Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) is perhaps the world's most popular composer of operas.  Works such as La Bohème and Madame Butterfly have a universal appeal and are an essential part of the repetoire of every major opera house.  He is renowned above all for his gift as a melodist, but he was also a new force in musical drama, and posessed a tremendous sense of theatre.  The author draws attention to the felicity, daring and extraordinary colouring of Puccini's music, and counters the view that he was a retrogressive who through his choice of harrowing subject matter aimed to shock.  This is a polemic, passionate and rational attempt to set the man from Lucca among the immortal greats.