Since summer is a propitious time for major music festivals, it is appropriate to remember that on this day in 1778, the La Scala theater was inaugurated in Milan, one of the most famous and emblematic opera centers in the world.
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, better known as Giacomo Puccini, premiered several of his famous operas there. And in line with Puccini, can anyone remain impassive listening to Nessun Dorma, the aria from the final act of the opera Turandot?
Or shudder into awe when the republican painter Mario Cavaradossi, facing his imminent execution, sings E lucevan le stelle in Tosca. It is completely certain that Giacomo Puccini was moved by his music, although apparently, and this is much more unknown, he also did it behind the wheel of a car.
Puccini was born in Lucca, Tuscany, on December 22, 1858. Everyone knows that he was one of the greatest opera composers that ever lived. A pioneer in many facets, he is considered the first media composer in the sense that he was very early aware of his talent and also his fame. And he blew it up. A true crack of music, we would say today.
What is much more surprising, due to the unusualness of this type of character, is that Puccini was a great fan of automobiles and speed. A “quemadillo”, so it seems. Throughout his life he had many automobiles, but there was one brand with which he had a very special relationship: the Italian Lancia.
He loved to run, especially when he was on vacation at his refuge in Torre del Lago. He often rushed to Viareggio or Forte dei Marmi. Livorno police had to fine him numerous times for speeding. Fact that is documented.
On one occasion, driving one of his first cars, he went off the road. His wife, his son, and a mechanic were also on board his Clement Bavard. No one was injured, except for the musician who broke his leg and was left with a limp as a result of the injury.
He had cars from manufacturers of the time such as Sizare et Naudin, Isotta Fraschini and some Fiats. But according to the composer himself, all these cars were very valid for traveling and using with the family, but they were not suitable for practicing another of his great hobbies, hunting.
And it was precisely hunting that led him to ask his friend Vicenzo Lancia, the founder of the brand, to build him a car for driving off-road. Thus, the first Italian SUV in history was reinforced with sheet metal and had wheels with greater mobility so as not to break the axles.
It cost 35,000 lire, a very high figure for the time that Puccini gladly paid. Later he had a Lancia Trikappa and several Lambda models. A 1924 Lancia Lambda was his last car. With him he went to the Pisa station to catch the train to Brussels where he died of laryngeal cancer. He was also a chain smoker. By the way, he died without having finished his posthumous opera, Turandot, premiered at La Scala in Milan in April 1926.
