A Reason for Optimism: Good News in History, December 22 | An Encouraging Development

A Reason for Optimism: Good News in History, December 22 | An Encouraging Development

Why this story matters: This uplifting update focuses on solutions rather than problems — and that’s worth paying attention to. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to on this day, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. 165 years ago today, Giacomo Puccini was born. Considered as the greatest composer of Italian opera in history alongside or perhaps just behind Verdi, his work includes many of the most-performed spectacles in Italian opera, including La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, and Madame Butterfly. Often regarded as a romanticist who honored 18th-century Italian tradition, Puccini would go on to incorporate different themes and mechanisms into his music, not least of which was the Chinese motifs in Turandot. (1858) His breakout success was Manon Lescaut set in Paris, but performed in Italian, and was the first dose of a characteristic of Puccini’s: he was difficult to work with. Wanting no librettist to interfere with his plan, he eve…