It was not easy for him to earn enough money to keep himself. He only got paid for the operas he took part in. There were no copyright laws in those days. The important singers were well paid, but the composers earned much less. We know very little about his life at this time, but we do know that he travelled a lot. His most famous operas from this period are "Tancredi", "La Gazza Ladra" ("The Thieving Magpie") and "Il barbiere di Siviglia" ("The Barber of Seville") which has often been called the greatest of all comic operas.