La donna del lago to Naples in early June with no projects in the offing, except to become involved with overseeing a new production of his "La gazza ladra" there. Also, a commission from Milan's La Scala for an opera, which would become "Bianca e Falliero", had been offered and was planned for December of that year. Suddenly, the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini withdrew from a commitment to write two operas for the Naples house that season, thus leaving a huge gap. Rossini was quickly asked to write an opera for a September premiere; rather than use an existing libretto, the house insisted upon
La Lodoiska a ballet of the same name choreographed by Lorenzo Panzieri, which premiered at La Fenice in January 1797, and the opera itself was revived at La Fenice in November of that year. On 4 November 1798 it had its first performance at the Teatro Real de São Carlos in Lisbon in celebration of the name day of Carlota Joaquina of Spain. Mayr then revised the opera to a two-act version which nevertheless had more musical numbers than the original three-act version. The new version premiered at La Scala on 26 December 1799. It was Mayr's first opera to be performed