In Puccini's opera Tosca ( 1900 ), set in Napoleonic Rome, the heroine's confrontation with the malevolent Chief of Police, Scarpia, takes place in Palazzo Farnese.

Highlights of her later career in Italy from 1890 on included the world-premières of the part of Odalea in Antônio Carlos Gomes ' Condor at La Scala in Milan in 1891, the title-role in Alfredo Catalani's La Wally at the same theater in 1892, Luisa in Mascagni's I Rantzau at the Teatro della Pergola in 1892, and the title roles in Pietro Mascagni's Iris and Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, both at Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1899 and 1900, respectively.

It was followed by Tosca ( 1900 ), arguably Puccini's first foray into verismo, the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence.

Some music critics and interpreters of Puccini's work have speculated that the psychological effects of this incident on Puccini interfered with his ability to complete compositions later in his career, and also influenced the development of Puccinian characters such as Liu ( from Turandot ), a slave girl who dies tragically by suicide.

The celesta is used in many 20th century opera scores, including Puccini's Tosca ( 1900 ), Ravel's L ' heure espagnole ( 1911 ), Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos ( 1912 ), and Die Frau ohne Schatten ( 1918 ), while " an excellent example of its beauty when well employed ", is the Silver Rose scene in his Der Rosenkavalier ( 1911 ), Busoni's Arlecchino ( 1917 ) and Doktor Faust ( 1925 ), Orff's Der Mond ( 1939 ), Menotti's Amelia Goes to the Ball ( 1937 ), Britten's The Turn of the Screw ( 1954 ) and A Midsummer Night's Dream ( 1960 ), Susa's Transformations ( 1973 ), and Philip Glass ' Akhnaten ( 1984 ).

There were, however, many other veristi: Franco Alfano, best known however for completing Puccini's Turandot, Alfredo Catalani, Gustave Charpentier ( Louise ), Eugen d ' Albert ( Tiefland ), Ignatz Waghalter ( Der Teufelsweg and Jugend ), Alberto Franchetti, Franco Leoni, Jules Massenet ( La Navarraise ), Licinio Refice, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, ( I gioielli della Madonna ), and Riccardo Zandonai.

Farrar created the title roles in Pietro Mascagni's Amica ( Monte Carlo, 1905 ), Puccini's Suor Angelica ( New York, 1918 ), and Umberto Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne ( New York, 1915 ) as well as the Goosegirl in Engelbert Humperdinck's Die Königskinder ( New York, 1910 )

Others, such as the title role in Verdi's Macbeth ( with Elena Souliotis ), Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La traviata, and Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca ( with Birgit Nilsson ), are not delivered by him with the same degree of effectiveness.

The theme also makes a concluding reappearance in Luciano Berio's later completion ( this having been an expressed intention of Puccini's ), but in a more subdued orchestration.

The diva made many recordings, including Eugene Onegin ( 1956 and 1970 ), Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death ( 1961 and 1976 ), Britten's War Requiem ( with Sir Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, conducted by the composer ; 1963 ), The Poet's Echo ( 1968 ), Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov ( 1970 and 1987 ), Puccini's Tosca ( 1976 ), Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades ( with Regina Resnik, 1976 ), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk ( 1978 ), Tchaikovsky's Iolanta ( with Nicolai Gedda, 1984 ), and Prokofiev's War and Peace ( 1986 ).

" features a sustained B4, followed by the final note, an A4 sustained even longer — although Puccini's score did not explicitly specify that either note be sustained.

The libretto for Edipo Re was written by Giovacchino Forzano, who also wrote Il piccolo Marat for Pietro Mascagni and two of the one-act operas for Puccini's Il trittico.

It is a translation of the Italian song " Tornerai " ( Italian for " You Will Return ") composed by Dino Olivieri ( music ) and Nino Rastelli ( lyrics ) in 1933, inspired from the Humming Chorus of Puccini's Opera " Madame Butterfly " ; the French lyrics were written by Louis Potérat.

The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico ( The Triptych )— three one-act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together.

Manon Lescaut was a great success and laid the foundations for Puccini's career and reputation.

Original poster for Puccini's ToscaLa bohème was premiered in Turin in 1896, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

In 1909, Puccini's wife Elvira publicly accused Doria Manfredi, a maid working for the Puccini family, of having an affair with the composer.

