Bachtrack top ten: Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini in 1900

Giacomo Puccini and conductor Arturo Toscanini in 1910

By Mark Pullinger, 22 December 2022

Loading, please wait...

“a glamorous opera singer only adds to the appeal… attracting real life divas to the role”

Isabella Steppan, 19th September

Soprano Elena Stikhina is in demand at the world's major opera houses. Isabella Steppan meets her in Salzburg to discuss the role of Tosca – which she is currently singing in Amsterdam and Vienna – and the reality of life as an opera singer.

Taking another fearless leap: Sonya Yoncheva

Mark Pullinger, 21st March

“I don't fear anything!” Sonya Yoncheva discusses her career, from leaping from the Castel Sant’Angelo as Tosca to preparing a new Iolanta in Vienna, and setting up her own production company.

Pablo Larraín on directing his Callas biopic

Mark Pullinger, 3rd December

Pablo Larraín talks about his new film Maria, starring Angelina Jolie, which charts the final days of iconic diva Maria Callas.

A journey through Puccini’s Tuscany

Stephen Pritchard, 12th June

Puccini, who died 100 years ago this year, had a lasting fondness for his native Tuscany – and despite his wealth and fame in later life never moved far from his birthplace in Lucca.

Puccini and the moderns: a composer in the 20th century

Alexandra Wilson, 1st May

2024 marks the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death. Yet his work is often relegated from histories of 20th-century music. Puccini scholar Alexandra Wilson explores the diversity – and modernism – of the composer’s later operas.

Bachtrack top ten: Maria Callas

Mark Pullinger, 2nd December

Maria Callas was the most iconic soprano of the 20th century. We mark her centenary by looking at ten of her most important roles.

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.