The composer

Puccini was 41 years old at the time of Tosca’s premiere, and by this stage wealthy enough to own a lakeside villa in Torre del Lago – the purchase of his first luxury motor (and, soon after, car crash) would follow. His career as an composer had, though, nearly come to a juddering halt when his second opera, Edgar, flopped badly in 1889, but the success of Manon Lescaut four years later put it firmly back on course. And while his next opera, La bohème, got a lukewarm reception at its Milan premiere in 1896, it rapidly went on to gain the worldwide popularity that it still enjoys today.