Giacomo Meyerbeer his family. He arrived in Italy at the beginning of 1816, after visits to Paris and London, where he heard Cramer play. In Paris, he wrote to a friend, 'I go from museum to museum, library to library, theatre to theatre, with the restlessness of the Wandering Jew'. During his years in Italy Meyerbeer became acquainted with, and impressed by, the works of his contemporary Gioachino Rossini, who by 1816, at the age of 24, was already director of both major opera houses in Naples and in the same year premiered his operas "The Barber of Seville" and "Otello". Meyerbeer
Gioachino Rossini to the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, at the request of the Italian government. According to Herbert Weinstock's 1968 biography, the composer's estate was valued at 2.5 million francs upon his death in 1868, the equivalent of about 1.4 million US dollars. According to one contemporary account, at the time of Rossini's death, his estate yielded revenues of 150,000 francs per year. Apart from some individual legacies in favour of his wife and relatives, Rossini willed his entire estate to the Comune of Pesaro. The inheritance was invested to establish a (Conservatory) in the town. In 1940, the was put