Giacomo Puccini composed La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot — operas of such emotional intensity that they remain the most performed works in the repertoire. His private life was equally dramatic: affairs, a servant’s suicide after his wife’s false accusations of an affair, and a public scandal that nearly ended his career. The man who wrote the most heartbreaking love stories in opera was, in his personal relationships, frequently the villain.

This episode traces Puccini from his Luccan musical dynasty through the operas that made him the most popular composer of his era, the Doria Manfredi scandal, and the unfinished Turandot that he died completing.

• Puccini’s musical family dynasty and the early struggles before La Boheme made him famous
• Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and the emotional directness that made his operas globally popular
• The Doria Manfredi scandal — the servant’s suicide, the wife’s accusations, and the public disgrace
• The unfinished Turandot and Puccini’s death from throat cancer before he could write the final scene