Beethoven and his contemporaries the third movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony has an opening theme that is very similar to the one in Mozart's 40th Symphony. Beethoven wrote cadenzas (WoO 58) to the first and third movements of Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) was an Italian composer known for his numerous operas including "The Barber of Seville" and "William Tell". When Rossini visited Vienna, he made several attempts to meet Beethoven, who was then 51 and in failing health. Finally, Rossini was able to arrange a meeting with Beethoven through the help of Giuseppe Carpani, an Italian poet living in
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