Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the death of the last great master of Italian opera – Giacomo Puccini. So great is the composer’s hold on opera’s audience that of the seven most performed operas at the Met three are by Verdi, three by Puccini – the remaining one is Carmen.

There is nothing I can add to the accolades heaped on the composer. He had almost everything: a unique melodic gift, a sense of the dramatic, and a mastery of stagecraft. The only attribute that separated him from opera’s supreme master, Giuseppe Verdi, was a narrower focus. But what he touched turned to musical gold. He could grasp the emotional core of his listeners with an intensity granted to very few composers

The three top Puccini operas mentioned above are La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. A century is a long time to await the arrival of another lyric genius. It may well be that opera’s time as a living art form has permanently passed. All it will take to prove this prophecy of artistic doom wrong is the appearance of a genius. One can always hope for an operatic messiah, but such an appearance is beyond rare.

The best way to commemorate Puccini’s death is with some of his music.

Butterfly Love Duet Natalya Romaniw and Freddie De Tommaso
Butterfly Humming Chorus