Gioachino Rossini Magpie" ("La gazza ladra") features one of his most celebrated overtures. Rossini moved to Paris in 1824 where he began to set French librettos to music. His last opera was the epic "William Tell" ("Guillaume Tell"), featuring its iconic overture which helped to usher in grand opera in France. A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, which earned him the nickname "the Italian Mozart." He was a rapid and prolific composer, quoted as joking, "Give me the laundress' bill and I will even set that to music." He also earned the nickname "Signor Crescendo" for his
Fosca (opera) Fosca (opera) Fosca is an opera seria in four acts by Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes to an Italian-language libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni based on 's 1869 novel "La festa delle Marie". The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on February 16, 1873. It was a failure because of a dispute between lovers of bel canto and supporters of Wagnerian music-drama. Gomes revised it in 1877, and the premiere of the new version (this time described as a melodramma) on February 7, 1878, also at La Scala, was a success. Since then, performances of the opera, mostly in Brazil,