Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède (1760). The opera made its first appearance at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 6 February 1813, less than a month after the premiere of his previous opera Il signor Bruschino. The overture, borrowed from La pietra del paragone, is a popular example of Rossini's characteristic style and is regularly performed in concert and recorded.
Portrait of the composer
Francesco Bagnara's set for Act 1 scene 1, Venice 1833
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity.
Rossini as a young man, c. 1810–1815
Giuseppe Rossini (1758–1839)
Anna Rossini (1771–1827)
The storm scene from Il barbiere in an 1830 lithograph by Alexandre Fragonard