I have been enjoying BBC's Composer of the Week podcast. It provides a good introduction to a composer's life along with highlights of his music. I just finished an episode on Puccini and discovered that the aria "O mio babbino caro", which I have heard before and which is often featured in "greatest hits" lists, is from Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi. This work was composed in 1917–18 and is part of Il trittico (The Triptych). It premiered in New York. The opera is based on a passage in the Inferno, Canto XXX. Dante has travelled to the Circle of Impersonators where he observes Schicchi behaving savagely. Dante is told that Schicchi has been condemned for disguising himself as Buoso Donati and then altering his will.

In the opera, Schicchi's daughter Lauretta has fallen in love with a boy from the Rinuccio family. Their relationship has led to tensions between the two houses. "O mio babbino caro" ("Oh my dear Papa”) is sung by Lauretta in hopes of resolving the tensions. Here is the aria sung by Renée Fleming.