Gioacchino Rossini

For more information on Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, visit Britannica.com.

The operas of the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), particularly those in the comic genre, were among the most popular works of the entire 19th century. His best-known work is " The Barber of Seville."

Gioacchino Rossini was born in Pesaro on Feb. 29, 1792, into a musical family: his father was a trumpeter and horn player; his mother became a successful operatic singer. When he was 4 years old, Gioacchino's mother took him to Bologna, where she sought and found singing engagements and where the child received instruction in singing, theory, keyboard, and several other instruments. By the time he was in his early teens, he was an accomplished accompanist, sometimes played horn with his father in the orchestra at the opera, and had begun writing music.

During Rossini's formal musical training at the Liceo Comunale in Bologna (1807-1810) he composed prolifically. His first opera was Demetrio e Polibio, written in 1809, but his first work to be put on the stage was the comic opera La cambiale di matrimonio, composed in 1810 and performed successfully at the Teatro di S. Moise‧ in Venice that year.

Success came quickly to the young composer. He wrote rapidly and fluently, in a style pleasing to singers and audiences alike. La pietra del paragone was staged to great acclaim at La Scala in Milan in 1812; Tancredi became a genuine international hit following its premiere in Venice the following year. Operas flowed from his pen at the rate of three or four a year. In 1815 the San Carlo and Del Fondo theaters in Naples engaged him as musical director, and his duties included writing a new opera every year for each theater. Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, his first work for Naples, enjoyed enormous success. This was the first opera, incidentally, in which he wrote out the ornamentation he expected from his singers rather than leaving this matter to them.

Rossini was in Naples until 1822; during this period he also composed works for such cities as Rome, Milan, Venice, and Lisbon. Almaviva, ossia l'inutile precauzione, based on Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais's Le Barbier de Séville, was poorly received on the occasion of its first performance in Rome in 1816, but soon (renamed Il barbiere di Siviglia) it enjoyed incredible success in Italy and all over the world, becoming one of the most widely sung works in the entire history of opera. La Cenerentola, based on the Cinderella story and premiered in Rome in 1817, was almost as successful; and these two comic operas established Rossini beyond question as the most successful operatic composer of the day.

The year 1822 was a critical one for Rossini in many ways. He went to Vienna for performances of several of his operas in German, married the famous singer Isabella Colbran, who had performed with great success in many of his operas, and worked with even greater care than usual on the new opera, Semiramide, for Venice. The poor reception of this work persuaded him that Italian audiences were no longer the proper ones for what he wanted to compose, and he resolved to write no more operas for performance in his native country. Later in the year he traveled - by way of Paris - to England, where he was royally received and realized a good profit from various performances of his works. He also sang some of his own vocal compositions.

In 1824 Rossini accepted an engagement as musical director of the Théâtre Italien in Paris. He revised a number of his earlier operas to suit the conventions of the French stage, presenting them to great acclaim. He wrote his last two operas for Paris: Le Comte Ory (1828) is one of the most brilliant and witty French comic operas of all time; and Guillaume Tell (1829), a spectacular five-act work integrating soloists, chorus, orchestra, dancers, and elaborate staging, became a model for an entire generation of French grand opera. He remained in Paris until 1836, when he returned to Bologna, where he served as honorary director of the Liceo Comunale. Political disturbances forced a move to Florence in 1847, the year after his marriage to his second wife, Olimpia Alessandrina Pélissier. In 1855 he returned to Paris, remaining there until his death on Nov. 13, 1868.

The most curious aspect of Rossini's later years is that he wrote no operas after 1829. He retained a lively interest in the musical scene, composed occasional cantatas, such religious works as the Stabat Mater and Petite Messe solennelle of 1864, and several hundred small "album" pieces for piano, voice and piano, and various instruments, but he never again attempted a work for the stage. He was a wealthy man, charming and witty, much in demand socially, and comfortable even with those men whose ideas about music were in conflict with his own. Much of his large estate went to the endowment of a conservatory of music in Pesaro. In 1887 he was reburied in the church of Sta Croce, Florence.

Rossini's 38 operas run the gamut from brief one-act comic works to the monumental and historic five-act Guillaume Tell. Some of his contemporaries and some historians, misled by the facility and speed of his writing, his habit of using portions of unsuccessful or forgotten works over again in new operas, and the easy charm of his solo arias and ensembles, have considered him a clever but superficial composer of no outstanding importance in the development of opera. But his works show remarkable craftsmanship, and in their brilliant integration of solo, ensemble, and orchestral writing and their sharp character delineation they are the most important link in the Italian operatic tradition between the late Italian works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the first works of Giuseppe Verdi. And Rossini's Guillaume Tell altered the entire course of French opera.

