Music and Time Annotation << Back «The Music I Write is Similar to no One»: Puccini’s «Tosca»and the Originalityof His Style Y.V. Volodina This article treats the question of the originality of an Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s (1858–1924) style in music. His style is analyzed through his main work – the Tosca opera (1900). The article covers the matters of musical dramatics, leitmotif technics, the correlation of composing vocal and instrumental pieces. The author disproves the idea that Puccini is a direct follower of Verdi and the impression that Puccini’s works stay in the shade of the two «opera giants» – R. Wagner and G. Verdi. With this regard, the author considers some peculiarities of Wagner’s and «late» Verdi’s composing technics and reasoning. This examination leads to the conclusion that Puccini has managed to write both music «similar to no one» and music which reflects numerous tendencies of the previous developments in the opera art. Keywords: Puccini, style, Tosca, leitmotif, symphonism, musical dramatics, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, melody, belcanto. Contacts: E-mail:volodinagiulia@gmail.com Pp. 03-07.