 The adaptation meant that Verdi could "try his hand at grand opera" without having to write something entirely new, a strategy which both Donizetti and Rossini had employed for their Paris debuts.There are significant changes in the location and action of the French version of "Lombardi", especially given the need to set the story for French involvement in the First Crusade of 1095–1099.Characters' names changed from Italian to French and one, Arvino (who was renamed as the Count of Toulouse, though elements of his character were given to the principal tenor role, Gaston) was now a baritone instead of a tenor.