Lucca has a great musical tradition. Composers like Nicolao Dorati, Cristoforo Malvezzi, Gioseffo Guami, Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori, Francesco Barsanti, Francesco Gemignani, Filippo Manfredi, Luigi Boccherini, Alfredo Catalani and Giacomo Puccini lived and worked in this town.

In 1842, the Istituto Musicale Lucchese was created in Lucca. And Lucca offered to young Puccini all its culture and musical tradition: the conservatory in which he studied, the hundred churches, the ancient buildings with all their history.