Giacomo Puccini's reputation suffers from Tchaikovsky Syndrome: his music is so melodic that critics widely believe it to "lack depth" - much like the beautiful, blonde prom-queen who is assumed to be stupid even as she's named valedictorian. Audiences aren't fooled though; just try to stage two opera seasons back-to-back without at least one Puccini work, and watch the box office go to hell. One can easily forget that, long before his arias became the stuff of perfume commercials and PBS The-Three-Tenors-Bellow-Again TV shows, Puccini had to compose them. They were totally original, and so powerful that they've spilled over the little world of opera to inundate the entire culture. Is it Puccini's fault that he could pen a catchy tune?
But Puccini's operas are about more than just beautiful melodies; he had an unerring sense of theatrics - the pomp and pretense that mars much of otherwise great opera is absent from his works. What's more, Puccini created flawless, flowing orchestrations. His last opera, Turandot, rivals anything Wagner composed in this aspect of 'musical unity' within a work. However, unlike Wagner (and practically every other opera composer) he largely eschewed grand, mythological and regal story-lines, and chose themes about the common man.* This characteristic, though broadly criticized during his time, gives his work a fresh, relevant feel - an accessibility that goes beyond melody, orchestration and staging. So universally appealing are his works that two popular contemporary operas, Rent and Miss Saigon, are unabashed story-line and mood copies of Puccini's La boheme and Madam Butterfly respectively.
Puccini's feel for fun, humor and raw sensuality, his ability to juxtapose whimsy and crushing pathos within a single work - nay, a single act - have carved for him an unshakable monument within the world of Western culture; one that all the critics in the world are unable to bring down. In short, for many of us, without Giacomo Puccini, there simply is no opera!

*Oddly, Puccini's final masterpiece, Turandot, parts with the norm, by dealing with topics both regal and mythological.

- Greg Knepp, ClassicT-Shirt.com

Click here to order a Puccini ClassicT-Shirt!