Editing Giacomo Puccini (section)

===''Manon Lescaut''===
{{Main|Manon Lescaut (Puccini)}}

On commencing his next opera, ''[[Manon Lescaut (Puccini)|Manon Lescaut]]'', Puccini announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist"{{sfn|Carner|1959|p={{page needed|date=June 2018}}}} could spoil it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept [[Ruggero Leoncavallo]] as his librettist, but Puccini soon asked Ricordi to remove him from the project. Four other librettists were then involved with the opera, as Puccini constantly changed his mind about the structure of the piece. It was almost by accident that the final two, [[Luigi Illica]] and [[Giuseppe Giacosa]], came together to complete the opera.

''Manon Lescaut'' premiered at the [[Teatro Regio (Turin)|Teatro Regio]] in Turin on 2 February 1893.<ref name="Night of Lescaut premiere">{{cite news |date=2 February 1893 |title=Arte e Scienze |newspaper=La Stampa}}</ref> By coincidence, Puccini's first enduringly popular opera appeared within a week of the premiere of Verdi's last opera, ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'', which was first performed on 9 February 1893.<ref name="Night of Lescaut premiere" /> In anticipation of the premiere, {{Lang|it|[[La Stampa]]}} wrote that Puccini was a young man concerning whom "great hopes" had a real basis ("{{lang|it|un giovane che è tra i pochi sul quale le larghe speranze non siano benigne illusioni}}").<ref name="Night of Lescaut premiere" /> Because of the failure of ''Edgar'', however, a failure of ''Manon Lescaut'' could have jeopardized Puccini's future as a composer. Although Giulio Ricordi, head of Casa Ricordi, was supportive of Puccini while ''Manon Lescaut'' was still in development, the Casa Ricordi board of directors was considering cutting off Puccini's financial support.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|2002|p=64}} In any event, "''Manon Lescaut'' was Puccini's first and only uncontested triumph, acclaimed by critics and public alike."<ref name="GroverOperas">{{harvnb|Sadie|Macy|2006|p={{page needed|date=August 2021}}}}</ref> After the London premiere in 1894, [[George Bernard Shaw]] pronounced: "Puccini looks to me more like the heir of Verdi than any of his rivals."<ref name="Budden">{{harvnb|Budden|2002|page=107}}</ref>

''Manon Lescaut'' was a great success and established Puccini's reputation as the most promising rising composer of his generation, and the most likely "successor" to Verdi as the leading exponent of the Italian operatic tradition.<ref name="Streatfeild" /> Illica and Giacosa returned as librettists for Puccini for his next three operas, probably his greatest successes: ''[[La bohème]]'', ''[[Tosca]]'' and ''[[Madama Butterfly]]''.