opera singer and director, explains that we can relate to Puccini characters because “like us, they go broke, get sick, fall in love, need money, and can’t pay the rent. Opera composers like Verdi and Wagner wrote operas about kings, aristocrats, or Nordic gods, Puccini increased his popular appeal by picking subjects set in a more or less real world. You listen to a Puccini melody and you’re immediately drawn to it you don’t, like other composers, need to listen to it several times to decode it.” ^ And whereas other great Michel Beaulac, artistic director of the Opera de Montréal, says that Puccini’s music “is immediately understandable to everybody.

Puccini wasn’t only the last great Italian opera composer he was the last opera composer to become a true superstar, and like any music superstar, his death (in 1924) only made him more popular. At least, not in the ringing, unsubtle way it was meant to be sung. So as his anniversary celebrations begin, Puccini has everything going for him except one thing: almost nobody can sing his music. (He has two other operas, Tosca and Turandot, in the top 20.) Even people who never go to see an opera are familiar with Puccini’s music: excerpts like Nessun Dorma (which has been sung by every famous tenor from Luciano Pavarotti to Paul Potts) and 0 Mio Babbino Caro (a favourite tune in commercials) are known even to opera novices. On ’s list of the 20 most performed operas in North America, the top two are both by Puccini: Madame Butterfly and La Bohème. Giacomo Puccini, who was born 150 years ago this year and whose anniversary is inspiring a round of new productions and recordings, has been the most popular opera composer in the world for at least 100 of those 150 years.

On his 150th anniversary the composer has everything going for him except this: nobody can sing his music

Puccini opera about an opera singer