THE HOUSE - MUSEUMS OF GIACOMO PUCCINI

Giacomo Puccini was born the 22nd December 1858 in a 15th century house located in Corte San Lorenzo, 9 (Via di Poggio) nearby  Piazza San Michele, in the centre of Lucca.
Puccini’s birth house is at present a museum devoted to the great Tuscan composer. The building hosts also the seat of the Giacomo Puccini Foundation.
This Museum is divided into eight rooms and hosts, besides a quite good furniture and decorative objects which pertained to his family, a series of interesting portraits of him; personal objects and items belonging to the composer; awards conferred to him; a significant collection of letters written or received by Giacomo Puccini; several costume designs for his opera performances; the original scores of the “Messa a Quattro Voci” (1880) and of the “Capriccio Sinfonico” (1884), as well as the last rough copies he was writing near the end of his life, when he was seriously troubled by a throat cancer.
The dominant element housed in this Museum is the famous piano “Steinway” where Puccini composed his last opera: “Turandot”. He let it unfinished because of his illness and subsequently death. The opera was concluded in 1925 by the prestigious composer and pianist Franco Alfano (Naples, 1876 - San Remo, 1954).  
Giacomo Puccini has been the last and most celebrated descendant of a long line of musicians, who added up more than five generations dedicated to the sublime art of composition and interpretation.
His parents were Michele Puccini, organist and teacher of harmony at the Lucca’s Conservatoire, and Albina Magi. Giacomo was the sixth child and first male of a numerous family. He was baptised on the 23rd December 1858 - receiving all the names of his ancestors: Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria - in the splendid 12th century Church of San Giovanni e Reparata, once Lucca’s Cathedral, which is located in Piazza San Martino.
The composer’s father perished when he was 6 years old. In 1863, he had begun to study music with his father. After his death, Giacomo kept on studying music with his uncle, Fortunato Magi, organist and teacher at the “Pacini Conservatoire” in Lucca. 
Magi was later nominated organist and Chapel Master of the Cathedral in Lucca by the authorities of the town, with the precondition of passing his post to his nephew when he would be completely trained to fill it.

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Other Pages about Lucca

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Must-See Monuments and Art in Lucca

- Il Duomo di San Martino - Palazzo dei Guinigi - Chiesa di San Michele in Foro - The native house of Giacomo Puccini

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