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Tardis
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Tardis
Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer of operas. He and his wife, Elvira Gemignani, met the Eighth Doctor, Charlotte Pollard, and Audacity Montague following the premiere of his opera Madame Butterfly. By inviting the trio to a party at the mansion of Princess Tura, one of Madame Butterfly's financiers, they embroiled them in Tura's latest attempt to quell the boredom amongst her species by stealing the secret of creativity. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor)

The Third Doctor claimed to have met Puccini at Milan. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune) In any case, a regeneration of the Doctor before their eighth visited Puccini on his deathbed in 1924. (TV: Doctor Who, AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor) Puccini told the Doctor that Turandot, the opera he was working on, had been inspired by Princess Tura and that the Doctor reminded him of another regeneration of the Doctor—unbeknownst to the Doctor, his eighth. The Doctor came to suspect that Tura was an alien visiting Earth. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor)

Legacy[]

Charley recalled being read Puccini's obituary by her mother during breakfast. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor) Turandot would be finished by Franco Alfano, a fellow creator of operas, based on Puccini's notes. (TV: Doctor Who, AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor) On 14 October 1926, the Tenth Doctor attended a performance at the Vienna State Opera where the alien Anton Mordillo was the star. (COMIC: The Great Mordillo)

Travelling alone, the Seventh Doctor found himself trapped in a decompressing airlock as "Un bel dì, vedremo", the aria sung by Butterfly as she fantasizes about Pinkerton's return, played over the speakers. This made him determined not to die to what he scorned as "elevator music". (AUDIO: The Death Collectors) While being tortured by Guii del Toro, the Doctor recalled a future memory of a voice whispering Puccini's name. (PROSE: Companion Piece)

Grace Holloway highly enjoyed Madame Butterfly. She had a CD of its music at her house, was driven to tears by a live rendition of "Un bel dì, vedremo", and continued listening to the aria while performing the surgery on the Seventh Doctor which led to his regeneration. When the amnesiac Eighth Doctor noticed Grace's CD of Madame Butterfly, he was reminded of being with Puccini on his deathbed and of Turandot being finished by Franco Alfano. (TV: Doctor Who)

The Eighth Doctor locked a prison known as the Cube with a complex cryptographic seal whose password included a Puccini aria played backward. (AUDIO: Something Inside)

Psychological profile[]

Personality[]

Much like the Eighth Doctor, whom he unsurprisingly got on swimmingly with, Puccini was a romantic to his core. He evaluated jackets based on their perceived attractiveness to women, admitted to Charley and Audacity that they were among the beautiful women he appreciated, vividly described his ideas for Madame Butterfly, and enthusiastically defined love for the Doctor. He was fond of a good mystery, inviting the Doctor, Charley, and Audacity to Princess Tura's party in part because of the secrecy around the Doctor's name. However, he was also rather sensitive to criticism. After Madame Butterfly's premiere, an appraisal from an audience member which was all but glowing convinced him the opera was a failure, he bemoaned that he could not burn the critics along with the reviews they had written, and he all too willingly accepted Audacity's suggestion to lengthen the story. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor)

Skills[]

Puccini was a skilled librettist and composer, getting an audience member at the premiere of Madame Butterfly to declare he would be singing Butterfly's dying aria in the bathtub for weeks. (AUDIO: Puccini and the Doctor)

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