Giacomo Puccini was five when his father died, leaving a pregnant wife of 37 with seven children. To help her, Giacomo, heir of a family that had dominated music in the Tuscan town of Lucca for four ...

When Mary Jane Phillips-Matz published her one-volume biography of Giuseppe Verdi in 1993, it stood several inches thick. It was a major scholarly achievement. Now she is back with a much slenderer ...

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was the pop star of his era. Even 100 years after his death, his operas like 'Tosca,' 'Madama Butterfly' and 'La Boheme' remain staple repertoire — and politically ...

Giacomo Puccini, whose operas probably earned him more money than any other serious composer ever made,* began by writing church music, including a Mass at the age of 21. Italian experts who heard his ...

I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World ...