One of the beauties of being a Hot Catholic of Lent is you don’t even have to be alive or real to take the honor. You can be dead or fictional! Day’s 11 Hot Catholic falls into the former category (dead) but his imprint is timeless.

Giacomo Puccini!

For all you uncultured plebes, Puccini was a supremely talented Italian opera composer. According to his Wikipedia entry (I’m a thorough researcher) he was the greatest behind only Verdi. But to me Puccini is number one because he composed my favorite opera of all time, Madama Butterfly. Truth be told, it’s the only one I know but that’s neither here nor there.

Puccini’s two other most famous works are La Bohème and Tosca. Both feature songs that come up on my Enya/Bach Pandora station sometimes. Cool stuff.

Because I love you, here is a recording of legendary diva Maria Callas singing the aria “Un Bel dì Vedremo” (“One Fine Day”) from Butterfly. You don’t need to understand the lyrics in order to be moved (hint – it’s kind of depressing). But here you go anyway!

Congratulations, Giacomo Puccini, for being the Hot Catholic of Lent: Day 12!