Further Reading

The standard work in English is Francis Toye, Rossini: A Study in Tragi-comedy (1934). An important contemporary study is Stendhal's Life of Rossini (2 vols., 1824; trans. 1869; new trans. 1957). A recent excellent study is Herbert Weinstock, Rossini: A Biography (1968). Rossini's life and career are discussed in Donald Jay Grout, A Short History of Opera (1947; 2d ed. 1965). Recommended for general background is Kenneth B. Klaus, The Romantic Period in Music (1970).

Additional Sources

Alvera, Pierluigi, Rossini, New York, N.Y.: Treves Pub. Co., 1986.

Kendall, Alan, Gioacchino Rossini, the reluctant hero, London: V. Gollancz, 1992.

Mountfield, David, Rossini, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Osborne, Richard, Rossini, Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990.

Stendhal, Life of Rossini / Richard N. Co, London: J. Calder; New York: Riverrun Press, 1985.

Till, Nicholas, Rossini, London; New York: Omnibus Press, 1987.

Till, Nicholas, Rossini, his life and times, Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Midas; New York, NY: Hippocrene Books, 1983.

Toye, Francis, b. 1883., Rossini, the man and his music, New York: Dover Publications, 1987.

Weinstock, Herbert, Rossini, a biography, New York: Limelight Editions, 1987, 1968.

Rossini, Gioacchino (b Pesaro, 29 Feb. 1792, d Passy, 13 Nov. 1868). Italian composer. He wrote no full-length ballet scores though his operas, such as Moïse (chor. Gardel, 1827) and Guillaume Tell (chor. Auber, 1829), featured significant ballet divertissements. Some of his arias were interpolated into 19th-century ballet scores, such as the Hérold version of La Fille mal gardée (1828), and many of his operatic and concert scores have been arranged for dance, including Massine's La Boutique fantasque (1919), Howard's Selina (1948), Darrell's Cinderella (1979), and Tharp's Mr Worldly Wise (Royal Ballet, 1995, a ballet loosely based on Rossini's own character). Several works have been set to Britten's two suites of Rossini melodies, Soirées musicales and Matinées musicales.

Rossini, Gioacchino (1792–1868), Italian composer. Among his many operas is the two‐act La Cenerentola (Cinderella, 1817), whose libretto by Jacopo Ferretti was adapted from Charles Perrault's fairy tale. In Rossini and Ferretti's version of this tale, Angelina (Cinderella) is maltreated by her father Don Magnifico and her stepsisters Clorinda and Tisbe. Prince Ramiro, disguised as his servant Dandini, falls in love with Angelina. The Prince's tutor Alidoro has the role of magic helper as he assists Angelina in her attempt to go to the Prince's ball. Angelina finally proves that she is the object of the Prince's desire by means of a silver bracelet, a variation on the glass slipper found in Perrault's tale.

Bibliography

• Osborne, Richard, Rossini (1986).

— Nancy Canepa

Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio (1792-1868). Italian opera composer who lived and worked for many years in Paris, although his version of Beaumarchais's Le Barbier de Séville was first performed in Rome in 1816. Stendhal, who greatly admired him, wrote a Vie de Rossini (1823).

Quotes:

"Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music."

"How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers."

• Period: Romantic (1820-1869)
• Country: Italy
• Born: February 29, 1792 in Pesaro, Italy
• Died: November 13, 1868 in Paris, France
• Genres: Chamber Music, Choral Music, Concerto, Keyboard Music, Miscellaneous Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Vocal Music

Biography

Gioachino Rossini's parents were both working musicians. His father played the horn and taught at the prestigious Accademia Filharmonica in Bologna, and his mother, although not formally trained, was a soprano. Rossini was taught and encouraged at home until he eventually enrolled at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. After graduation from that institution, the young musician was commissioned by the Venetian Teatro San Moise to compose La cambiale di matrimonio, a comedy in one act. In 1812, Rossini wrote La pietra del paragone, for La Scala theater in Milan and was already, at the tender age of 20, Italy's most prominent composer.

In 1815, Rossini accepted a contract to work for the theaters in Naples, where he would remain until 1822, composing prolifically in comfort. He composed 19 operas during this tenure, focusing his attention on opera seria and creating one of his most famous serious works, Otello, for the Teatro San Carlos. While he served in this capacity, Rossini met and courted Isabella Colbran, a local soprano whom he would eventually marry. Other cities, too, clamored for Rossini's works, and it was for Roman audiences that he composed the sparkling comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816) and La cenerentola (Cinderella, 1817).

