Logroscino (born about 1700), who invented the connected series of separate movements known as the Concerted Finale, and Pergolesi (1710-36), who wrote a famous example of this kind of opera under the title _La Serva Padrona_, are two notable members of this little band of composers. In addition to these may be named Jomelli, Sacchini, Galuppi, Paisiello, and Piccini, the last-named being specially famous through his contest with Gluck, a musical duel yet more notorious than that between Handel and Buononcini already mentioned. For Piccini, a man of great talent though not of genius, was brought to Paris in 1776 and pitted against the reformer Gluck, whose revolutionary methods of procedure met with anything but favour in certain quarters. The rival composers, strongly backed by their respective supporters, fought bitterly for pre-eminence, with results only too disastrous to the poor Italian maestro, who was very unfortunately handicapped. For we read that on the night of the first production of the work, which was seriously intended to beat Gluck on his own ground (the same subject for a libretto—viz., _Iphigenia in Tauride_—having been chosen), his music was almost wrecked by the prima donna of the occasion, that good lady being hopelessly intoxicated; whereupon men exclaimed, “Not Iphigenia in Tauride, but Iphigenia in Champagne!” In spite of his merits, this composer of eighty operas is now hardly known, except in connection with this famous controversy. [Illustration: CIMAROSA.] [Sidenote: =Cimarosa, 1749-1801=] A more famous Neapolitan is Cimarosa, whose sparkling work, _The Secret Marriage_, is still played to-day. On the occasion of its first performance at Vienna in 1792, the Emperor was so delighted with it that he ordered its repetition on the same evening, thoughtfully providing the artistes with supper between the performances. Cimarosa’s other works, although charming and sometimes of great beauty, are now practically dead: his fame was soon eclipsed by that of the young and rising Mozart. [Sidenote: =Rossini, 1792-1868=] With the success of Mozart and Weber in German opera, and the desertion of the Italian methods in favour of the French by Cherubini and Spontini, Italian opera lay for a while under a cloud. This was dispersed by the furore created by the operatic creations of Rossini, who, although by no means a very skilled or capable musician, had a rare knowledge both of effect and also of the kind of thing to which the general public loves to listen. Melodic gifts were his, and when one adds a certain clever and tricky use of the orchestra and an evident desire to give the singers the most vocal and effective music that he could possibly invent, we can readily understand how successful was this facile composer. [Sidenote: “=The Barber of Seville=”]