Who was Amilcare Ponchielli?


Answer: Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886) was an Italian composer. Born in Paderno Fasolaro (now Paderno Ponchielli) near Cremona, then Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old. 

He is best known for his operas, most notably La Gioconda, the third and most successful version of which debuted at La Scala in Milan on 28 March 1880. The Dance of the Hours from that opera is widely known thanks in part to its use in Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940 and in Allan Sherman's novelty song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh". 

In 1881, Ponchielli was appointed the maestro di cappella of Bergamo Cathedral and a professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory, where his pupils included Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, Emilio Pizzi, and Giovanni Tebaldini. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla and died at the age of 51 in Milan.