The Puccini Award

Founded in 1971, the award has always been given to a specific person: the female voice that Puccini preferred and was inspired by. The Puccini Award is given each year during the “Puccini month” commemorating both his birth and his death.

The award itself is a golden statue of Giacomo Puccini, with a slightly tilted hat, his coat lapels turned upwards and the unfailing cigarette hanging from his lip at the corner of his mouth. The award represents Puccini just as Paolo Trubetzkoy modelled him in 1949 for the statue that is in piazza Torre del Lago, in front of the composer’s house.

The first to receive the award was Rosetta Pampanini, the leading artist in 1930 and 1931, the first two seasons of Puccini. Since then, the Puccini Award has brought many international artists to Torre del Lago and to Chalet Emilio, now called Chalet del Lago. Since 1983,  the award has been extended to other expressions involving the production of Puccini, such as discography, the film industry and young, promising opera talents.  In 1995, the award was given for the first time to an orchestra conductor - Lorin Maazel.

And the changes continued in 1996, when the city of  Turin was given the award for its centennial celebration of La Bohème , while in 1997 Maria Chiara and José Carreras, under the initiative of the festival’s artistic director, received the award at the open theatre.