1880 to 1883 he attended the Milan Conservatory, where Antonio Bazzini and Amilcare Ponchielli were among his teachers, and, determined to be only a composer and not a teacher or interpreter of music, he composed his first opera immediately after the final exam. With Le Villi he took part, unsuccessfully, in the Sonzogno Competition for one-act operas, but friends organized a first performance in 1884, and that was how the publisher Giulio Ricordi first noticed him. Ricordi acquired the copyright, asked for the opera to be expanded to two acts, commissioned a new opera for La Scala and gave him a monthly stipend, and he became a staunch friend and counsellor. A publisher who adds a stipend and a commission is offering a career as well as a contract. A failed competition entry, then a performance organized by friends, then a publisher’s attention show how a single performance can redirect a career.
Puccini carefully selected the subjects for his operas and spent considerable time on the preparation of the librettos, and in his own words, “The basis of an opera is its subject and its treatment.” The music for La bohème was written between 1894 and 1896, to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, and with it in 1896 he achieved even greater success, which soon reached an international level, while with Tosca in 1900 he became the most famous composer of his time, according to the Puccini Museum. Two librettists beside one composer suggest an opera that was a shared craft as much as a personal statement. A composer who valued the subject of an opera as much as its music suggests a man working as much as a dramatist as a melodist.
Turandot was performed posthumously at La Scala on 25 April 1926, with Arturo Toscanini conducting and stopping at the point Puccini had reached before dying; two final scenes were completed by Franco Alfano from Puccini’s sketches. An opera that stops where its composer stopped, and then continues in another hand, shows a visible seam.
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Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Common questions
From 1880 to 1883 he attended the Milan Conservatory, where Antonio Bazzini and Amilcare Ponchielli were among his teachers.
Friends organized a first performance of Le Villi in 1884 after it failed in the Sonzogno Competition, and that was how Ricordi first noticed Puccini.
Franco Alfano completed two final scenes from Puccini’s sketches. At the performance at La Scala on 25 April 1926, Arturo Toscanini conducted and concluded the opera at the point Puccini had reached before dying.