100 posters to remember Puccini, 100 years after his death

La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Turandot. These are just some of Giacomo Puccini's most famous operas. Italy is the land of opera and Puccini was a great star in the early 1900s. To mark the centenary of his death, the city where he was born in 1858 is staging an exhibition in his honour that offers a new perspective on the artist's career. More than 100 original posters, on display at the Ex Cavallerizza in Lucca's historic centre, show the graphics created to promote the works on show, from the earliest illustrations by the German painter Adolf Hohenstein to the most recent depictions by the illustrator Riccardo Guasco, who also created the official image for the exhibition.

Divided into four parts, symbolically called 'acts', the exhibition opens with an overview of all the opera posters, including, in addition to those already mentioned, La fanciulla del West, Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. The second part is devoted to some in-depth studies of the authors of the posters, while the third and final parts examine Puccini's relationship with some of the artists of his time - Duilio Cambellotti, Leonetto Cappiello, Galileo Chini - and with companies. 

There are Fiat and Pirelli posters, probably due to the composer's passion for cars, but also De Dion-Bouton, which was his first car, then Harley-Davidson, Baglietto and other luxury brands, a clear trace of the lifestyle of the popular opera composer. Although it is an itinerary designed to illustrate the composer's artistic production through the key of advertising images, these posters tell not only the story of Giacomo Puccini, but also that of European advertising graphics.