Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What was Puccini's first opera?
Manon Lescaut premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 2 February 1893.[10] By coincidence, Puccini's first enduringly popular opera appeared within a week of the premiere of Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, which was first performed on 9 February 1893.[10] In anticipation of the premiere, La Stampa wrote that Puccini was a young man concerning whom "great hopes" had a real basis ("un giovane che e tra i pochi sul quale le larghe speranze non siano benigne illusioni").[10] Because of the failure of Edgar, however, a failure of Manon Lescaut could have jeopardized Puccini's future as a composer. Although Giulio Ricordi, head of Casa Ricordi, was supportive of Puccini while Manon Lescaut was still in development, the Casa Ricordi board of directors was considering cutting off Puccini's financial support.[11] In any event, "Manon Lescaut was Puccini's first and only uncontested triumph, acclaimed by critics and public alike."[12] After the London premiere in 1894, George Bernard Shaw pronounced: "Puccini looks to me more like the heir of Verdi than any of his rivals."[13]
Nevertheless, on 24 August 1930, together with Pietro Mascagni, who had been fellow student of Puccini's, Forzano produced the first performances of a Puccini opera on the lake shore, in front of the Maestro's house. In a provisional theatre, the "Carro di Tespi Lirico" with its stage built on piles stuck in the lake, a travelling opera company performed "La bohème" directed by Forzano and conducted by Mascagni. The same company came back in 1931 when Beniamino Gigli and Adelaide Saraceni performed in "La bohème", while Rosetta Pampanini and Angelo Michetti performed "Madama Butterfly". This was the beginning of what was to become a major opera festival.
Ashbrook, William & Powers H. Puccini's Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition, Princeton Univ. Press, 1991. Author unknown, Hampton's Magazine Vol. 26 No. 3, March 1911. Author unknown, "The Stage," Munsey's Magazine Vol. 44 p.6, 1911. Author unknown, "New York Acclaims Puccini's New Opera," Theatre Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 119, January 1911. Berger, William, Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Reassessment of the World's Most Popular Composer, Random House Digital, 2005, ISBN1-4000-7778-8. Budden, Julian, Puccini: His Life and Works, Oxford University Press, 2002 ISBN978-0-19-816468-5 Centro di Studi Giacomo Puccini, "Catedrale di S. Martino", Puccini.it, Retrieved 3 November 2012. Checchi, Eugenio, in Nuova Antologia, Francisco Protonotari. ed (in Italian), December 1897, pp.470–481. Dry, Wakeling Giacomo Puccini, London & New York: John Lane, 1905. Eaton, W. P., "Where We Stand in Opera," The American Magazine, Vol. 71, No. 5, March 1911. Espinoza, Javier, "Revealed: the identity of Puccini's secret lover", The Guardian (London), 29 September 2007. Fisher, Burton D., Puccini's Il Trittico, Miami: Opera Journeys Pub., 2003, ISBN0-9771455-6-5. Kendell, Colin (2012), The Complete Puccini: The Story of the World's Most Popular Operatic Composer, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2012. ISBN9781445604459 ISBN1-4456-0445-0 Keolker, James, "Last Acts, The Operas of Puccini and His Italian Contemporaries", 2001. Gervasoni, Carlo, Nuova teoria di musica ricavata dall'odierna pratica (New theory of music distilled from modern-day practice) Milano: Blanchon, 1812. Montgomery, Alan, Opera Coaching: Professional Techniques And Considerations, New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2006, ISBN9780415976015. Mourby, Adriano, "Scandalissimo! Puccini's sex life exposed," The Independent, 6 July 2008. "Giacomo Puccini, luoghi e suggestioni", photographs by Romano Cagnoni, Maria Pacini Fazzi editor, ISBN978-88-7246-918-7 Osborne, Charles, The Complete Operas of Puccini: A Critical Guide, De Capo Press, (1982). Randall, Annie J. and David, Rosalind G., Puccini & the Girl, Chicago: University of Chicago Press ISBN0226703894 Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi and Michele Girardi, Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) Puccini (ii) in Grove Music Online, accessed 9 August 2012. Siff, Ira, "Puccini: La Fanciulla del West," Opera News, Vol. 77, No. 1, July 2012. Sadie, Stanley; Laura Williams Macy, The Grove Book of Operas. Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan/New York: Grove, 1980, ISBN1-56159-174-2, p. 203. Smith, Peter Fox. A Passion for Opera. Trafalgar Square Books, 2004. ISBN1-57076-280-5. Streatfield, Richard Alexander, Masters of Italian music, C. Scribner's Sons, 1895. Weaver, William, and Simonetta Puccini, eds. The Puccini Companion, W.W. Norton & Co., 1994 ISBN978-0-393-02930-7 Wilson, Alexandra, The Puccini Problem: Opera, Nationalism, and Modernity, Cambridge University Press (2007)
