Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Pathography

From the origin, Giacomo Puccini as many other musicians or composers is from the family of musicians through generations. His ancestors were composers and conductors of musical orchestras in Lucca, an ancient and picturesque famous Italian town near Florence and Pisa. His father was the town music director. Ancestors by mother-side were also artists. Giacomo' s mother Albina Puccini Magg gave a birth to five daughters and two sons. Their constant companion in their childhood was music. His brother Michele has also chosen carrier of a musician. As musical pedagogue he worked in Argentina with modest success. Giacomo was a bit lazy in learning of musical arts. He did not like to practise organs under his fatherzs conduction. He was only six when his father, his first musical teacher died. He continued to learn playing the organs with his fatherzs successor in order to become an experienced organist as soon as possible. He used to sing in church choirs as a child.1He started to compose and to play organs in churches of Lucca and surroundings. He started to compose very early and it was known, that he composed his first mass, when he was twenty. His love towards music was so great, that he walked 40 kilometers to the city of Pisa to see and hear the performance of Verdi's opera. Then he decided to give himself completely to the music, especially composing. He had to find the ways for his schooling using scholarships which took a lot of his time. Because of the family's poverty he was helped by his grand uncle Dr. Caru. Young Puccini got also monthly student's contribution of 100 Liras from Queen's Margherithe. This was obtained by his mother who had a lot of contacts with aristocrats. With this ability she sent to the school not only him, but also his brother Michele and from time to time other members of the family too. Of course they were slightly hungry. Therefore, he started later study of music in 1880 on the Kings Milan Conservatory. He was dreaming about being reach, when he was young by looking at the rich audience in front of Milan's opera Scala. He became rich, when he was middle-aged. But, his all life experience, he was fortunately of a very strong body construction, determined, very hard-working and self-confident. All this enabled him to make the best of everything, and to go constantly further and further in the frames of hard and real life of intrigues between artist's world.2He exposed himself in front of his teachers Ponchielli and others since he had done his exam work - a symphony capriccio. Afterward he wrote his first opera »Le villi«. The success will come some time later but his mother was then already dead. The next opera »Edgar« was not such successful. All this made him to be very careful. He concentrated his work mainly on writing operas. The librettos arrived more and more frequent. It was difficult to find adequate and valuable ones. In spite of a relatively large extent of choice he never succeeded to gain any of famous writers to write a libretto for his opera. Therefore, his work was not continuous but with pauses and time gaps and when he was thirty five (Verdi even later) he wrote his really best and world wide accepted masterpiece »Manon Lescaut«. He became world famous composer and more and more rich. Then he was living for years with Elvira Gemignani, a very rich trader's daughter and they had a son named Antonio. He was able to marry her much later when her husband died, but she left him much earlier to be able to live with Puccini. She was a consolation for his composer's activity. He was working in a complete peace of his little summerhouse in Torre del Lago near Viareggio.3This was only peace where he could do with his life companion his own work. He had very thoughtful look, sad expression on his face, walking like hypnotised and talking to himself, deaf to anything else. He wouldn't eat almost at all, drinking a lot of coffee, smoking dozens of cigarettes, lately this will cost him a life. …