In the 1891 Giacomo Puccini decided to move in Torre del Lago: every year with the Puccini Festival the town remembers its great musician.

The Puccini Festival, inaugurated in 1930, take place every years at the Open Theatre of Torre del Lago, a few meters away from the mansion where Giacomo Puccini used to live, and where now, in a small room used as chapel, sleeps his spoils.

He loves it so much, that he wasn't able to stay away from Torre del Lago more than a week. He used to say that he suffered of a strange affliction that he called “torrelaghìte”

Born in Lucca and moved to Milan for studying, Puccini arrived in Torre del Lago in 1891. He immediately felt in love with the city, he decided to settle down here his residence. He choose as his own mansion an ancient tower that faces the Massaciuccoli Lake: exactly the same tower that gives the name to the entire town.

Giacomo Puccini and Torre del Lago: a romance lasting over thirty years that every year is renowned with the Puccini Festival.

“A small and peaceful town with a precious Mediterranean vegetation. Luxurious and magnificences sunsets. A sweet air in the summer, and beautifuls springs and autumns.” So, Puccini used to describe Torre del Lago. He loved the simplicity of the place that he considered perfect for having relaxing and delightful moments, as well for practising hunting. Here he composed all his most important operas. In his honour the citizen decided to switch the name to “Torre del Lago Puccini”.

The Puccini Festival: amazing evenings of opera in honour of one of the most important musicians of all time.

Torre del Lago is the perfect destination for those who love operas, and for all those tourists that want to visit the places of one of the most appreciated compositor of the 20th century. During the over seventy years in which the Puccini Festival took place, its stage has hosted the most important singers and musicians of the world opera.
 

The Puccini Festival 2010 will be inaugurated with a new stage production for the “Fanciulla del West”, because of the celebrations of the first centenary from its first performance, played in New York at the Metropolitan House on the 10 of December 1910. During the Puccini Festival 2010 the opera will be proposed under a new skin. Moreover, there will be the presentation of a new and alternative version of the operas “Madama Butterfly” and “Tosca”. The Puccini Festival will be also characterized by the inauguration of the new Torre del Lago's Theatre and of the near “Music and Sculpture Park”. Here visitors will be able to watch a collection of monumental sculptures of Franco Adami, a famous contemporary that for the Festival will also realize the scenarios for the “Fanciulla del West”. Other projects recently realized within the Puccini Festival are: “The needle in Art Festival”, “Puccini at Cinema Frame by Frame Festival”, “Giacomo Puccini and Galileo Chini”, ecc. The Festival Pucciniano Foundation also promote the lyrics musics in schools and organizes theatre and musics courses for young musicians.

Waiting for Puccini Festival: from the 16th of July to the 22th of August comes back the 56th Puccini Festival: on the rivers of Massaciuccoli Lake will be celebrated Giacomo Puccini and his operas, his life and art.

Info and tickets for Puccini Festival:
Ufficio Biglietteria Viale Giacomo Puccini, 257A
Torre del Lago Puccini, Viareggio (LU)
Ticket office tel. (+39) 0584 359322
fax (+39) 0584 350277