The Twisted Plot of Puccini’s Love Life

Puccini posing for the camera in one of his cars.

Our first episode of Opera After Dark zeros in on Giacomo Puccini, in the first of three episodes in our “The Men behind the Music” mini series. We started with Puccini because he is the perfect example of just how dynamic, dramatic, and not-boring the life of a composer can be! This was a man who not only wrote incredibly beautiful and passionate music, but also loved hunting, seducing women, and driving in fast cars (“fast” for the time period, anyway… we are pretty sure Puccini never felt the rush of travelling more than abut 45 mph). In episode 1, we give a summarized version of the story behind the Doria Manfredi scandal, discussing newly discovered evidence in this twisted love story, brought to light by director Paolo Benvenuti when he was doing research for a film released in 2008. We are going to post more on this story after episode 1 is launched, but for those of you who want to watch a little of the film, here is a link to the trailer, as it was presented at the International Film Festival Rotterdam: