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Donald Macleod follows the dramas surrounding Tosca and Madama Butterfly, the opera which Puccini believed was his finest creation, yet suffered the most negative reception.

Giacomo Puccini was man of the theatre to his fingertips. Born in Lucca in 1858, into a distinguished family of church musicians, Puccini was never destined to follow in his forebears’ footsteps. His fate was sealed when as a teenager he walked thirty miles to hear Verdi’s Aida. He knew immediately that theatre was his calling and from that point on he wrote almost exclusively for the stage.

A perfectionist and an often unreasonable taskmaster, Puccini agonised over each of his operas. Beginning with Manon Lescaut, the opera that launched Puccini internationally, this week Donald Macleod follows the off and the on-stage dramas of La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La fanciulla del West, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Il tabarro and the opera he left incomplete at his death in 1924, his final masterpiece, Turandot. The stories on stage are interleaved with events in his personal life, from an early scandal over his affair with a married woman and some very dodgy skulduggery in his business dealings, to the suicide of one of his servants, a tragedy of such proportion, he was plunged in to a deep depression, haunted by the events for the rest of his life.

In a week celebrating a composer whose music expresses every human emotion, there's a host of landmark recordings, including the voices of Jonas Kaufmann, Angela Gheorghiu, Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna, We'll hear Mimì's touching calling card from La Bohème, in the classic Victoria de los Angeles version while Renato Scotto pours all Madam Butterfly's hopes into the heartbreaking Un bel dì. The raw pain of Sister Angelica mourning her dead son, and the dark desperation of a jealous husband in Il tabarro. On Wednesday Callas and Gobbi’s anguished, sadistic torture scene in Tosca still has the power to shock us as much as it did on its first night in 1900. It's high stakes and nail-biting tension in La fanciulla del West as Minnie trades the life of her outlaw lover on the outcome of a card game. Joan Sutherland’s icy Princess Turandot, a magnificent pairing with Luciano Pavarotti’s Prince Calaf comes on Friday along with a certain aria made famous by the 1990 world cup, heard here in the hands of another Puccini specialist, Jussi Björling.

When it came to Tosca, Puccini met with resistance from all sides, including his crack team of librettists and also his publisher. None of them seemed to understand his vision. Worse was to follow with the birth of his beloved Madama Butterfly. What was behind its failure?

Tosca, Act 1 (excerpt)
Ah! Finalmente ...
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Antonio Pappano, director

Vissi d’arte, Act 2
Leontyne Price, soprano, Tosca
Vienna Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Tosca, Act 2
Mario Cavaradossi qual testimone ...
Ed or fra noi parliam da buon amici
Sciarrone, che dice il cavalier
Orsu, Tosca, parlate
Maria Callas, soprano, Tosca
Giuseppe di Stefano, tenor, Mario Cavaradossi
Tito Gobbi, baritone, Baron Scarpia
Angelo Mercuriali, tenor, Spoleta
Dario Caselli, bass, Sciarrone
Milan La Scala Orchestra
Victor de Sabata, conductor

Tosca, Act 3
E lucevan le stelle
Ah! Franchigia a Floria Tosca
Il tuo sangue o il mio amore volea
O dolci mani mansuete e puré
Senti l’ora è vicina
Amaro sol per te m’era il morire
Angela Gheorghiu, soprano, Tosca
Roberto Alagna, tenor, Cavaradossi
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Antonio Pappano, director

Madama Butterfly, Act 1
Dovunque al mondo
America for ever
Ier l'altro il Consolato
Ecco. Son giunte al sommo del pendio
Gran ventura
Robert Kerns, baritone, Sharpless
Michel Sénéchal, tenor, Goro
Luciano Pavarotti, tenor, Pinkerton
Mirella Freni, soprano, Butterfly
Vienna Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Madama Butterfly, Act 1
Viene la sera
Vogliatemi bene
Mirella Freni, soprano, Butterfly
Luciano Pavarotti, tenor, Pinkerton
Vienna Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan, conductor