Giacomo Puccini: 100 most inspiring musicians of all time

Giacomo Puccini: The 100 most inspiring musicians of all time

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (in full, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, (b. Dec. 22, 1858, Lucca, Tuscany [Italy]—d. Nov. 29, 1924, Brussels, Belg.) was one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end.

His mature operas include La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot, left incomplete.

free sheet music download partitions gratuites Noten spartiti partituras

Early Life and Marriage

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. Puccini initially dedicated himself to music, therefore, not as a personal
vocation, but as a family profession. When Giacomo was five, his father died, and the municipality of Lucca supported the family with a small pension, keeping the position of cathedral organist open for the young Puccini until he came of age. He first studied music with two of his father’s
former pupils, and he played the organ in small local churches.

A performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, which he saw in Pisa in 1876, convinced him that his true vocation was opera. In the autumn of 1880 he went to study at the Milan Conservatory, where his principal teachers were
Antonio Bazzini, a famous violinist and composer of chamber music, and Amilcare Ponchielli, the composer of the opera La gioconda. On July 16, 1883, he received his diploma and presented as his graduation composition
Capriccio sinfonico, an instrumental work that attracted the attention of influential musical circles in Milan.

In the same year, he entered Le villi in a competition for oneact operas. The judges did not think Le villi worthy of consideration, but a group of friends, led by the composerlibrettist Arrigo Boito, subsidized its production, and its premiere took place with immense success at Milan’s Verme Theatre on May 31, 1884. Le villi was remarkable for its dramatic power, its operatic melody, and, revealing the influence of Richard Wagner’s works, the important role played by the orchestra.

Please, subscribe to our Library.

If you are already a subscriber, please, check our NEW SCORES’ page every month for new sheet music. THANK YOU!

The music publisher Giulio Ricordi immediately acquired the copyright, with the stipulation that the opera be expanded to two acts. He also commissioned Puccini to write a new opera for La Scala and gave him a monthly stipend: thus began Puccini’s lifelong association with Giulio Ricordi, who was to become a staunch friend and counselor.

After the death of his mother, Puccini fled from Lucca with a married woman, Elvira Gemignani. Finding in their passion the courage to defy the truly enormous scandal generated by their illegal union, they lived at first in Monza, near Milan, where a son, Antonio, was born.

In 1890, they moved to Milan, and in 1891 to Torre del Lago, a
fishing village on Lake Massaciuccoli in Tuscany. This home was to become Puccini’s refuge from life, and he remained there until three years before his death, when he moved to Viareggio. The two were finally able to marry in 1904, after the death of Elvira’s husband. Puccini’s second opera, Edgar, based on a verse drama by the French writer Alfred de Musset, had been performed at La Scala in 1889, and it was a failure.

Nevertheless, Ricordi continued to have faith in his protégé and sent him to Bayreuth in Germany to hear Wagner’s Die Meistersinger.

Giacomo Puccini sheet music score download partitura partition spartiti

Mature Work and Fame

Puccini returned from Bayreuth with the plan for Manon Lescaut, based, like the Manon of the French composer Jules Massenet, on the celebrated 18th-century novel by the Abbé Prévost. Beginning with this opera, Puccini carefully selected the subjects for his operas and spent considerable time on the preparation of the librettos.

The psychology of the heroine in Manon Lescaut, as in succeeding works, dominates the dramatic nature of Puccini’s operas. Meanwhile, the score of Manon Lescaut, dramatically alive, prefigures the operatic refinements achieved in his mature operas: La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and La fanciulla del west (1910; The Girl of the Golden West). These four mature works also tell a moving love story, one that centres entirely on the feminine protagonist and ends in a tragic resolution.

Best classical sheet music donwload.

All four speak the same refined and limpid musical language of the orchestra that creates the subtle play of thematic reminiscences. The music always emerges from the words, indissolubly bound to their meaning and to the images they evoke.

In Bohème, Tosca, and Butterfly, he collaborated enthusiastically with the writers Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. The first performance (Feb. 17, 1904) of Madama Butterfly was a fiasco, probably because the audience found the work too much like Puccini’s preceding operas.

In 1908, having spent the summer in Cairo, the Puccinis returned to Torre del Lago, and Giacomo devoted himself to Fanciulla. Elvira unexpectedly became jealous of Doria Manfredi, a young servant from the village who had been employed for several years by the Puccinis. She drove Doria from the house, threatening to kill her.

