Comic opera had a real story that people liked; it had dramatic variety; and, musically, it had strong melodies and even strong supporting orchestral parts, including a strong "stand-alone" overture (i.e., you could even enjoy the overture as an independent orchestral piece). Verdi was also enthusiastic because the music was by a southern Italian and the text by a northerner, which appealed to Verdi's pan-Italian vision. The genre was developed further in the 19th century by Gioachino Rossini in his masterpieces such as "The Barber of Seville" (1816) and "La Cenerentola" (1817). French composers eagerly seized upon the Italian model and made
Gioachino Rossini life. During his Paris years, Rossini created the comic operas "Il viaggio a Reims" and "Le comte Ory" and the grand opera "Guillaume Tell" ("William Tell"). The production of the latter in 1829 brought his career as a writer of opera to a close. Fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for "Guillaume Tell" to be his last opera even as he composed it. He was thirty-eight years old and had already composed thirty-eight operas. "Guillaume Tell" was a political epic adapted from Schiller's play "Wilhelm Tell" (1804) about the 13th-century Swiss patriot who rallied his country against the Austrians. The