Giacomo Puccini comes from the tradition of Verdi, but evidently learned from the operas of Richard Wagner. He cast aside the division of opera into a sequence of individual arias. His opera is a continual flow of music and song. His inventive instrumentation evokes and complements the character of the stage and plot and emphasises its dramatic moments. Like Wagner he uses characteristic “leitmotifs” to indicated characters or events, but perhaps differs from Wagner, who elaborates these motifs further. Puccini leaves them in unchanged form, which perhaps only emphasises the dramatic unity of the plot. You can experience his genius for yourselves in a further classic performance at Křižík's fountain, which offers a cross-section of the work of this composer.