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.

In this new ending, presented at the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara on 21 March 1813, Tancredi wins the battle but is mortally wounded,[1] and only then does he learn that Amenaide never betrayed him.

[1] By the time he was twenty years old, Rossini's reputation had grown such that he was regarded as "'a maestro di cartello', a composer whose name alone guarantees a public".

[6] Success with La pietra del paragone for Milan in September was great, but delays caused him to be late in Venice for his next commission at the Teatro San Moisè, L'occasione fa il ladro.

This was Il Signor Bruschino, which was presented on 27 January 1813 and which the composer wrote more-or-less parallel to preparing Tancredi, a commission for this opera having been accepted from Venice's most prestigious house, La Fenice, the previous autumn.

According to Richard Osborne, the 1813 re-workings for Ferrara were not a success and "Rossini withdrew the revision and, as was his habit, redistributed some of the music in later work".

The first Ricordi edition (1829), which differs significantly from the later ones, corresponds to the Milanese version",[7] but many other Italian cities saw the opera, including Florence (in 1814, 1816, and 1825), Padua (1814), Livorno (1815), Vicenza (1816), Macerata (1817), Camerino (1828), Viterbo (1828), Milan (1829), and Trieste (1830).

It was seen in Portugal for the first time at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos on 18 September 1822 (as Tancredo) and was given its La Scala premiere on 8 November 1823 with Brigida Lorenzani as Tancredi.

[18] The United States premiere occurred on 31 December 1825 at the Park Theatre in New York City using the revised Ferrara version by Lechi.

20th century and beyond The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino revived the work on 17 May 1952 with Giulietta Simionato in the title role, Teresa Stich-Randall as Amenaide, Francesco Albanese as Argirio, Mario Petri as Orbazzano, and Tullio Serafin conducting.

Pier Luigi Pizzi staged a new production of Tancredi for the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 1982[20] which originally utilised both the tragic and happy endings – the former being interpolated as a "dream sequence" for Amenaide.

The production was conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti and featured Lucia Valentini Terrani in the title role, as well as Dalmacio Gonzales as Argirio, Katia Ricciarelli as Amenaide, Giancarlo Luccardi as Orbazzano and, as Isaura, Bernadette Manca di Nissa – who later went on to perform the title role for the 1992 live DVD recording.

Tancredi was staged at 2003 at Polish National Opera at Warsaw, in the performance directed by Tomasz Konina and conducted by Alberto Zedda, the title role was sung by Ewa Podleś,[21] with original tragic ending.

In 2005 the production went to Rome and Florence (where it was filmed for DVD with Daniela Barcellona in the title role), and then it was presented by the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2011, with Alberto Zedda conducting.

The Theater an der Wien mounted the work for the first time in October 2009 with Vivica Genaux in the title role and René Jacobs conducting.

In addition, as part of its Rossini revivals series, it presented a fully staged production in May 2014 with Marie-Nicole Lemieux in the title role and Patrizia Ciofi as Amenaide.

[23] Background Syracuse has recently experienced competition and war with the Byzantine empire (with which it has an unstable truce) and the Saracen armies headed by Solamir, but exhausted, has internal conflicts, too.

Along with Isaura, Amenaide's friend, and her ladies, Argirio proclaims that this unity reinforces a new security for the city against the Moorish forces led by Solamir: Se amistà verace, è pura / "If you keep in your heart true friendship".

She joins in the general songs of triumph by the assembly, but is disturbed because her secret beloved, Tancredi, has not rejoined her although she has written to him asking him to do so as she knows that he is returning in disguise.

The Senate has given Tancredi and his family's confiscated estates to Orbazzano and Argirio offers him Amenaide's hand in marriage to help solidify the truce.

He wishes the ceremony to be performed immediately, and although Amenaide dutifully consents to the marriage, she pleads with her father to postpone it until the following day.

Roggiero is dispatched with a message for Amenaide, and he sends his followers to spread the word that an unknown knight has arrived to help save the city.

Immediately, he produces a letter, which he assumes was intended for Solamir and which appears to implicate her in a treasonous plot to overthrow Syracuse by calling upon the recipient to come and capture the city.

She reproaches him for his cruel and barbarous behaviour, and, alone after he leaves, pleads for divine aid for Amenaide: Aria: Tu che i miseri conforti / "You who console the miserable, give her endurance".

Scene 2: Inside the prison In chains, Amenaide enters: Aria: Di mia vita infelice / "Here I am at the end of my unhappy life".

Elsewhere in the prison, Amenaide learns what has transpired and prays for protection for Tancredi, begging him to return to her a victor: Aria: Gran Dio!

Etna in the distance Alone and close to the Saracens' camp, Tancredi reflects upon his sad destiny: Aria: Dove sono io?

Tancredi defies the Saracens, expressing a willingness to fight to the death: Rondo: Perchè turbar la calma / "Why trouble the peace of my heart".

With self-assurance and guts, he introduced changes now often taken for granted: the recitatives are short and linked to the context of the arias; there is a new and masterful balance between the dramatic, the lyrical, and the musical; and the chorus makes its first appearance in an opera seria[4] But it is in the innovations which move away from accepted formulas and which are seen in the finale of the opera in its Ferrara edition that Philip Gossett finds the most striking in Tancredi: "the 'Cavatina Finale' as Rossini called the concluding moments of the opera, depart so completely from typical finale designs of the period that we can easily comprehend their failure to gain popular approval.

Gone are the coloratura flourishes; gone is a more elaborate orchestration; gone are requirements of phrase construction and cadential repetition; gone, in short, are the conventions that usually rule Italian opera.