Rossini music was marked by its florid and brilliant embroidery. Of the
same Velluti, spoken of above, an incident is told, illustrating the
musical craze of the country and the period. A Milanese gentleman,
whose father was very ill, met his friend in the street--"Where are you
going?" "To the Scala to be sure." "How! your father lies at the point
of death." "Yes! yes! I know, but Velluti sings to-night."


II.

An important step in Rossini's early career was his connection with the
widely known impresario of the San Carlo, Naples, Barbaja. He was under
contract to produce two new operas annually, to rearrange all old
scores, and to conduct at all of the theatres ruled by this manager. He
was to receive two hundred ducats a month, and a share in the profits of
the bank of the San Carlo gambling-saloon. His first opera composed here
was "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra," which was received with a
genuine Neapolitan _furore_. Rossini was feted and caressed by the
ardent _dilettanti_ of this city to his heart's content, and was such an
idol of the "fickle fair" that his career on more than one occasion
narrowly escaped an untimely close, from the prejudice of jealous
spouses. The composer was very vain of his handsome person, and boasted
of his _escapades d'amour_. Many, too, will recall his _mot_, spoken to
a beauty standing between himself and the Duke of Wellington: "Madame,
how happy should you be to find yourself placed between the two greatest
men in Europe!"

One of Rossini's adventures at Naples has in it something of romance. He
was sitting in his chamber, humming one of his own operatic airs, when
the ugliest Mercury he had ever seen entered and gave him a note, then