In 1822, Rossini left Naples and embarked on a European tour. The Italian musician was received enthusiastically to say the least, and enjoyed fame and acclaim everywhere. Even Beethoven, at the opposite stylistic pole in the musical scene of the day, praised him. The following year, Rossini was commissioned to write Semiramide, a serious opera, for La Fenice, a theater in Venice. This work was less successful in its own day than some of his previous efforts, but spawned several arias that remain part of any vocalist's songbook. In 1824, Rossini traveled, via London, to Paris where he would live for five years and serve as the music director at the Théâtre Italien from 1824 to 1826. The composer gained commissions from other opera houses in France, including the Paris Opéra. Rossini composed his final opera, Guillaume Tell (1829), before retiring from composition in that genre at the age of 37. Its overture is not only a concert favorite but an unmistakable reflection and continuation of Beethoven's heroic ideal. The catalog of work Rossini had written at the time of his retirement included 32 operas, two symphonies, numerous cantatas, and a handful of oratorios and chamber music pieces. After moving back to Italy, Rossini became a widower in 1845. His marriage to Isabella Colbran had not been particularly happy, and shortly after her death, the composer married Olympe Pelissier, a woman who had been his mistress.

In 1855, Rossini, along with his new bride, moved once again, this time settling in Passy, a suburb of Paris. He spent the remaining years of his life writing sacred music as well as delectable miniatures for both piano and voice (some of which he called "sins of my old age"). He was revered from the time he was a teenager until his death. Rossini was buried in Paris' Père Lachaise cemetery in proximity to the graves of Vincenzo Bellini, Luigi Cherubini, and Frédéric Chopin. In 1887, Rossini's grave was transferred from Paris to Santa Croce, in Florence, in a ceremony attended by more than 6,000 admirers.

Rossini's chief legacy remains his extraordinary contribution to the operatic repertoire. His comedic masterpieces, including L'Italiana in Algeri, La gazza ladra, and perhaps his most famous work, Il barbiere di Siviglia, are regarded as cornerstones of the genre along with works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi. ~ David Brensilver, All Music Guide

• Born: Feb 29, 1792 in Pesaro, Italy
• Died: Nov 13, 1868 in Ruelle, France
• Active: '40s, '70s-2000s
• Major Genres: Music, Theater
• Career Highlights: A Clockwork Orange, Unfaithfully Yours, High Season
• First Major Screen Credit: La Grande Aurora (1946)

Biography

This perennially popular composer of energetic, characterful works inspired at least 20 productions which utilize music from the overture to his opera Guglielmo Tell (William Tell). They quote either from the calm, idyllic pastorale with its Alphorn melody and bird songs after the beginning storm, or the instantly recognized trumpet-charge in the last part, originally intended to express the power of the Swiss people throwing off the yoke of their oppressors. The trumpet call is perhaps best known as the theme to the long-running television series The Lone Ranger which began production in 1949. The pastorale music opens the surreal, one-joke cartoon Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969) just before the deer, calmly munching grass, is suddenly stomped on by Godzilla's enormous foot. Other features using this music include The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1999), Yun cai zhi li xing (1996) (aka Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star), Twister (1996), Il Bacio di Tosca (Tosca's Kiss, 1984), and The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976).

In Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), the trumpeting section, in artificial '60s Moog-synthesizer style, underscores a very fast-motion sex scene between Malcolm McDowell and two sex kittens from the futuristic mall. The music gradually fragments and becomes slower as the scene shifts to his gang waiting for him in the trash-laden lobby. The lilting triplets of the overture to Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) play prominently in several successive scenes, from a slow-motion fight among gang members segueing into a country-house break-in where McDowell and a lady art collector fight with a giant penis sculpture and a small metal object.

The overture to La Gazza Ladra is also heard in Immortal Beloved (1994) and Voluptuous Vixens (1997). The entire opera received a German television realization, sung in Italian, in 1984.

Discounting the many scenes of characters singing Figaro in the shower (usually sans the actual words permanently unlearned from score, record, or social osmosis), a majority of film and television productions, some 40 out of approximately 125, quote from Rossini's famous opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), and, from that, usually the well-known Act I cavatina sung by the barber Figaro, entitled Largo al factotum della cittá. The penultimate bravura of this aria often accompanies scenes of boastfulness (e.g., Help! [1965] and A Fish Called Wanda [1988]), and/or outrageous comedy (e.g., the cartoons Rabbit of Seville [1950] and Long-Haired Hare [1949]). The aria is also heard in Prizzi's Honor (1985), 8 1/2 (1963), and Citizen Kane (1941).

On the composer's more serious side, excerpts from his exquisite and moving Stabat Mater were used in Hardware (1990) (aka M.A.R.K. 13) and Le Bassin de J.W. (John Wayne's Pelvis, 1997).

Rossini's operas L'Italiana in Algeri, Le Comte Ory, La Cenerentola (Cinderella), Tancredi, Semiramide, and Ricciardo e Zoraide have all received numberous complete television and film productions. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Movie Guide

The Barber of Seville (The Netherlands Opera) Buy this Movie	Rossini's William Tell Buy this Movie	Semiramide Buy this Movie	La Cenerentola (Salzburg Festival) Buy this Movie
High Season Buy this Movie	Vincent: The Life & Death of Vincent Van Gogh Buy this Movie	A Clockwork Orange Buy this Movie	Il Barbiere di Seviglia Buy this Movie

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