The premiere passed peacefully, however, and Tosca achieved great success with the public who enjoyed the melodramatic, even sadistic plot, and the composer's unerring sense of timing.
The work's anti-authoritarian stance and disrespectful portrait of the clergy fuelled rumours that a bomb was to be thrown. Tosca was first performed in Rome in an atmosphere of high tension. The string of successes continued with his next two operas, Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904). These qualities, along with its masterly characterization and what Debussy called the "sheer verve of the music", have guaranteed its place over the years as one of the most popular of operas. This tale of the exploits of aspiring artists in the bohemian world of mid-nineteenth-century Paris reflects Puccini's experiences in Milan, and subtly marries sentiment with comedy and tragedy. It was followed in 1896 by one of Puccini's best-loved works, La boheme (1896), produced in Turin. This work set the tone for his celebrated later works by concentrating on the psychology of its female heroine. Puccini's first opera, Le villi, was produced in 1884, but it was not until Manon Lescaut in 1893 that he had a major success. The opera awoke in Puccini a sense of the power of theatrical music, and with the help of a scholarship endowed by none other than the queen of Italy, he was able to enrol at the Milan Conservatoire in 1880, at that time the country's biggest and most prestigious music college. In 1876 he walked for seven hours to the town of Pisa in order to attend a performance of Verdi's Aida, despite not possessing the price of a ticket. At school he showed little promise or dedication, preferring the company of friends and indulging a taste for practical jokes that were often both complicated and theatrical.Īfter moving to the local music conservatoire, the Pacini Institute, Puccini's academic record began to improve, and by the age of 16 he was showing an increasing interest in composing and improvising at the organ. His father started him playing the organ, reportedly by placing shiny coins on the keyboard which tempted the young boy to grasp them and thus push the keys down. Puccini was encouraged to develop an interest in music from a very early age. Born in the Italian town of Lucca into family with a strong musical tradition.
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