Subsequently, the servant girl poisoned herself, and the Manfredis brought charges against Elvira Puccini for persecution and calumny, creating one of the most famous scandals of the time. Elvira was found guilty but was not sentenced, and Puccini paid damages to the Manfredis, who withdrew their accusations.

free sheet music partitura partition noten Puccini

The premiere of La fanciulla del west took place at the Metropolitan in New York City on Dec. 10, 1910, with Arturo Toscanini conducting. It was a great triumph, and with it Puccini reached the end of his mature period.


Puccini felt the new century advancing with problems no longer his own. He did not understand contemporary events, such as World War I. In 1917 at Monte-Carlo in Monaco, Puccini’s opera La rondine was first performed and was quickly forgotten.

Always interested in contemporary operatic compositions, Puccini studied the works of Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky.

From this study emerged Il trittico (The Triptych; New York City, 1918), three stylistically individual one-act operas— the melodramatic Il tabarro (The Cloak), the sentimental Suor Angelica, and the comic Gianni Schicchi. His last opera, based on the fable of Turandot as told in the play Turandot by the 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi, is the only Italian opera in the Impressionistic style. Puccini did not complete Turandot, unable to write a final grand duet on the triumphant love between Turandot and Calaf.

Suffering from cancer of the throat, he was ordered to Brussels for surgery, and a few days afterward he died with the incomplete score of Turandot in his hands.

Turandot was performed posthumously at La Scala on April 25, 1926, and Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the performance, concluded the opera at the point Puccini had reached before dying. Two final scenes were completed by Franco Alfano from Puccini’s sketches.

Solemn funeral services were held for Puccini at La Scala in Milan, and his body was taken to Torre del Lago, which became the Puccini Pantheon. Shortly afterward, Elvira and Antonio were also buried there. The Puccini house became a museum and an archive.

The Best of Puccini

Tracklist:

LA BOHÈME ATO I 1. Introdução 2. Dueto: “Non sono in vena” 3. Ária: “Che gelida manina!” 4. Ária: “Si. Mi chiamano Mimí” 5. Dueto de amor: “O soave fanciulla” ATO III 6. Dueto: “Mimí” 7. Trio: “Marcello, finalmente!” 8. Ária: “D’onde lieta uscí” ATO IV 9. Dueto “Sono andati?” 10. Final: “Mimí”

MADAME BUTTERFLY ATO I 11. Introdução 12. Dueto: “Dovunque al mondo” 13. Dueto: “Amore o grillo”Arrivèe de Madame Butterfly 14. “Quanto cielo, quanto mar!” 15. Dueto de amor: “Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia” ATO II 16. Ária: “Un bel di vedremo”Scene de la carte 17. “Amico, cercherete quel bel fior di fanciulla” 18. Ária e Final: “Con onor muore”

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Best Sheet Music download from our Library.

Browse in the Library:

Total Records Found in the Library: 12465, showing 120 per page
Artist or Composer / Score nameCoverList of Contents
Take Five Jazz Standard Paul Desmond Dave Brubeck arr. Carsten Gerlitz Dave Brubeck Blue Rondo à la Turk arr. Carsten Gerlitz Jazz Standard
Take Me To The Land Of Jazz by Pete Wendling (1919) free sheet music & scores pdf
Take That – Could It Be Magic
Take That – How Deep Is Your Love Take That how-deep-is-your-love
Takemitsu – Secret Love Guitar with TABs sheet music download
partitions gratuites Noten spartiti partituras
Takemitsu, Toru – 12 Songs for guitar 楽譜
Tales Of Earthsea Teeru No Uta Kashuu Baajon Taniyama Hiroko Miyazaki Tomochika free sheet music partitura partition noten
Talking Heads Anthology free sheet music & scores pdf download Talking Heads Anthology
Tally Hall Hidden In The Sand (Piano Solo) sheet music partitura partition noten spartiti
Tangled – Alan Menken OST free sheet music pdf Alan Menken – Tangled (Disney) Rapunzel songbook
Tango El Caramel (Khaled Mouzanar)
Tango Fake Book free sheet music & scores pdf download Tango Fake Book
Tangos And More (Intermediate Piano Solos) partitura Tangos And More (Intermediate Piano Solos)
Tangos Para Guitarra sheet music partitura Tangos
Tania Maria Yatra Ta free scores sheet music Noten
Tant Que Vivray (Musescore File).mscz
Tanta voglia di lei (Pooh)
Tarantella in 3rd class (Ennio Morricone)
Taro Iwashiro – Her Most Beautiful Smile
Tárrega – Làgrima (Guitar Tabs) (Musescore File).mscz
Tàrrega 12 Studies for Guitar Guitarra partitions gratuites Noten spartiti
Tàrrega Integral De Guitarra sheet music partitura Tàrrega guitar
Tàrrega, F. – Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Guitar).mscz
Tarzan (Disney) songbook Music by Phil Collins free sheet music pdf free sheet music pdf
Tarzan Full Score (The Musical) Music and Lyrics by Phil Collins free sheet music download
partitions gratuites Noten spartiti partituras
Tausig – Ballad (The Ghostship – Das Geisterschiff) free sheet music pdf
Taverner, John – In Nomine (full score) MS 31390 fol. 120
Taylor Billy Modern Jazz Piano Solos free sheet music & scores pdf
Taylor Swift Easy Piano Anthology (Taylor Swift) free scores sheet music Noten Taylor Swift Easy Piano Anthology (Taylor Swift)
Taylor Swift Evermore Piano vocal guitar Songbook (Taylor Swift) free scores sheet music Noten
Taylor Swift Lover Songbook (Taylor Swift) free scores sheet music Noten Taylor Swift Lover Songbook (Taylor Swift)
Taylor Swift – ME! Sheet Music Noten sheet music score partitura partition
Taylor Swift Reputation Songbook (Taylor Swift) free scores sheet music Noten Taylor Swift Reputation Songbook (Taylor Swift)
Taylor Swift – 1989 Songbook – Taylor Swift sheet music Noten sheet music score partitura partition
Taylor Swift – 1989 Songbook – Taylor Swift sheet music
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero (piano sheet music) free sheet music download
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero (Piano Sheet Music) (Musescore File).mscz
Taylor Swift – Back to December (piano solo sheet music) free sheet music download
Taylor Swift – Best Of Taylor Swift Easy Piano Songbook (Swift, Taylor) free scores sheet music Noten Taylor Swift – Best Of Taylor Swift Songbook (Swift, Taylor)
Taylor Swift – Blank Space (piano vocal sheet music) Taylor Swift – Blank Space (piano vocal sheet music)
Taylor Swift – Fearless
Taylor Swift – Fearless (Guitar and TABS Songbook) free scores Taylor Swift – Fearless (Guitar and TABS Songbook)
Taylor Swift – Fearless Songbook Piano and vocal free sheet music pdf Taylor Swift – Fearless Songbook
Taylor Swift – I Knew you were trouble (piano and voice sheet music) free scores download
Taylor Swift – Untouchable free scores sheet music Noten
Taylor Swift A Place In This World Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift All Too Well (10 Minute Version) Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Bad Blood Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Best Of Taylor Swift Very Easy Piano songbook sheet music download Taylor Swift Best Of Taylor Swift Very Easy Piano songbook
Taylor Swift Cardigan Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Cruel Summer Piano Vocal Guitar Chords Taylor Swift Cruel Summer Piano Vocal Guitar Chords
Taylor Swift Death By A Thousand Cuts Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Delicate Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Don_t Blame Me Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Enchanted Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Exile Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Last Christmas free sheet music download
Taylor Swift Look-What-You-Made-Me-Do-Sheet-Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Love Story Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Nothing New Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Piano Theme The Giver free scores
Taylor Swift Piano Theme The Giver V2 free scores
Taylor Swift Safe Andsound free scores
Taylor Swift Shake It Off Sheet Music free scores sheet music Noten
Taylor Swift Shake It Off Sheet-Music free scores download
Taylor Swift Speak Now Songbook (Guitar Recorded Versions) (Swift Taylor) Guitar TABs free scores sheet music Noten Taylor Swift Speak Now Songbook (Guitar Recorded Versions) (Swift Taylor) Guitar TABs
Taylor Swift The Whole Story Unauthorised (Newkey Burden, Chas) Book free scores sheet music Noten
Taylor Swift We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift White Horse Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift You Belong With Me Sheet Music free scores download
Taylor Swift You Need To Calm Down Sheet Music PDF free scores download
Taylorswift – Lovestory