By 1920 Puccini was facing increasing pressure, not only from impresarios but also from his publishing firm, Casa Ricordi, to allow "Il trittico" to be broken up and presented separately. Opera houses first wanted to omit "Suor Angelica", which had proven the least popular of the three, but some wished to omit "Il tabarro" as well. Puccini had left London confident that "Il trittico" would gain a place in the Covent Garden repertoire, but soon learned that the opera house's director, Henry V. Higgins, had removed "Suor Angelica", feeling that the audience disliked it. In fact, Higgins would never stage it again. Puccini vociferously objected, as did his longtime London friend, Sybil Seligman, to no avail. Higgins then decided to remove "Il tabarro", and stage "Gianni Schicchi" together with a Russian ballet presentation. Puccini retorted, "This is a real betrayal", but in the end gave in and permitted the performance. Puccini, however, was still convinced that the three works should be performed together, and that his original conception was being "brutally torn to pieces". The Metropolitan Opera joined in the dismemberment: after 1920, it would not again present the three operas together until 1975.
Puccini completed La fanciulla del West, based on a play by David Belasco, in 1910. This was commissioned by, and first performed at, the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910 with Met stars Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn for whom Puccini created the leading roles of Dick Johnson and Minnie. Toscanini, then the musical director of the Met, conducted.[27] This was the first world premiere of an opera at the Met.[28] The premiere was a great success.[29] However, the compositional style employed in the opera, with few stand-alone arias, was criticized at the time[30] and remains a barrier to the opera's complete acceptance into the standard repertoire. Some contemporaries also criticized the opera for failing to achieve an "American" tone.[31][32] However, the opera has been acclaimed for its incorporation of advanced harmonic language and rhythmic complexity into the Italian operatic form.[33] In addition, one aria from the opera, Ch'ella mi creda, has become a staple of compilation albums by operatic tenors. It is said that during World War I, Italian soldiers sang this aria to maintain their spirits.[12][34] The 2008 Italian film, Puccini e la fanciulla (Puccini and the Girl), is based on the period of his life when he was composing the opera.
While busy singing with the NYCO, Yeend also sang in operas with other companies in both the United States and Europe. She made her debut with the Vienna Staatsoper in 1953 as Violetta. That same year she made her first appearance at London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden as Mimi. In 1956 she toured North America with the NBC Opera Theatre portraying Cio-cio-san in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly". Another Puccini role, the ice princess Turandot, was a part with which Yeend became particularly associated, portraying the part with the San Antonio Grand Opera Festival, Cincinnati Opera, New Orleans Opera, San Francisco Opera, Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company (1958), Vienna State Opera (1958) and at the Arena di Verona Festival (1958).
In New York, he befriended director Anton Seidl who took him to Germany and introduced him to Richard Wagner's family in Bayreuth. This led him out of the United States and back to London. He came back to London as a stage director for Charles Frohman at the Duke of York Theater. Later Neilson was invited to direct the national opera at Covent Garden, which he remodelled completely in 1900. The first opera to be produced there was Puccini's, 
"Tosca". Puccini himself was at the theatre supervising the production. The encounter of the two men triggered an interest that took Neilson to invite Puccini to see a private performance of the play "Madame Butterfly", playing then at the Duke of York Theater. Puccini later requested Neilson to direct the opera at La Scala in Milan; however, this never came to pass due to Neilson's other commitments.
