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 matrimonio" ("The Marriage Contract"), was produced at Venice when he was a youth of 18 years. Two years before this he had already received the prize at the Conservatorio of Bologna for his cantata "Il pianto d'Armonia sulla morte d'Orfeo". Between 1810 and 1813 at Bologna, Rome, Venice and Milan, Rossini produced operas of varying success, most notably "La pietra del paragone" and "Il signor Bruschino", with its brilliant and unique overture. In 1813, "Tancredi" and "L'italiana in Algeri" were even bigger successes, and catapulted the 20-year-old composer to international fame. The libretto for "Tancredi" was an arrangement by Gaetano