Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, one of nine children.

Young Puccini studied at the Pacini Institute of Music in Lucca. At first he was an indifferent student. Then, encouraged by a sympathetic teacher, he began to blossom as a church organist.

Puccini smoked from an early age and when he needed money to buy cigarettes he stole and sold the organ pipes from a village church in which he accompanied the services. The mischievous teenager then changed the harmonies so no one noticed the missing notes.