22 July-17 Aug 2005. The festival takes place just a few steps from the Villa Mausoleum where Giacomo Puccini lived and worked. The festival was born in 1930 following Puccinis wishes. " I always come out here and take a boat to go and shoot snipes but once I would like to come here and listen to one of my operas in the open air". according to a letter Puccini wrote to Giovacchino Forzano in 1924 shortly before his death. Forzano, librettist of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, was so impressed by those words that, after Puccinis death, he decided to realise his dream and in 1930, together with Pietro Mascagni, who had been a fellow-student and room-mate to Puccini, he produced the first perfomances of Puccinis operas on the lakeshore. This year, the 51st edition on a new stage of course the programme presents La Fanciulla del West in a new staging designed by United States painter Nall; La Bohme directed by Jean-Michel Folon; Turandot staged by Pietro Cascella; and a traditional production of Madama Butterfly, fruit of the cooperation between Festival Puccini and Seoul International Opera Theatre.