His followers were Planquette, with _Chimes of Normandy_, Lecocq and his _La Fille de Mme. Angot_, and _Giroflé-Girofla_, and Franz von Suppé with _Fatinitza_, _Boccaccio_ and the _Poet and Peasant_ overture, played at all movie-houses! In Vienna Johann Strauss with his waltzes, and the most perfect comic opera of its kind, _Die Fledermaus_ (_The Bat_) still sparkling and delightful, _Zigeuner-Baron_ (_Gypsy-Baron_), all owe their start in life to Offenbach’s genius. We too, in America, have had the gifted Victor Herbert with his _Mlle. Modiste_, _The Serenade_, _The Red Mill_ and many other lovely operettas and Reginald De Koven with _Robin Hood_. The inimitable pair in England, Sir Arthur Sullivan and his librettist W. S. Gilbert, wrote comic operas that have become classics. (See page 341.) So, the foppish Offenbach sowed fruitful seed, and the crop that followed him have given high pleasure and delightful times to many, and probably will, for years to come. AN ITALIAN TRIO—ROSSINI, BELLINI, DONIZETTI We have dipped into Germany and France so now we must see what was going on in Italy. Few Italians realized that great musical advances were being made in other countries and kept on doing the same old things. But one or two became famous because they left Italy to mingle with the other composers and audiences of Europe. Among the best known of these was Giacchino Rossini (1792–1868), who became director of the _Theatre Italien_, in Paris, after visits to Vienna and London. His masterpiece was _William Tell_, based on the Schiller poem dealing with the hero of Swiss history. Among other things, and very delightful, was his _Barber of Seville_, which was modelled after the _Marriage of Figaro_, the conversational opera invented by Mozart, whose influence can also be seen in his _Semiramide_. Rossini’s church music, such as the well known _Stabat Mater_ is also florid but full of beautiful living melody. This and the _Solemn Mass_ are often given today. He was a brilliant composer, an innovator and did much to abolish the foolish cadenza in opera. His work is very ornate but shows skill in concerted pieces,—choruses and the endings or finales of the acts. One of the best known followers of Rossini in Italy was Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) with his _Daughter of the Regiment_, _Lucrezia Borgia_ and _Lucia di Lammermoor_ from Sir Walter Scott’s story, _The Bride of Lammermoor_. He wrote showy brilliant things like the sextet and the mad scene from _Lucia_ and by his very skill in these musical fireworks, kept back opera founded on truth and sincerity. Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835), unlike Donizetti, wrote only in the grand style and not in the _comique_. His best known works are _Norma_, _I Puritani_ (_The Puritan_) and _La Sonnambula_ (_The Sleep Walker_). Though he was a better writer than Donizetti, Bellini is heard far less often today. He also used too many frilly, frothy effects and held back the advance of opera.