Giacomo Puccini was a prolific composer of opera and is commonly regarded as the successor of Verdi, who was and still is considered the ‘King of 19th century opera’. Puccini was inspired to compose opera having walked 18.5 miles (30km) with a friend to see Verdi’s Aida in Pisa. He is viewed as one of the few composers of opera to successfully employ both Italian and German operatic techniques. Puccini was commissioned to compose a requiem to mark the fourth anniversary (27 January 1905) of the death of Verdi.