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
Bel Canto (restaurant) Bel Canto (restaurant) Bel Canto is a chain of restaurants, based in Paris, France, where singers perform live opera arias for the diners. Bel Canto employs opera singers as waiters and waitresses. The singers usually work in groups of four, and every 15 minutes a different opera aria is performed. As of 2008, Bel Canto employed 50 singers and 10 pianists. The restaurants are decorated in red and gold velvet, with musical instruments and opera costumes lining the walls. The first Bel Canto restaurant opened in Paris in 1999, and since then another restaurant opened in Paris, and a third