Composer of the Week - Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) - The Belasco Connection

With Donald Macleod. The two operas Puccini composed to plays by the American dramatist David Belasco showed him to be making real advances in orchestral techniques and the handling of characters. While these developments were largely ignored in the first of them, Madama Butterfly, the premiere of La fanciulla del West was a different story altogether. Un bel di vedremo (Madama Butterfly, Act 2) Mirella Freni (soprano) Vienna Philharmonic Herbert von Karajan (conductor) Viene le sera... Vogliatemi bene (Madama Butterfly, Act 1) Mirella Freni (soprano) Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) Vienna Philharmonic Herbert von Karajan (conductor) Datele voi qualche soccorso... Addio fiorito asil (Madama Butterfly, Act 2) Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) Robert Kerns (baritone) Elke Schary, Christa Ludwig (mezzo-sopranos) Vienna Philharmonic Herbert von Karajan (conductor) La fanciulla del West (Act 1, excerpt) Mara Zampieri (soprano) Placido Domingo (tenor) Orchestra of La Scala, Milan Lorin Maazel (conductor) La fanciulla del West (Act 3, excerpt) Juan Pons (baritone) Placido Domingo (tenor) Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan Lorin Maazel (conductor).