By Fred Kirshnit [NY Sun, 13 September 2005]

Not long after he purchased his first automobile, and immediately after his chauffeur drove it off an embankment, Giacomo Puccini found himself laid up for four months with a broken leg. After replacing the upright piano at the house at Torre del Lago with a grand so that his cast could fit underneath, he settled in to flesh out the music for "Madama Butterfly."