Sherman's tune is derived from a violin melody from the final section of the overture to the Gioachino Rossini opera Semiramide.
The music was adapted, with the composer's permission, by the music-publisher Antonio Pacini from Rossini's operas Semiramide, La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra, Tancredi and Zelmira in order to introduce his music to Paris.
Toye, Francis (1947), Rossini: The Man and His Music, Dover Publications, 1987.
He appeared in several concert performances of operas at Carnegie Hall, most notably singing Mitrane in the American Opera Society's performance of Gioachino Rossini's Semiramide with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne.
An accomplished virtuoso singer, she also enjoyed acclaim in Rossini operas such as La donna del lago, Mosè in Egitto, Semiramide.
Like most theatre composers of the time, Portugal set several librettos that had proven successful for earlier operas, such as Metastasio’s Demofoonte (premièred at La Scala, Milan in 1794) and Artaserse; and he set many stories that had been used before, including Serse, Alceste, Adrasto, Semiramide and Sofonisba.
He sang several more larger roles at the Met over the next eight years, including Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Fenton in Falstaff, Idreno in Semiramide, the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier, and Tonio in La fille du régiment.