The Italian term "bel canto" can have a number of meanings. Literally "beautiful song" or "beautiful singing", it was applied to a method of singing taught by the Italian masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in which smooth emission of tone, beauty of timbre and elegance of phrasing are among the most important elements. Today, the term is used mainly to describe the predominant style of Italian opera in the first half of the nineteenth century, from Paisiello, for example, to middle-period Verdi. However, the three great composers of the bel canto era whose works still delight audiences today are Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.