2007; Dark records vocals for the Cate Blanchett movie 'Elizabeth', Dark has recorded vocals on several Hollywood movie soundtracks. In 2007, Dark began her semi-professional opera career, performing in small to medium-sized venues around the UK, her debut opera performance was as Liu in Puccini's opera Turandot; Dark's second opera was the lead in Puccini's Sr. Angelica. 2008, Dark signs a new £2.5 million recording deal and releases her debut opera album, 'Sola, perduta, abbandonatta'; this CD is not a mainstream release as it is only available through specialist sellers and the record companies own website. A limited edition second album, "The Screen behind the mirror", was also released in 2008, free with the debut album, to promote Dark's third opera performance; the lead in Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly. Dark's early opera voice / recordings is her mimicking the Italian opera diva Renata Scotto; in 2009, Dark was sacked from playing the lead in Puccini's opera Tosca, for being too fat and not pretty enough.
Since its founding, Dicapo has been particularly dedicated to the music of Giacomo Puccini. It gave the first performances anywhere of all three versions of Puccini’s "Madama Butterfly" (Milan, Brescia, and Paris) successively in one weekend. With choreography by Dicapo’s Director of Dance Nilas Martins, Dicapo was the first to present music and dance presentations of Puccini’s "Le Villi" and The Mass, and has also presented settings of a number of Puccini songs and incidental music to dance. By the end of 2008, the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, Dicapo Opera Theatre will have presented all of his major works, from "Le Villi", the composer’s first opera, and orchestral works through his final opera, "Turandot".
On commencing his next opera, Manon Lescaut, Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist"[9] could spoil it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept Ruggero Leoncavallo as his librettist, but Puccini soon asked Ricordi to remove him from the project. Four other librettists were then involved with the opera, as Puccini constantly changed his mind about the structure of the piece. It was almost by accident that the final two, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, came together to complete the opera.
He championed the music of Giacomo Puccini, whose operas had previously failed to win public acceptance in Germany. The first performance of Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" in Germany was conducted by Waghalter in March 1913 at the Deutsche Opernhaus. Its triumphant reception secured for Puccini's operas a permanent place in the repertoires of Germany's opera houses. Waghalter also conducted the German debut performances of Tosca and La Bohème and also of Ralph Vaughan Williams' second symphony in 1923.
A newspaper report published the day before the premiere states that Puccini himself gave Toscanini the suggestion to stop the opera performance at the final notes composed by Puccini:
.
(A few weeks before his death, after having made Toscanini listen to the opera, Puccini exclaimed: "If I don't succeed in finishing it, at this point someone will come to the footlights and will say: 'The author composed until here, and then he died.'" Arturo Toscanini related Puccini's words with great emotion, and, with the swift agreement of Puccini's family and the publishers, decided that the evening of the first performance, the opera would appear as the author left it, with the anguish of being unable to finish).
Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca, Italy in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi. The Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccini's great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo (1712–1781).[2][3] This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca.[4] He was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini,[4] and then by Antonio's son Domenico, and Domenico's son Michele (father of the subject of this article).[2] Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some took additional musical studies elsewhere.[2][4] Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello.[2] Each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera.[2] Puccini's father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem.[5]
Both during his lifetime and in posterity, Puccini's success outstripped other Italian opera composers of his time, and he has been matched in this regard by only a handful of composers in the entire history of opera. Eleven of Puccini's operas are numbered among the 200 most-performed operas (worldwide, by composers of any nationality, as surveyed by Operabase).[59] Three of his works (La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly) rank among the top ten works performed, and Puccini ranks third (behind Verdi and Mozart) in the number of performances of his operas over all.
The Puccini Festival was started in 1930 following what is believed to have been Puccini's comment to friend Giovacchino Forzano, one of his librettists, in 1924 just before he left for the clinic in Brussels for his throat operation: "I always come out here and take a boat to go and shoot snipes … but once I would like to come here and listen to one of my operas in the open air." The composer was thought to be expressing the hope that his operas would be performed in the extraordinary natural stage offered by the Massaciuccoli Lake. However, this was disputed by his granddaughter, Simonetta Puccini.
