Another Puccini fan sent this to me asking me to post it; sorry I don't know where it is from but it's says something about this great composer (and it was comforting to see that someone took an interest to visit m website *s*:

"GIACOMO PUCCINI was born in Lucca, December 22, 1858 and died in Brussels, November 29, 1924. The Puccini name enjoyed a considerable reputation in Italy for more than a century, for Giacomo Puccini was descended from a fine pedigree of musicians beginning with his great-great-grandfather, Giocomo (1712-81), and all his ancestors in the direct line were musicians of prominence, mainly in the domain of ecclesiastical music: Antonio (1747-1832), Domenico (1771-1815), and Michele his father (1813-64) who was organist at Lucca where "GIACOMO ANTONIO DOMENICO MICHELE SECONDO MARIA PUCCINI" (his full name was a long one) was born in 1858.

"Giacomo entered the Milan Conservatory in 1880 where he was very fortunate to study with an excellent teacher of composition, Antonio Bazzini and later he came under the influence of Amilcare Ponchielli, composer of La Gioconda." ... as I said, it only shows me that genetics does count. Giving the right seeds and the right soil, and "with a little bit of luck" (My Fair Lady), we get a Puccini.

So without question, the last of the great romantic opera composers was Giacomo Puccini. After a trip to Germany to hear and study the music of Richard Wagner, the young Puccini returned to Italy emboldened to claim the primacy still held by the aged Giuseppe Verdi.

His first success, "Manon Lescaut" came in 1893. The musical public swiftly recognized the budding genius of a composer overflowing with romantic melody but also a superb musician who know his way around the orchestra pit. His success with Manon Lescaut was the base on which he constructed his next three operas -- considered his finest -- "La Bohéme," "Tosca," and "Madama Butterfly." The are among the world's most frequently-performed operas.

By this time, Puccini, who had a keen nose for money as well as an ear for music, became independently wealthy, drawing fees from the enormous popularity and frequency of performance of his operas all over the world. In 1910 he traveled to New York's Metropolitan Opera to oversee the premiere of his "La Fanciulla del West" (Girl of the Golden West), based on a play by the American dramatist, David Belasco.

It was a grand turnout, with Arturo Toscanini in the pit and Enrico Caruso on stage. But for the public, the opera lacked the sustained melodic charm of his big three operas. Puccini, who continued to grow as a musician, had assumed that his audiences grew musically with him.

The composer was hard at work on "Turandot" when cancer of the throat struck. Fighting and imploring his librettists and his publisher, Puccini took the opera with him to a clinic in Brussels, which specialized in treating throat cancer. He composed all but the crucial final scene, which would musically unite his opera. But then as now, cancer was relentless and Puccini died on this day, his final masterpiece left to another composer to finish.

Not a loyal husband, a chain smoker, and a man who loved fast cars, boats and women, Puccini nonetheless was indeed the last of the great romantic tradition of Italian opera composers. No composer has come close to filling his shoes.

The opera presents an impressionist picture of an artistic community. The members subscribe to the Epicurean principle: "Let us eat and drink today, for tomorrow we die." In a word, they live in and for the present. The librettists have drawn their material from Murger’s novel. "La Vie de Bohème," selecting four characteristic scenes and reproducing the spirit rather than the letter of the original. The time is about 1820, in Paris.

Act I ... It starts with a few brilliant chords and the curtain opens on a garret in the Latin Quarter of Paris. We have here no gods, warrior heroes, kings, or biblical patriarchs, but merely young people struggling in the Paris of the 1830s. Four friends, Rodolfo (the poet), Marcello (the painter), Colline (the philosopher), and Schaunard (the musician), who share the place are full of good humor despite having no heat, food, and being behind on the rent.

Rodolfo sings his famous aria, "Che gelida manina" (What a cold little hand), in which he tells the frail Mimi, who has stumbled to the door. He tells her of his life and his dreams. His passion culminates musically in a high C, a climactic note for any tenor.

Next, in Mimi's response, "Mi chiamano Mimi" (They call me Mimi), she reveals that she is a poor seamstress; Puccini exquisitely draws her character in a subdued musical fashion. And the scene ends with the beautiful "Oh soave fanciulla" (Oh lovely bird), the last few notes sung off stage while on their way to the café. What is truly Puccini's genius is that through the power of his music, he has made love at first sight completely believable.

Act II ... takes place at a Christmas Eve celebration in the café (Café Momus), and shows a colorful slice of Parisian life showing its many street urchins (ragazzi). Rodolfo introduces Mimi to his friends where we also meet the girlfriend of Marcello, Musetta. This act is pure spectacle where several hundred people might be seen on a multileveled stage. In this act, Musetta sings her famous "Musetta's Waltz" teasing Marcello. We are aware of two couples in love, but each showing their feelings in very different ways.

Act III ... takes place on a snowy February morning near one of the gates leading into Paris. The short orchestral introduction tone paints a cold wintry dawn. We are in the courtyard of a country inn where Mimi, who has tuberculosis, bids Rodolfo farewell, singing with great tenderness one of the opera's most poignant arias. At this time, Marcello and Musetta are having one of their many lover's quarrels giving us another of Puccini's famous quartets, and another view of two couples deeply in love.

Act IV ... In this last act, we are again in the garret. The four comrades are roughing it up. At the height of the fun, a friend says that Mimi is outside and, as a dying wish, has asked to see Rodolfo. The end (or finale) of this act is truly miraculous. Mimi is reminiscing how she and Rudolfo met and how happy they were. We also see their friends' concern for her health.

Finally, in an act of kindness, Rudolfo climbs up to close the window curtains so the light will not annoy Mimi, and at that time, while Rudolfo is pulling the drawing the curtains, Mimi dies, dropping the hand-muff, indicating to the friends her last breath. Rudolfo senses something it wrong and with some cries out to Mimi, the scene comes to an end. The musical moment is absolutely shattering; deep chords, while Rudolfo is crying at Mimi's bedside, the friends standing around helpless in the sorrow of the moment, and the orchestra playing some unforgettable chords while the curtain slowly closes ending the opera.