A version by Sterbini of Beaumarchais’ comedy, _Le Barbier de Seville_, furnished the libretto for his next opera. Given the same year at Rome, at first under the title of _Almaviva_, it encountered unusual odds. Rome was a stronghold of the existing conventional type of Italian opera which Rossini and his followers in a measure superseded. There, as elsewhere, Paesiello’s _Barbiere_ had been a favorite of twenty-five years’ standing. Hence Rossini’s audacity to use the same libretto was so strongly resented that his opera was promptly and vehemently hissed from the stage. But had not Paesiello himself, many years before, tried to dim the glory of Pergolesi by resetting the libretto of _La serva padrona_? Perhaps Italy considered it a matter of poetic justice, for the success of Rossini’s _Barbiere di Siviglia_, brightest and wittiest of comic operas, was deferred no longer than the second performance, and it soon cast Paesiello’s feebler score into utter oblivion. Of the twelve operas which followed from Rossini’s pen between 1815 and 1823, _Otello_ (Rome, 1816) and _Semiramide_ (Venice, 1823) may be considered the finest. In them the composer’s reform of the _opera seria_ culminated. ‘William Tell’ belongs to another period and presents a wholly different phase of his creative activity. In the field of _opera buffa_, _La Cenerentola_ (Cinderella), given in Rome in 1817, is ranked after _Il barbiere_. It offers an interesting comparison with Nicolo Isouard’s[69] _Cendrillon_. In the French composer’s score all is fragrant with the atmosphere of fairyland and rich in psychic moods; in Rossini’s treatment of the same subject all is realistic humor and dazzling vocal effect. He accepted the libretto of _Cenerentola_ only on condition that the supernatural element should be omitted! It is the last of his operas which he brought to a brilliant close for the sake of an individual _prima donna_. _La gazza ladra_, produced in Milan the same year, was long considered Rossini’s best work. It is characteristic of all that is best in his Italian period. The tuneful overture with its _crescendo_--with the exception of the _Tell_ overture the best of all he has written--arias, duets, ensembles, and finales are admirable. The part-writing in the chorus numbers is inferior to that of none of his other works. Two romantic operas, _Armida_ (1817)--the only one of Rossini’s Italian operas provided with a ballet--and _Ricciardo e Zoraide_ (1818), both given in Naples, are rich in imagination and contain fine choral numbers. In 1820 the Carbonarist revolution, which drove out