With works such as La Bohème and Madame Butterfly Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) created some of the world’s most popular and widely performed operas. His colourful orchestrations, beautiful melodies, rare theatrical sensibility and often daring choices of subject matter combined to produce timeless stage works that continue to appeal to a broad audience. In this powerful biography, Conrad Wilson examines this great composer’s works and the ways in which they were influenced by his many relationships with women and his contradictory personality.