22nd December: Giacomo Puccini

On this date in 1858 Giacomo Puccini was born in Tuscany. Here are 10 things you might not know about the Opera composer.

1. His full name was Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini.
2. He was born into a well-established musical dynasty. Puccini's great-great grandfather was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca. His son, grandson and great-grandson (Puccini's father) inherited the job, and it was expected that Puccini himself would take over eventually too, but when Puccini's father died, his son was only six years old so it didn't happen.
3. With financial support from Italian Queen Margherita, and his uncle, Nicholas Cerù, Puccini studied at the Milan Conservatory.
4. His first opera was called Le Villi, and it evolved from an orchestral piece called the Capriccio sinfonica which Puccini wrote for his thesis. The libretto was written by Fernando Fontana, who'd been introduced to him by his tutor. This opera was entered into a competition. It didn't win but was later staged and was a success.
5. Giulio Ricordi, head of G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, was so impressed with Le Villi that he commissioned another opera, Edgar. This one wasn't so successful and Puccini's career as an opera composer might have ended there but for Ricordi's faith in him.
6. It was from this point that Puccini's difficult relationships with his librettists began. Ricordi blamed the failure of Edgar on the libretto, and so when Puccini started writing his next opera, Manon Lescaut, he declared that he would write the libretto himself so that "no fool of a librettist" could spoil it. Ricordi didn't agree and persuaded him to accept another librettist - but several were dropped from the project before Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa managed to complete it. Manon Lescaut was a success, and so Illica and Giacosa were librettists for Puccini for his next three operas, probably his greatest successes: La Bohème, Tosca and Madam Butterfly. However, working as a librettist for Puccini was never easy. His publisher, Casa Ricordi, was frequently required to mediate disputes and impasses between them.
7. In 1903, Puccini was involved in a car accident in which he sustained a number of injuries including a severe broken leg. While being treated for those injuries, he was found to have diabetes.
8. In the autumn of 1884, Puccini began a relationship with a married woman named Elvira Gemignani, whose husband, Narciso Gemignani, was a womaniser. It wasn't until the Narcisco was killed by the husband of one of his affairs that Puccini and Elvira could marry. They already had a son by then. Puccini was a bit of a womaniser, too, and had affairs with several opera singers. Elvira publicly accused one of the family's maids, Doria Manfredi, of having an affair with her husband. Doria committed suicide because of the shame, but an autopsy showed she had died a virgin. This led to Elvira being prosecuted for slander and she narrowly escaped having to go to prison when Puccini paid the Manfredi family off. Puccini probably wasn't entirely innocent. According to documents found in the possession of a descendant of the Manfredi family, Puccini was actually having an affair with Giulia Manfredi, Doria's cousin.
9. Despite being totally uninterested in politics, in 1923 the fascist party in Viareggio made Puccini an honorary member and sent him a membership card. This was probably due to his ambitions as a composer rather than any sympathy for their policies. The Italian Senate has traditionally included a small number of members appointed in recognition of their cultural contributions to the nation. Verdi was one of these and Puccini wanted to follow suit. Puccini was named Senator (senatore a vita) a few months before his death. He died before Mussolini became a dictator.
10. Puccini was a chain smoker and died of throat cancer in 1923. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La Bohème. The opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin's Funeral March.