[7] His best-known opera is La Gioconda (1876), which his librettist Arrigo Boito adapted from the same play by Victor Hugo that had been previously set by Saverio Mercadante as Il giuramento in 1837 and Carlos Gomes as Fosca in 1873.

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, Emilio Pizzi, and Giovanni Tebaldini.

[10][3] Although in his lifetime Ponchielli was very popular and influential (and introduced an enlarged orchestra and more complex orchestration), only one of his operas, La Gioconda, is regularly performed today.

"; and the ballet Dance of the Hours, which is widely known thanks in part to its having been featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940, in Allan Sherman's novelty song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", and in numerous other popular works.