Editing Giacomo Puccini (section)

===''Tosca''===
{{Main|Tosca}}
[[File:PucciniTosca.jpg|thumb|upright|Original poster for Puccini's ''[[Tosca]]'']]
Puccini's next work after ''La bohème'' was ''[[Tosca]]'' (1900), arguably Puccini's first foray into ''[[verismo]]'', the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. Puccini had been considering an opera on this theme since he saw the play ''Tosca'' by [[Victorien Sardou]] in 1889, when he wrote to his publisher, [[Giulio Ricordi]], begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: "I see in this ''Tosca'' the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music."{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|2002|pp=106–107}}

The music of ''Tosca'' employs musical signatures for particular characters and emotions, which have been compared to Wagnerian leitmotivs, and some contemporaries saw Puccini as thereby adopting a new musical style influenced by [[Richard Wagner]]. Others viewed the work differently. Rejecting the allegation that ''Tosca'' displayed Wagnerian influences, a critic reporting on the Torino premiere of 20 February 1900 wrote: "I don't think you could find a more Puccinian score than this."<ref>{{cite news |date=21 February 1900 |title=La prima della Tosca del M. Puccini al Teatro Regio |newspaper=[[La Stampa]] |language=it}}</ref>