I'm tempted to write about the top news story of the day, but I've decided instead to write about something a little more tasteful. So my Governor Spitzer commentary will have to wait because 2008 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest opera composers of all time, Giacomo Puccini. Perhaps you've seen La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, or Turandot in person, or listened to recordings of them. You surely have heard Pavarotti's performance of Nessun Dorma (from Turandot) in the famed Three Tenors recording. If you haven't, you really need to.

"It is said that around 1876, Puccini, walked 13 miles to a theater in Pisa to hear Aida, the great Verdi opera, and immediately decided to become an opera composer as well. Serious study, however, would be needed, and with this in mind he secured a stipend from a grand-uncle, and then a scholarship to the Conservatory in Milan. He arrived in late 1880, and studied diligently for the next three years."* The rest, as they say, is history.

So why not read more about Puccini in the Biography Resource Center database, or check out one of these books.
The king and I : thirty-six years with my client, friend, and burden, Luciano Pavarotti : the untold story / by Herbert Breslin and Anne Midgette.
Pavarotti : life with Luciano / Adua Pavarotti with Wendy Dallas

And you must check out one of these recordings, videos and DVDs. You'll be happy you did.
Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti in concert [sound recording].
The 3 tenors in concert 1994 : [videorecording]
Turandot sound recording / Puccini ; [completed by Franco Alfano].
La bohème [videorecording] / by Giacomo Puccini ; libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica ; The Metropolitan Opera.
My favorite opera for children [compact disc].

* "Giacomo Puccini." Contemporary Musicians, Volume 25. Gale Group, 1999.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC