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The Complete Puccini: The Story of the World's Most Popular Operatic Composer
Author(s): Colin Kendell (Author)
- Publisher: Amberley Publishing
- Publication Date: June 15, 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 160 pages
- ISBN-10: 1445604450
- ISBN-13: 9781445604459
Book Description
La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, Madama Butterfly – Puccini’s operas are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. ‘Nessun dorma’ and other Puccini arias have achieved great levels of fame and recognition. Puccini was a contradictory character – apparently cavalier in his approach to life, with his many affairs with women, but also subject to feelings of great depression. Kendell explores Puccini through his music – confident at first when he emerged as a promising young talent, cautious and uncertain after the failure of his second opera had endangered his career, gradually more assured as he became established as a leading musical figure, then, at the end, anxious to complete his final work before it was too late. Kendell tells the story of the world’s most popular operatic composer, progressing through the operas, their plots and how they were composed. He recounts it all in a simple way with explanations of operatic terms so that no expert knowledge is required.
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About the Author
Colin Kendell became a professional genealogist in 1988 and has been able to combine research into the Ripper murders with my work. He had several articles published in the now defunct “Criminologist” magazine, including one suggesting that the badly disfigured woman found dead in the room of the final victim Mary Kelly was not actually her. Other authors have since taken up that idea. He conducts the occasional “Ripper Walk” around Whitechapel. He also has had a lifelong interest in Puccini. He took Puccini as his specialist subject in the Mastermind semi-final in 1995. He lives in Middlesex.