Tchaikovsky Dance Of The Four Swans Transcribed For Piano By Earl Wild Sheet Music sheet music
Tchaikovsky Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy (Easy Piano Solo Arr.) free sheet music download
Tchaikovsky Waltz From The Sleeping Beauty Suite (Rachmaninoff Four Hands) Read Description sheet music download partitura partition spartito
Tchaikovsky Waltz From The Sleeping Beauty Suite (Rachmaninoff Four Hands) Read Description (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Suite Op, 71 Piano Solo Transcription By Pletnev Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Suite Op, 71 Piano Solo Transcription By Pletnev
Tchaïkovsky – Nina Berberova (Book Biographie) Français, French free sheet music download
Tchaikovsky – 1812 Festival Overture Op. 49 (full score) sheet music pdf
Tchaikovsky – Album for the Young Op. 39 Tchaikovsky Album for the Young
Tchaikovsky – Canción triste
Tchaikovsky – Concert Suite Sleeping Beauty Nutcracker (Piano transcription by Pletnev) sheet music pdf
Tchaikovsky – Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy (Easy Piano Solo Arr.) (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky – Harmony Book Tchaikovsky – Harmony Book
Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite For Solo Classical Guitar with TABs sheet music download Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite For Solo Classical Guitar with TABs
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 (Easy Piano Solo arr.) Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 (Easy Piano Solo arr.)
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 1st Mvmt. (Arr. Piano Solo) Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 1st Mvmt. (Arr. Piano Solo)
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 1st Mvmt. (Arr. Piano Solo) (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky – Romeo & Juliet Overture
Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet Fantasy Overture For Solo Piano arr. sheet music download
partitions gratuites Noten spartiti partituras
Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet Fantasy Overture For Solo Piano.mxl
Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet Overture (Piano Solo Arr) Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet Overture (Piano Solo Arr)
Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet Overture (Piano Solo Arr).mscz
Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake Piano arrangement by Langer sheet music pdf
Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake Theme Easy Piano Solo Arr. Main Theme Sheet Music sheet music download partitions gratuites Noten spartiti partituras
Tchaikovsky – Symphony 6 Easy Piano Solo (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky – Symphony 6 theme easy piano solo free scores download
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 In B Minor – 4th Movement (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 Pathétique (Easy Piano) (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker Die Nussnacker Suite arr. for guitar with TABs sheet music download Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker Die Nussnacker Suite arr. for guitar with TABs
Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker Suite (No 7) Pas De Deux sheet music score download partitura partition spartiti noten
Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker Suite (No 7) Pas De Deux (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky – Transcriptions For Solo Classical Guitar Vol. 2 with TABs sheet music download Tchaikovsky – Transcriptions For Solo Classical Guitar Vol. 2 with TABs
Tchaikovsky – Transcriptions For Solo Classical Guitar Vol.1 with TABs sheet music download Tchaikovsky – Transcriptions For Solo Classical Guitar Vol.1 with TABs
Tchaikovsky – Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcraker Suite Piano Solo arr. Tchaikovsky – Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcraker Suite Piano Solo arr.
Tchaikovsky – Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcraker Suite Piano Solo arr.mscz
Tchaikovsky -March From The Nutcracker Suite – Transcription By Pletnev (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky (H. Pachulski) Symphony No. 6, 4th Movement (Piano solo arr.) Tchaikovsky (H. Pachulski) Symphony No. 6, 4th Movement (Piano solo arr.)
Tchaikovsky Children’s Album Детский Альбом Op. 39 (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky None But The Lonely Heart Six Romances Op. 6 No. 6 (Violin And Piano) (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky None but the Lonely Hert Op. 6 no. 6
Tchaikovsky op 40 Twelve Pieces (excerpts) Tchaikovsky op 40 Twelve Pieces
Tchaikovsky Opus 37 The Seasons (Piano) Tchaikovsky The Seasons
Tchaikovsky Piano Book 3 – 10 musical selections, Easy Piano Solo arrangements sheet music pdf Tchaikovsky Piano Book 3
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 1st Mvmt (Arr For 2 Pianos) (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Easy Piano Solo Arr. (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, easy piano solo arr. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, easy piano solo arr.
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy Arr. for 2 pianos sheet music download
partitions gratuites Noten spartiti partituras
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy Arr. for 2 pianos.mscz
Tchaikovsky Serenade For Strings 1st Mov. (Musescore File).mscz
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Piano Solo Arr. Main Theme.mxl
sheet music library

It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive our new posts in your inbox.

This field is required.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.