Muti to lead Puccini concert on 100th anniversary of death

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 28 - Conductor Riccardo Muti is to lead a Giacomo Puccini concert on the 100th anniversary of the composer's death in his hometown Lucca on Friday night and the event will be broadcast live in Mundovision on Rai state broadcaster.
    Muti will conduct an exceptionally large orchestra of 120 musicians in the 19th-20th century composer's great arias, sung by leading opera singers.
    Among those attending will be Dustin Hoffman and Peter Greenaway, who are shooting a film in the northern Tuscan art city.
    Puccini (1858-1924) is regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Giuseppe Verdi.
    His most renowned works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924), all of which are among the most frequently performed and recorded of all operas.
    (ANSA).