Puccini's composition of La bohème was the subject of a public dispute between Puccini and fellow composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo. In early 1893, the two composers discovered that they were both engaged in writing operas based on Murger's work. Leoncavallo had started his work first, and he and his music publisher claimed to have "priority" on the subject (although Murger's work was in the public domain). Puccini responded that he started his own work without having any knowledge of Leoncavallo's project, and wrote: "Let him compose. I will compose. The audience will decide."[17] Puccini's opera premiered a year before that of Leoncavallo, and has been a perennial audience favorite, while Leoncavallo's version of the story was quick to fade into obscurity.[7]
In fact, Puccini was at first less than enthusiastic about the idea for this comic opera – Florence as a setting did not appeal to him, and he feared the public would have little interest in the subject. However, he soon became interested, and did some work on the piece even while composing "Suor Angelica". The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to "Gianni Schicchi", although the war news and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which Puccini lost a sister, distracted him from his work. The first draft was completed on 20 April 1918, and Puccini continued to refine and orchestrate it through the summer of 1918.
In 2006, Massaro started his own opera company, the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera (PMO), with his wife, opera singer Gail Dubinbaum. Massaro conducted the company's first production, Puccini's "La Boheme", in December 2008 and conducted performances of Verdi's "Aida" and Puccini's "Tosca" during the 2008-2009 season.
With the trilogy complete, Puccini had to decide on a place for the premiere. In 1918, travel was risky and uncertain. Puccini received an offer from Buenos Aires which he refused, unwilling to have so complex a work first performed overseas in his absence. He finally agreed that the premiere could take place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, without his being there, on the basis of performing instructions which he supplied to the conductor. "Gianni Schicchi" proved to be the last opera completed by Puccini.
Verismo is a style of Italian opera that began in 1890 with the first performance of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s.[55] The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent – depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary lower classes. It by and large rejects the historical or mythical subjects associated with Romanticism. Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier are uniformly considered to be verismo operas. Puccini's career as a composer is almost entirely coincident in time with the verismo movement. Only his Le Villi and Edgar preceded Cavalleria rusticana. Some view Puccini as essentially a verismo composer,[54] while others, although acknowledging that he took part in the movement to some degree, do not view him as a "pure" verismo composer.[56] In addition, critics differ as to the degree to which particular operas by Puccini are, or are not, properly described as verismo operas. Two of Puccini's operas, Tosca and Il tabarro, are universally considered to be verismo operas.[57] Puccini scholar Mosco Carner places only two of Puccini's operas other than Tosca and Il tabarro within the verismo school: Madama Butterfly, and La fanciulla del West.[58] Because only three verismo works not by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, and Andrea Chénier), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to the genre.
Puccini's next work after La bohème was Tosca (1900), arguably Puccini's first foray into verismo, the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. Puccini had been considering an opera on this theme since he saw the play Tosca by Victorien Sardou in 1889, when he wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: "I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music."[18]
The first performance of "Manon Lescaut" took place in the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1893; it was Puccini's third opera and his first great success. The opera was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 18 January 1907 in the presence of the composer with Lina Cavalieri in the title role, Enrico Caruso as des Grieux, Antonio Scotti as Lescaut, and Arturo Vigna conducting.
Puccini was born in Lucca into a Tuscan musical family of at least five generations: his father was Antonio Puccini, his grandfather was Giacomo Puccini (senior), his son was Michele Puccini, and his grandson was the opera composer Giacomo Puccini.
Giacomo Puccini wrote a trio of operas named "Il trittico" comprising "Il tabarro", "Suor Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi". Florence created the role of Lauretta at the world premiere of Puccini¹s "Gianni Schicchi" on 14 December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; she was the first to sing the famous aria "O mio babbino caro" ("O My Beloved Papa"). Puccini could not get to New York for the premiere, so the Met's general manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza sent a telegram to Puccini after the performance of the Trittico:
The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in lead roles; this was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, and thus inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting Act II into two (with the Humming Chorus as a bridge to what became Act III) and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia.