Puccini is my second-favorite opera composer, after Mozart. His operas involve beautiful, sweeping arias and intense emotions played out in familiar and realistic (back then) settings. Though people often catch consumption, they'er just normal Italians trying to find happiness in a frequently cold and indifferent world.

La Boheme. Composer: Giacomo Puccini Performer: Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, et al. Label: Polygram Records - #421049 Audio CD (October 25, 1990). This is one of my all-time favorites, and I play it on the show every few months. Many of its arias are well-known to opera lovers and movie-goers alike. The two lovers are poor in everything but the wealth of their love, which burns brightly even as Mimi's life is snuffed out by consumption.

Tosca: Composer: Giacomo Puccini Conductor: Victor De Sabata Performer: Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, et al. Label: Emi Classics - #56304 Audio CD (August 19, 1997). An opera singer suspects her lover of infedelity, yet remains true to him no matter what. She strikes a bargain with the govenor of the prison to fake her lover's death, then kills the evil governor. But, alas, her lover's "execution" proves real, and rather be taken by the guards, she hurls herself from the parapet.

La Fanciulla del West, by Giacomo Puccini.

"Il Trittico," by Giacomo Puccini. It's a series of three operas, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, of which I'll only be able to play two (probably the last two. I haven't decided yet).

"Turandot," by: Giacomo Puccini (completed by Franco Alfano). It's a great opera, filled with beautiful music and the classic love story -- though it's slightly strange for having a happy ending. Amor vincet omnia.