The young people of to-day are in no position to judge his works, which were written, as he said himself, for singers and a public who no longer exist.
"I am criticised," he said one day, "for the great _crescendo_ in my works.

But if I hadn't put the _crescendo_ into my works, they would never have been played at the Opera." In our day the public are slaves.

I have read in the programme of one house, "All marks of approbation will be severely repressed." Formerly, especially in Italy, the public was master and its taste law.

As it came before the lights were up, a great overture with a _crescendo_ was as necessary as cavatinas, duets and ensembles: they came to hear the singers and not to be present at an opera.

In many of his works, especially in _Otello_, Rossini made a great step forward towards realism in opera.