At last came the great work which the public were awaiting with impatience, _William Tell_, which was performed Aug. 3, 1829, with Nourrit, Dabadie, Levasseur, Prévost, Mmes. Cinti-Damoreau, Mori and Dabadie for the principal interpreters. In writing the score of _William Tell_, Rossini had applied his genius to the exigencies of the French stage, as Gluck had done fifty years before. He had given to his declamation a breadth hitherto unknown, to his instrumentation a superb color and _éclat_, while the dramatic action had acquired with him a marvellous power, and the wealth and freshness of his inspiration surpassed all that could be desired. It cannot be denied that the appearance of _William Tell_ is a luminous date in the history of music in France, that the success of this masterpiece has never diminished, and that after more than sixty years it is still as touching, as pathetic, as grand, as much respected as in the first days of its existence. How comes it then that after so complete, so brilliant, so incontestable a triumph, Rossini should have renounced the theatre forever, that he should never have wished to repeat so happy an attempt? That is a mystery which as yet it has been impossible to solve, and it is certainly a great misfortune for the art, which has thereby been deprived of untold masterpieces. But the fact remains that from the 3rd of August, 1829, date of the first performance of _William Tell_ until the 13th of November, 1868, date of the master's death, Rossini wrote nothing more for the stage. This does not mean that he stopped composing; far from it. His compositions on the contrary are numerous, and some of them very important, but none are for the theatre. First should be mentioned his religious music: a _Stabat Mater_, a _Petite Messe solennelle_, and a _Tantum ergo_; then three choruses for female voices, _la Foi_, _l'Espèrance_, _la Charitè_; _le Chant des Titans_ for four bass voices; _Soirées musicales_, comprising eight ariettes and four duets; and finally a great number of songs and piano pieces. Earlier, and in the course of his Italian career, Rossini had written, for different occasions, a number of cantatas and lyric scenes, the titles of which are: _il Pianto d'Armonia per la morte d'Orfeo_; _Didone abbandonata_; _Egle ed Irene_; _Teti e Peleo_; _Igea_; _Ad onore di S. M. il re de Napoli_; _Ad onore di S. M. l'emperatore d'Austria_; _la Riconoscenza_; _il Vero Omaggio_; _i Pastori_; etc. [Illustration: ROSSINI'S CLAY PIPE BEARING HIS AUTOGRAPH. Now in the library of the Paris Conservatory. Sketched by special permission.] [Illustration: Fac-simile autograph musical manuscript written by Rossini.]