PUCCINI'S STAR HAS NEVER shone more brightly than at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. Since 1900, La boheme has rarely been absent from a season, and for four decades after their house premieres, Tosca and Madama Butterfly joined La boheme almost every year. When Puccini visited the Metropolitan in 1907, he "appeared upon the stage and was acclaimed with every demonstration of enthusiasm and recalled time and again."
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While in New York, Puccini saw ...