Happy Birthday, Maestro!
A day dedicated to music to celebrate Maestro Giacomo Puccini's birthday.
In Lucca, home of music, there is a museum, where the Maestro was born and where he lived and his birthday
will soon be celebrated. A small apartment in the historic center of Lucca that nobody would have expected
to become the setting for the life of a great artist.
So we invite you to visit it, wherever you are, on the interactive pages of the website, and for Tuesday
evening ... get yourself a seat and relax, you are all welcome!
On December 22 is Giacomo Puccini's birthday. A special day that the associations of Lucca, the Cities of
Lucca and Viareggio celebrate with a double appointment and a FB live streaming throughout the day.
Homage to Giacomo Puccini's birthday on Tuesday 22 December starting at 10:30 am live on the FB page / Sui passi di Puccini Associazione Musicale, the music association Sui passi di Puccini organizes a Puccini Marathon.
A series of events distributed throughout the day talking about Puccini facing different aspects. Guests alternate thanks to a diversified program that allows the audience to choose single contributions of their interest.
The program:
10:30 am - Manuel Del Ghingaro, conducting student and artistic director, Aneddoti e curiosità su Puccini;
11:00 am - Mirella Di Vita, soprano, Sole e Amore: Puccini e la lirica vocale da camera;
4.00 pm - Lorenzo Biagi, conducting student, Affrontare Puccini: gioie e dolori;
4:20 pm - Luca Grosso, organist, L’organo di Puccini;
4.40 pm - Chiara Mariani, pianist, Puccini dietro le quinte;
5.45 pm - Sara Matteucci, choir director and musicologist, Prima del Teatro: la Messa a 4 voci di Puccini;
9.00 pm - Luigi Nicolini, pianist and composer, Puccini tra inquietudine e religiosità;
9.20 pm - Giulia Vannucci, philosopher Il pensiero filosofico;
9.45pm - Massimo Salotti, pianist and composer, special episode of Mettiamoci all’Opera: Due poeti allo spiedo. La Bohemè di Puccini.
At 6:00 pm from the Giacomo Puccini Theater in Torre del Lago and live on Rai 5, the extraordinary "Happy
Birthday Mr. Puccini". The Puccini Festival Orchestra directed by Maestro Roberto Abbado will perform the concert.
On the birthday it will be possible to buy tickets for the performances of Tosca, Turandot, La
Bohème of the Puccini 2021 Festival with a 50% discount (by phone +39 0584 359322, via email
ticketoffice@puccinifestival.it or directly at the ticket office, (from 9.30 to 12.30 and from 15:00 to
18:00), or, online www.puccinifestival.it/biglietteria.
The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago takes place every summer in the open-air Grand Theater on Lake
Massaciuccoli, a few steps from the Villa Mausoleo where the Maestro lived most part of his life, and where he composed his greatest operas and where he was buried.
In Lucca, at 9.00 pm from the Puccini museum and live simultaneously on the RAI Cultura portal and on the FB / Puccini Museum, the notes of the Steinway & Sons piano belonging to the Maestro will celebrate
Giacomo Puccini's birthday.
Ten small music cameos curated by the Luccha Music Association and the Giacomo Puccini Foundation will
be performed by the pianist Simone Soldati, the violinist Alberto Bologni and the cellist Ludovica Rana.
A concert that recalls, in the name of Giacomo Puccini, the great musical tradition of Lucca from Geminiani
to Catalani passing through Domenico Puccini, in memory of the generations of Puccini musicians, Luigi
Boccherini and for his long association with Lucca, Niccolò Paganini.
Performance of Giacomo Puccini's Adagio, important for the subsequent developments of Le Villi, and the
Piccolo Valzer destined to become one of the most famous musical pages in the world within La Bohème.
La Scossa Elettrica, a divertissement composed to celebrate the centenary of the invention of the electric
battery by Alessandro Volta and the Calmo e very slow, short composition written in Torre del Lago in 1916
and published releasing the author's proceeds in favor of families of the Fallen of the First World War,
will complete the program in the name of Giacomo Puccini.
A piece by Debussy marks the critical confrontation that the Maestro held with the French music
tradition from Debussy to Massenet, from Bizet to Ravel.
The performances will be introduced by the President of the Giacomo Puccini Foundation Alessandro Tambellini, by the Director of the Giacomo Puccini Foundation Massimo Marsili, by the President of the Lucchesi nel Mondo Association Ilaria Del Bianco and by Giulio Battelli of the Giacomo Puccini Study Center.
The event is also realized thanks to the wish of the Simonetta Puccini Foundation for Giacomo Puccini.