On a similar occasion, nearly a century before, when "The Barber of Seville" scored an equally monumental failure, Rossini, in the conductor's chair, faced the mob, shrugged his shoulders, and clapped his hands to show his contempt for his judges, then went home and composedly to bed.

Puccini, though he could not see the discomfiture of his opera, was not permitted to remain in ignorance of it.

His son and his friends brought him the news.

His collaborator, Giacosa, rushed into the room with dishevelled hair and staring eyes, crying: "I have suffered the passion of death!" while Signorina Storchio burst into such a flood of tears and sobs that it was feared she would be ill.

Puccini was cut to the heart, but he did not lose faith in the work.