While Puccini wrote only twelve operas during a long life--three of them one-acters designed to be performed together--he has to be ranked today as the world's most popular composer of opera. His La Bohßeme and Tosca are more frequently performed in the major opera houses than works by other composers, and Madame Butterfly and Manon Lescaut rank not far behind. What is the explanation for Puccini's enormous success? How do his operas work as music and drama? What was he like to contemporaries such as Verdi, Toscanini, and Caruso? Charles Osborne, author of highly successful Complete Operas of Verdi and Complete Operas of Mozart, here analyzes the entire Puccini oeuvre--from Tosca and Turandot to the less-often performed Edgar, La Fanciulla del West, and La Rondine.