During his years in Italy Meyerbeer became acquainted with , and impressed by , the works of his contemporary Gioachino Rossini , who by 1816 , at the age of 24 , was already director of both major opera houses in Naples and in the same year premiered his operas The Barber of Seville and Otello . Meyerbeer wrote a series of Italian operas on Rossinian models , including Romilda e Costanza ( Padua , 1817 ) , Semiramide riconosciuta ( Turin , 1819 ) , Emma di Resburgo ( Venice , 1819 ) , Margherita d 'Anjou ( Milan 1820 ) and L 'esule di Granata ( Milan 1821 ) . All but the last two of these had libretti by Gaetano Rossi , whom Meyerbeer continued to support until the latter 's death in 1855 , although not commissioning any further libretti from him after Il crociato in Egitto ( 1824 ) . During a visit to Sicily in 1816 , Meyerbeer noted down a number of folksongs , and these in fact constitute the earliest collection of folk music of the region . In a birthday greeting from Rossi 's wife in 1817 occur the earliest use discovered of Meyerbeer 's adopted forename ' Giacomo ' .