Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini was a composer of operas.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 1904 Puccini wrote Madame Butterfly but it received mixed reviews. The Eighth Doctor, Charley Pollard and Audacity Montague met him at the premiere and accompanied him to a party hosted by his mysterious financier, Princess Tura. At the party Audacity inadvertently gave him some advice about extending the opera to a third act and Tura decided to take them all on a cruise. To Puccini the trio and Tura appeared to disappear on the cruise, unaware they had left in the TARIDS and Tura had returned to her home world, though Puccini encountered the Doctor and his friends again some months later. He would later alter the opera to have a third act as had been suggested. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor [+]Loading...["Puccini and the Doctor (audio story)"])
The Third Doctor claimed to have met Puccini at Milan. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune [+]Loading...["The Devil Goblins from Neptune (novel)"])
An incarnation of the Doctor prior to the Eighth met Puccini shortly before died. Unaware he was the same man, Puccini told him about some of the inspiration his encounter with his future self had given to Madame Butterfly in 1904. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor [+]Loading...["Puccini and the Doctor (audio story)"]) Due to it being unfinished when Puccini died Franco Alfano had to finish his opera Turandot based on his notes; something which the Doctor found “so sad”. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
Grace Holloway was a fan of Puccini, and listened to his opera Madame Butterfly while she performed the surgery on the Seventh Doctor which caused his regeneration. Later, the amnesiac Eighth Doctor hummed the music to himself, and upon seeing Grace it jogged his memory of the surgery somewhat. Later at Grace's home, seeing her CD of Madame Butterfly further jogged the Doctor's memory of being with Puccini on his deathbed. (TV: Doctor Who [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"])
Some time before those events, the Seventh Doctor found himself trapped in a decompressing airlock as Madame Butterfly played over the speakers, and was determined not to die to the sound of what he angrily called "elevator music". (AUDIO: The Death Collectors [+]Loading...["The Death Collectors (audio story)"]) While being tortured by Guii del Toro, the Doctor recalled a future memory of a voice whispering Puccini's name. (PROSE: Companion Piece [+]Loading...["Companion Piece (novel)"])
The Eighth Doctor locked a prison known as the Cube with a complex cryptographic seal, the password to which included a Puccini aria played backward. (AUDIO: Something Inside [+]Loading...["Something Inside (audio story)"])
The Tenth Doctor went to the Vienna State Opera to see Puccini's grand opera Turandot. The alien Anton Mordillo was the star of the opera. (COMIC: The Great Mordillo [+]Loading...["The Great Mordillo (comic story)"])
