Puccini's best-known arias for first-timers

What an aria is

An aria is a self-contained piece for a single voice, usually part of a larger work such as an opera. It differs from recitative, which is speech-like and moves the story along: arias are melodic and structured, and they carry emotion and show off the singer's skill. A duet puts two voices together in the same way. A recital strings arias and duets into a programme, so you hear the high points of several operas in one hour, without sitting through the stories that connect them.

Soprano and tenor

The festival's evening concerts are given by two soloists with piano, usually a soprano and a tenor. In Puccini's operas the pairing is the heart of the drama: Rodolfo in La bohème, Cavaradossi in Tosca and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly are all tenors, and Mimì, Tosca and Cio-Cio-San are all sopranos. A recital for those two voices can therefore draw on the loving couples of his best-known stories, one after another.

La bohème

La bohème is set in Paris around 1830 and tells of a poet, Rodolfo, and a seamstress, Mimì, among a group of poor friends. It premiered on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, in four acts, in Italian, to a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Its famous music includes Rodolfo's Che gelida manina, Mimì's Sì, mi chiamano Mimì, their duet O soave fanciulla and Musetta's Waltz, Quando me'n vo'. Any of them could appear in a Puccini programme.

Tosca

Tosca is set in Rome in June 1800 and premiered on 14 January 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It runs to three acts, in Italian, and is based on Victorien Sardou's play La Tosca. The soprano's showpiece is Vissi d'arte in Act 2, sung by Tosca herself, and the tenor's best-known aria is E lucevan le stelle in Act 3, sung by the painter Cavaradossi. Cavaradossi's Recondita armonia from Act 1 is another aria that recital programmes may draw on.

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is set in Nagasaki and follows Cio-Cio-San, a young Japanese woman, and Lieutenant Pinkerton, a US naval officer. It premiered on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan and was received so badly that it is remembered as a notorious flop. Puccini revised it, and the new version succeeded at its first performance in Brescia on 28 May 1904. Its best-known aria is Cio-Cio-San's Un bel dì, vedremo, and the love duet and the Humming Chorus are also famous.

Gianni Schicchi and O mio babbino caro

O mio babbino caro, which means Oh my dear papa, is a soprano aria from Gianni Schicchi, a comic one-act opera by Puccini with a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta to her father, Schicchi, when a family quarrel threatens to separate her from the man she loves. Gianni Schicchi is part of Il trittico, which premiered on 14 December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The aria is short, lyrical and a gentle contrast to the scheming around it.

Turandot and Nessun dorma

Nessun dorma is a tenor aria sung by the unknown prince Calaf in the final act of Turandot, alone in the palace gardens at night. Puccini died on 29 November 1924 with the opera unfinished, and Franco Alfano completed the score from his sketches. At the premiere on 25 April 1926 at La Scala, Toscanini stopped the orchestra at the death of Liù and told the audience that the maestro had died at that point. Luciano Pavarotti's 1990 World Cup performance made the aria known far beyond opera.

Read next: Puccini in Lucca: birthplace and boyhood

Listening to a recital with piano

In a recital the pianist takes the part that the orchestra plays in the opera house, so you hear the voices close up and the harmony pared down. Puccini wrote in Italian, and the arias are sung in Italian. You do not need the words to follow the feeling, and reading the story of each opera beforehand makes the evening richer. Because the festival changes performers and programmes from night to night, treat this guide as a map of Puccini's repertoire, not a running order for your evening.

What a recital cannot give you

A recital gives you the voices, the piano and the room, not the staging. There are no sets, no costumes and no orchestra, and each aria stands alone without the plot around it. If you want a full production of a Puccini opera, the summer festival at Torre del Lago is the other route. If you want one hour of his best-known melodies in the city where he was born, the Lucca recital is the closer fit, and it comes with the arias already chosen by the festival.

Read next: Torre del Lago: Puccini's villa and festival