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
Simonetta Puccini Simonetta Puccini Simonetta Puccini, born Simonetta Giurumello (2 June 1929, Pisa16 December 2017, Milan) was the last surviving acknowledged descendant of the composer Giacomo Puccini. She dedicated her life to her grandfather's memory, and owned and restored the composer's home, Villa Museo Puccini. Giacomo Puccini's only son, Antonio, had no children by his wife, but fathered an illegitimate daughter, Simonetta Giurumello, who was born in 1929. She graduated from the University of Milan and was a teacher until 1973. The composer had died in 1924, leaving a large fortune in property and royalties. In 1995, after a legal battle that