Puccini, Giacomo

Puccini, Giacomo (1858-1924), Italian composer.

Giacomo Puccini's family was poor. His uncle taught him to play the piano and he obtained a job as organist and choir-master in his home town of Lucca at the age of nineteen.

Later he studied music in Milan. He wrote his first opera for a competition but it did not win a prize. Afterwards he wrote some of the most famous and successful of all operas. They include La Boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904) and Turandot.

Puccini died before finishing Turandot. It was completed by his friend, Franco Alfano, and first performed in 1926.