Tosca's Prism

Simonetta Puccini was born Simonetta Giurumello in Pisa, Italy on June 2, 1928. She received a degree in literature from the University of Milan and became a teacher, but she left that profession in 1973. She went to court to prove that she was a descendant of Giacomo Puccini through his son Antonio. The Court of Cassation ruled in her favor which entitled her to take the name Puccini and gave her a share of the Puccini estate. In 1979, she and several others founded the Institute for Puccini Studies to promote research about him and help maintain his archive. In 1996, she created Friends of the Homes of Giacomo Puccini, a nonprofit organization that raised money to restore and maintain his lakeside villa in Torre del Lago and the museum there. She also established the Simonetta Puccini Foundation to promote scholarship and other causes. She edited two volumes of Puccini's letters and with William Weaver, edited The Puccini Companion: Essays on Puccini's Life and Music. She died on December 16, 2017 at the age of 89.

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