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
La Wally La Wally La Wally is an opera in four acts by composer Alfredo Catalani, to a libretto by Luigi Illica, first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 20 January 1892. The libretto is based on a hugely successful ' by Wilhelmine von Hillern (1836–1916), ' ("The Vulture Wally: A Story from the Tyrolean Alps"). Wally, short for Walburga, is a girl with some heroic attributes. The story is based on an episode in the life of Tyrolean painter Anna Stainer-Knittel whom von Hillern met. She gets her "Geier" (vulture) epithet from once stealing a vulture's hatchling from her nest. Von