Written in 1892, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut catapulted him to international fame, but his early works — pre-Manon Lescaut — offer a fascinating insight into his development as a composer. John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London lead a journey through this development that includes student compositions and orchestral extracts from Puccini’s earliest operas. The Preludio sinfonico (loosely based on Wagner’s Prelude to Lohengrin) was created while Puccini was studying under Amilcare Ponchielli at the Milan Conservatory from 1880 to 1883, as was the Scherzo, Trio, and Adagetto and the Capriccio sinfonico, his graduation piece, which famously anticipates the opening of La bohème. The one-act opera Le villi was composed for a competition – which Puccini didn’t win – while themes from the contemporaneous Tre minuetti and Crisantemi (both for string quartet) were subsequently re-cycled in Manon Lescaut. Verdi’s publisher, Ricordi, bought the rights to Le villi, and commissioned a new work at the same time: Edgar, which, largely owing to the absurd plot, is arguably Puccini’s only failure, despite some fully mature music easily the match of the more celebrated scores.