His life never seemed to be particularly fulfilling after that point. Upon appeal, the case was withdrawn after Puccini paid the girl's family 12,000 lire. Puccini was no saint (he had several affairs and according to one biographer, his 'conquests were easy and numerous'), but he denied a relationship with Doria, whose virginity when she killed herself was verified posthumously. In 1909, before he could complete another opera, scandal engulfed Puccini when his wife, Elvira, was found guilty of 'defamation of character, libel and menace to life and limb, relating to the suicide death of Doria Manfredi', the Puccinis' 16-year-old servant girl.

Madama Butterfly premiered just shy of the one-year anniversary of his car crash but was withdrawn immediately because of its poor reception. This regularity was interrupted in February 1903 by a car accident that left Puccini house bound for eight months.

Puccini began a string of major successes four years later with Manon Lescaut, followed in 1896 by La bohème and in 1900 with Tosca. It failed, receiving just three performances, and has never entered the repertory (the last Met staging was in 1909 while its Vienna premiere was 2005). Puccini never worked quickly, always searching for the right subject matter, the one that would 'make people weep, therein lies everything.' Edgar, his first full-length opera, premiered at La Scala in 1889, five years after Le villi. One month later his mother died and Puccini almost immediately eloped with Elvira Gemignani, a married woman with whom he would have a stormy relationship for the rest of his life. His first taste of success came in 1884 with the one-act opera and ballet Le willis (later renamed Le villi and changed to two acts).

He saw his first opera, Verdi's Aida, at fifteen and 'felt that a musical window had opened.' He started composing larger works with an eye toward attending the Milan conservatoire, where he matriculated in 1880.

Puccini opera songs