This was so effective that almost all composers use it since then. It was a subdivision of opera-comique. The first rescue opera staged in Vienna was Lodoiska in 1802. In rescue operas, the principal character is in prison as a result of a political act. The rescue should be achieved by ordinary human characters in a realistic way.
Themes deal with survival rather than death.
The rescue opera is classified as a Romantic operatic genre rather than Classical. This tradition was somehow restricted to Paris perhaps because the visual spectacle was so important in French opera but not so prominent in Italy. The main opera genres in the eighteenth century were the Italian opera seria and opera buffa and the French tragedie-lyrique and opera comique. The nineteenth century Romantic opera was a result of cross-influence between Italian and French styles, intermixing of serious and comic genre characteristics and the absorption of traits from contemporary symphonic music. The main sources of Romantic opera lay in the comic opera traditions.