Paul Rougnon was a French composer known for his contributions to the Paris Conservatoire's exam repertoire. This piece is a typical Romantic-era salon work that balances melodic sentimentality with rhythmic momentum.
Focus on balancing the melody against the accompaniment to ensure the emotional intensity does not become muddy.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Allegro appassionato is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 5.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Allegro appassionato lasts about 3 minutes.
Allegro appassionato is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include 'O sole mio by Eduardo Di Capua, Bright Flame by Daniel Léo Simpson, Believe Me, If All those Endearing Young Charms by Irish Folk Music — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.