The formative years (1792-1810) Venice and Milan (1811-1814) Arrival in Naples (1815) Rome and Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816) Naples, Rome and Milan (1816-1817) Mosè in Egitto and return to Pesaro (1818) 1819-1821 Vienna, Verona, Venice (1822-1823) Paris and London (1823-1824) Paris (1824-1829) Retirement from operatic composition Bologna, Paris, Madrid (1829-1834): Stabat mater, Olympe Pélissier, and Balzac Paris, the Rhineland, and return to Italy (1835-1846) Times of Barricades and Assassinations: Bologna, Florence, and departure from Italy (1847-1855) Return to Paris (1855) Saturday soirées and a new Mass Last years (1865-1868) Entr'acte: some problems of approach to the works The early operas (I): Farse for Venice's Teatro San Moisè Overtures

The early operas (II): Demetrio e Polibio, L'equivoco stravagante, Ciro in Babilonia, La pieta del paragone

Tancredi: heroic comedy and the forming of a method

L'italiana in Algeri: formal mastery in the comic style

Milan and Venice (1813-1814): Aureliano in Palmira, Il turco in Italia, Sigismondo

Arrival in Naples (1815-1816): Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, La gazzetta

Il barbiere di Siviglia and the transformation of a tradition

Otello and the confrontation of tragedy

La Cenerentola: an essay in comic pathos

La gazza ladra and the semiseria style

Armida and the new romanticism

Moisè in Egitto (1818-1819) and Moïse et Pharaon (1827)

A lost masterpiece and a forgotten favourite: Ermione and Ricciardo e Zoraide

Rossini and Scott: La donna del lago

Maometto II (1820) and Le Siège de Corinth (1826)

Back from the shadows: Matilde di Shabran and Zelmira

Farewell to Italy: Semiramide

Il viaggio a Reims (1825) and Le Comte Ory (1828)

Guillaume Tell

Sacred music: Messa di Gloria, Stabat mater, Petite messe solennelle

Vocal and piano music: Early songs, Giovanna d'Arco, Les soirées musicales, Péchés de viellesse

Appendixes. A. Calendar ; B. List of works ; C. Personalia.