The early biographers report that Giacomo Puccini, before moving to Milan to complete his studies played the organ at various churches in Lucca, such as S. Pietro Somaldi, S. Paolino, S. Maria dei Servi, S. Girolamo and the parish church of Mutigliano, just outside the city: tasks which his Maestro Carlo Angeloni would have given him, taking into account the difficult family situation of his young student. As regards S. Pietro Somaldi it should be noted that his great-grandfather Antonio, his grandfather Domenico and later his father Michele had already given regular service as organists and masters of the choir.

The organ of S.Pietro Somaldi is a most valuable 17th century instrument, made by a famous organ builder from Lucca, Domenico Cacioli and has always aroused admiration in all the organists who played it. Puccini retained a vivid memory of this organ, even when the opera world had completely absorbed his creativity: witness a signature he affixed to the wind chest at the beginning of the 20th century, after the instrument’s restoration, completed in an exemplary manner by Filippo Tronci, retaining much of the original material. It is not at all improbable, indeed, that it was precisely Puccini who suggested to the ecclesiastical authorities the name of Tronci to be entrusted with the restoration: it does not seem to be a pure coincidence that at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, where the world premiere of Tosca had been staged (1900), there was an instrument created by the same Tronci and on the other hand an instrument made by another member of the Tronci family existed in Rome precisely in S. Andrea della Valle (where the first act of Tosca is set) Tosca ). Moreover, in 1899, Giuseppe Verdi had also commissioned Filippo Tronci to restore the organ of the Roncole which he played as a boy, certain that, in the expert and respectful hands of that organ maker “his” instrument would have preserved its original features. Today, when the practice applies of conservation and restoration of historic organs, we can probably be grateful to Puccini for saving a valuable instrument.