For Puccini, the creation of an opera was a love affair. Many of his heroines had strong links to the women in his life: from Corinna, the young prostitute whom he loved while writing Madama Butterfly, to Doria, the maid who committed suicide in his house while he was developing La Fanciulla del West.

In this revealing new ‘plaria’ (play with music), Helios Collective explore Puccini’s real and imagined worlds, his extraordinary music and his tumultuous infidelities.

Told by Puccini’s wife Elvira Bonturi, it is a tale about the destructive tensions between real life and opera, heroines and muses.