"Madama Butterfly" was, according to Puccini’s own statement, Puccini’s favorite work: "...of all the operas I have written, the most deeply felt and suggestive. After the composer had approached the Far Eastern subject with zeal, he set about studying Japanese musical culture and the customs and traditions of the country with great energy. He even sought out a Japanese actress who was touring Europe to listen to the timbre of the Japanese female voice. Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) masterfully blended his own style with authentic Japanese melodies and the use of exotic instruments, giving the opera its unmistakable atmosphere.
Guilt, atonement and the blossoming of a deep love are the core themes of the work. The tragic figure of the Butterfly is at the center of the action: Puccini completes her development from happy bride to abandoned mother and finally to suicide victim with dreamy, ecstatic melodies and arias. All the other characters in the piece, even the male lead character Pinkerton, are vocally and action-determining rather than marginal figures.
As devastating as the premiere was for the composer in February 1904 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, "Madama Butterfly" began its great triumphal march around the world in a revised version in May 1904 in Brescia.

"Tosca" was first performed on January 14, 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi, now the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, symbolically on the spot. The evening was a major social event, and in addition to the Prime Minister and the Queen, the composers Pietro Mascagni and Francesco Cilea were also present. With his "Tosca" Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) entered a new century and, with his highly theatrical and effective scenes, he committed himself to Verist opera on the one hand and to the tragic-heroic grand opera on the other.
After seeing the drama of the same name by Victorien Sardous, which was a huge international success with Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role, the composer successfully applied to Sardou for the rights to create a libretto. The wealth of musical ideas (more than 60 themes appear as leitmotifs) and the breathless sequence of events are largely responsible for the immense tension and drama of the opera. By focusing on the main character, the work is considered a "prima donna opera" par excellence. Although it has always been suspected that a historical figure is behind Tosca, the characters and plot are freely invented.
However, the background against which the plot unfolds is historically determined by the Second Coalition War and the Battle of Marengo in 1800 between French and Austrian troops. Napoleon’s supposed defeat and his final victory over the coalition troops are reported in the first and second act of the opera.
Today "Tosca" is one of the most popular and most performed operas of all.