Sacred love and profane love

Giacomo Puccini was a passionate lover, so much so that he himself defined himself as "a powerful hunter of wild birds, opera librettos and beautiful women".

During his life, the Maestro became romantically linked to Elvira Bonturi (of whom he had previously been the lover), but the relationships he had in the meantime with other women are also known. One of the most famous cases is the one for Corinna,  anagram of the name of a young woman with a mysterious identity.

This impetuous and passionate character of Puccini also influenced the  works he composed. In fact, it is not rare to find personal references such as in the opera  “Edgar”. It was composed between 1885 and 1889, and set in Flanders who sees as the protagonist the young Edgar torn between to keep  the “sacred” love and affection he feels for Fidelia or leave it for the passion of the “profane” love born suddenly for the provocative gypsy Tigrana; Nothing is left to chance, not even the names of the two women.