in 1873. The opera contains the famous ballet Dance of the Hours as the third act finale. It was first produced in 1876 and revised several times. The version that has become popular today was first given in 1880. In 1876 he started working on I Mori di Valenza, although the project dates back to 1873. It was an opera that he never finished, although it was completed later by Arturo Cadore and performed posthumously in 1914. After La Gioconda, Ponchielli wrote the monumental biblical melodrama in four acts Il figliuol prodigo given in Milan at La Scala on 26 December 1880 and Marion Delorme, from another play by Victor Hugo, which was presented at La Scala on 17 March 1885. In spite of their rich musical invention, neither of these operas met with the same success but both exerted great influence on the composers of the rising generation, such as Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Umberto Giordano. In 1881, Ponchielli was appointed maestro di cappella of the Bergamo Cathedral, and from the same year he was a professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory, where among his students were Puccini, Mascagni and Emilio Pizzi. He died of pneumonia in Milan in 1886 and was interred in the city's Monumental Cemetery. Legacy Although, in his lifetime, Ponchielli was very popular and influential (and introduced an enlarged orchestra and more complex orchestration), only one of his operas is regularly performed today - La Gioconda. It contains a strong and memorable aria for contralto 'Voce de donna o d'angelo'(the Rosary song), the great tenor romanza "Cielo e mar", a well-known duet for tenor and baritone titled "Enzo Grimaldo, Principe Di Santafior", the soprano aria "Suicidio!", and the ballet "The Dance of the Hours", which is widely known thanks in part to its having been featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940, and in Allan Sherman's novelty song, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", and numerous other popular works. See also List of operas by Amilcare Ponchielli References Bibliography Kaufman: Annals of Italian Opera: Verdi and his Major Contemporaries; Garland Publishing, New York and London, 1990. (contains premiere casts and performance histories of Ponchielli's operas) Budden, Julien (1992), 'Ponchielli, Amilcare' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) Various authors: Amilcare Ponchielli; Nuove Edizioni, Milan, 1985 Various authors: Amilcare Ponchielli 1834-1886, Cremona, 1984 Sirch, Licia; Henry Howey: "The Doctrine of a Critical