La Bohème - San Francisco Opera

many revisions, less than a year later it turned out to be one of his best-loved and most widely
performed works.
In 1907 Puccini came to America to assist at a Metropolitan Opera presentation of
Madama Butterfly. Commissioned to write an
opera for the Metropolitan Opera, he produced a Though Puccini and his operas
work with an American setting: La Fanciulla del
eventually became famous, they often
had disastrous debuts. Puccini never
West (The Girl of the Golden West). It was let these failures get the best of him
introduced by the Met on December 10, 1910, in
one of the most exciting premieres ever held by
and constantly revised and improved
upon his works.
that house, the composer being present to receive an ovation.
During the next decade Puccini wrote several more operas: a light opera, La Rondine; a
trilogy of one act operas collectively entitled Il Trittico; and an opera set in China, Turandot,
which he did not live to complete. After years of chain smoking, Puccini began to complain
of constant sore throats towards the end of 1923. Diagnosed with cancer of the throat, he
underwent radiation therapy - an experimental treatment at the time - in Brussels, Belgium.
However, a heart attack caused by complications from the treatment was fatal. The news
of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème. The opera was
immediately stopped, and in Puccini’s honor the orchestra played Chopin's Funeral March.
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