PUCCINI IN SUMMER
There is an opera season for each season of the year.
In Lucca in the summer period there are two opportunities to appreciate his works: the Puccini festival, in the Gran Teatro Puccini in Torre del Lago, right in front of the house where the Maestro lived for a long time and composed many of his immortal arias and the Cartoline Pucciniane festival, in Lucca, right in front of the house where he was born in 1858.
Who knows that these natural environments, the lake, the pine forest, the hills, have inspired some of his melodies? You can find out for yourself in a tour to the favorite places of the Maestro and later, in the evening, by booking your place for an evening at the Puccini Festival in the most exclusive of the theaters in the area, the Gran Teatro Puccini, the theater on the shore of Lake Massaciuccoli that Giacomo Puccini dreamed of in the years he lived in Versilia.
From Lucca a shuttle service is available starting from Lucca Porta San Pietro at 7:30 pm or directly from your hotel, as well as a private transfer, with return at the end of the opera performance, so you don't have to worry about finding a parking space or collecting your ticket in time.
13 events with 4 operas: Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot and La Rondine will be on stage from 15 July to 27 August and before the concert you can make a full immersion into the Puccini places and the atmospheres of Versilia.
A visit to the WWF LIPU oasis of Massaciuccoli where you can retrace the footsteps of the Maestro on comfortable wooden walkways that run through the reeds, "hunting" only for photos of lake birds, other animals and sweet evening atmospheres, and to Villa Puccini in Torre del Lago which, on the occasion of the festival dates, will haves late night opening hours.
In Viareggio, if you have a little more time, you can taste the cultural atmosphere of the early 1900s of the Art Nouveau architecture on the promenade, with private villas and beach establishments with unique decorations in colored ceramics showing festoons of fruits, wind swirls and the foam of the waves of the sea; finally at Villa Puccini in Viareggio, (open by reservation only on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month (for Info +39 0583 1900379, visits@puccinimuseum.it or directly at the ticket office of the Puccini Museum piazza Cittadella, 5 Lucca) the last residence of Maestro Puccini and the place where he composed Turandot, an unfinished opera.
On the occasion of the performance on Saturday 23 July, directed by Daniele Abbado and by Maestro Michele Gamba, the villa in Viareggio will be exceptionally open in the evening.
Also in Lucca there are 13 events, the Cartoline Pucciniane, where the most famous arias of Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica and La Rondine will be performed in short open air concerts organised by the Giglio Theater, but for the occasion in the square in front of the Puccini birthplace.
In the city where he used to live for a long time, the Puccini tour takes us through the winding streets of the historic center, a tangle of centuries and cultural atmospheres that are found in many of his operas. A city open to art and specially to music.
If you want to do the tour in company and with a professional guide, take a look at the dedicated page and check out the best itinerary for you!
