Giacomo Puccini Because only three "verismo" works by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", and "Andrea Chénier"), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to the genre. Both during his lifetime and in posterity, Puccini's success outstripped other Italian opera composers of his time, and he has been matched in this regard by only a handful of composers in the entire history of opera. Eleven of Puccini's operas are numbered among the 200 most-performed operas (worldwide, by composers of any nationality, as surveyed by Operabase). Three of his works ("La bohème", "Tosca", and "Madama Butterfly") rank among
Puccini (horse) another three lengths away in third. Rated by rider Michael Walker as the best horse he's ever ridden, Puccini is now expected to go to Australia and target such races as the Australian Derby and Cox Plate. Puccini (horse) Puccini (foaled 25 September 2010) is a New Zealand thoroughbred racehorse. On 1 March 2014 he won the 139th running of the New Zealand Derby. Born in 2010, Puccini is a half-brother to six-time Group 1 winner Sir Slick. He is also closely related to stakes-winning and Group 1-placed sprinter Little Wonder, who won a Group 3 event on the undercard