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
Paris Opera Ballet Just as prestigious as the Paris Opera Ballet is its dance school, the Paris Opera Ballet School (French: "École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris"), considered as one of the world's best dance school. Its former pupils have won a record of 20 Benois de la Danse awards. The school celebrated its tercentennial in 2013. The competition for admission to both institutions is extremely fierce. To be admitted there, to pass the annual competitive examinations in May, and to attend at least the final two classes is basically compulsory for dancers entering the Paris Opera Ballet. 95% of the