Gioachino Rossini most famously associated. A characteristic mannerism in Rossini's orchestral scoring is a long, steady building of sound over an ostinato figure, known as a "Rossini crescendo", which earned him the nickname of "Signor Crescendo". A few of Rossini's operas remained popular throughout his lifetime and continuously since his death; others were resurrected from semi-obscurity in the last half of the 20th century, during the so-called "Rossini Renaissance". Rossini himself correctly predicted that his "Barber of Seville" would continue to find favor with posterity, telling a friend:"One thing I believe I can assure you: that of my works, the second act
Gioachino Rossini History of Western Music", "Rossini's fame surpassed that of any previous composer, and so, for a long time, did the popularity of his works. Audiences took to his music as if to an intoxicating drug—or, to put it more decorously, to champagne, with which Rossini's bubbly music was constantly compared." Rossini took existing operatic genres and forms and perfected them in his own style. Through his own work, as well as through that of his followers and imitators, Rossini's style dominated Italian opera throughout the first half of the 19th century. In his compositions, Rossini plagiarized freely from himself, a