Reszke displayed limitations as a baritone and withdrew from the stage to allow for a further period of study, this time with Giovanni Sbriglia in Paris. Under Sbirgilia's tutelage, his voice gained remarkably in the freedom of its upper register. Accordingly, when he made his first operatic reappearance in 1879 in Madrid, it was as a tenor, scoring a success in the title-role of Meyerbeer's "Robert le diable". Indeed, the then 29-year-old Reszke's immense fame as a singer dates from this moment.