One of the world's most successful opera composers, with La bohème, Tosca,
Madame Butterfly and Turandot, Giacomo Puccini left a number of unforgettable
arias and renewed the genre by adapting it to Italian verismo and modern
theater. Born in Lucca, Tuscany, on December 22, 1858, Giacomo Puccini came from
a five-generation line of musicians that included Jacopo Puccini in the 18th
century, Antonio Puccini, Domenico Puccini and his father Michele Puccini,
organist, choirmaster and composer. When his father died at the age of five, he
was entrusted to the care of his maternal uncle...