Hopscotch (film) describes bullets flying and even bombs exploding. There is also the aria "[[Largo al Factotum]]" from the opera [[The Barber of Seville]] by [[Gioachino Rossini]]. Matthau sings this as he passes a border checkpoint. The words to the aria explain how everyone is looking for the barber, and he moves fast like lightning. Kendig has the aria "[[Un bel dì vedremo|Un Bel Dì Vedremo]]" ("One Beautiful Day") from [[Madame Butterfly]] by [[Giacomo Puccini]] playing loudly on the stereo as the FBI and CIA shoot up Myerson's wife's house. The operatic contrapunto adds a surreal air of ironic justice to the
Giacomo Puccini critics as to the artistic value of his work has always been divided. Grove Music Online described Puccini's strengths as a composer as follows: Puccini succeeded in mastering the orchestra as no other Italian had done before him, creating new forms by manipulating structures inherited from the great Italian tradition, loading them with bold harmonic progressions which had little or nothing to do with what was happening then in Italy, though they were in step with the work of French, Austrian and German colleagues. In his work on Puccini, Julian Budden describes Puccini as a gifted and original composer, noting