With Wagner came an emphasis on vocal heft for his protagonist roles, with this vocal category described as Heldentenor ; this heroic voice had its more Italianate counterpart in such roles as Calaf in Puccini's Turandot.

In Italy, the American West as a dramatic setting for spectacles goes back at least as far as Giacomo Puccini's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West ; it is sometimes considered to be the first spaghetti western.

In 2007, he designed stage and costumes for Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Festival Puccini 2007 in Torre del Lago.

Among Leoncavallo's libretti for other composers is his contribution to the libretto for Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

As discussed, the music for Liù's death was not in fact Puccini's final composition, but had been orchestrated some nine months earlier.

Scrutiny of the sketches, which Ricordi later allowed scholars to analyze and sometimes publish, showed that Alfano actually did not even try to use most of Puccini's short sketches, with the exception of those with an obvious placement and one short theme he freely transformed and used for the sake of stylistic continuity.

The company is perhaps best known internationally for its association with Dame Joan Sutherland, and for Baz Luhrmann's production of Puccini's La bohème in the early 1990s.

A major milestone for the company was a television recording of Puccini's Tosca filmed in 1968 at the Adelaide Festival.

Late in his career he made several recordings of operas, of which his 1967 set of Puccini's Madama Butterfly for EMI is probably the best known.

* August – September – Maria Callas makes studio recordings of Giuseppe Verdi's, Il trovatore, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, Giacomo Puccini's, La bohème, conducted by Antonino Votto, and Giuseppe Verdi's, Un ballo in maschera, also conducted by Votto, for EMI.

* October 21-Giuseppe Giacosa, librettist for some of Puccini's operas ( d. 1906 )

As a prison, it was also the setting for the third act of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca from whose ramparts the eponymous heroine of the opera leaps to her death.

Gheorghiu said in a statement that she had missed some rehearsals to spend time with her husband, who was singing at the Met in Roméo et Juliette and rehearsing for Puccini's Madama Butterfly and added " I have sung ' Boheme ' hundreds of times, and thought missing a few rehearsals wouldn't be a tragedy.

Puccini's work, in turn, became source material for Jonathan Larson's musical Rent.

She is best known for her performances as Violetta in La traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Mimì ( and occasionally Musetta ) in La bohème, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Adina in L ' elisir d ' amore, Liù in Turandot, Nedda in Pagliacci, all three leading soprano roles in Puccini's Il trittico, Adriana Lecouvreur, and Francesca in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini.

In 1906 Giacosa died and, in 1909, there was scandal after Puccini's wife, Elvira, falsely accused their maid Doria Manfredi of having an affair with Puccini.

Press reports at the time when these documents were discovered alleged that Nadia Manfredi was Puccini's granddaughter, by a son, Antonio Manfredi, born to Giulia.

Turandot, Puccini's final opera, was left unfinished, and the last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches.

This gumption in musical experimentation was the essence of Puccini's style, as evidenced in his diverse settings and use of the motif to express ideas beyond those in the story and text.

This was a style introduced by Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci that came virtually to dominate the world's opera stages with such popular works as Giacomo Puccini's La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.

However, it was outshone by Puccini's opera of the same name and on the same subject, which was premiered in 1896.

Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot by Carlo Gozzi.

The opera was unfinished at the time of Puccini's death in 1924 and was completed by Franco Alfano in 1926.

Puccini's son Tonio objected, and eventually Franco Alfano was chosen to flesh out the sketches after Vincenzo Tommasini ( who had completed Boito's Nerone after the composer ’ s death ) and Pietro Mascagni were rejected.

After the severe criticisms by Ricordi and the conductor Arturo Toscanini, he was forced to write a second, strictly censored version that followed Puccini's sketches more closely, to the point where he did not set some of Adami's text to music because Puccini had not indicated how he wanted it to sound.

The premiere of Turandot was at La Scala, Milan, on Sunday 25 April 1926, one year and five months after Puccini's death, with Rosa Raisa in the title role.

He was also an imposing, sinister Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, a swaggering Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and a powerful Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.

His New York Metropolitan Opera debut was in 1988, conducting Giacomo Puccini's La bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni.

The title role in Puccini's Tosca, which she had added to her repertoire in 1909, was another one of her favourite Met parts.

At this time Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler was performing at the theatre and the following opera to be performed was Puccini's Turandot.