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Gioacchino Rossini: Operas
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Gioacchino Rossini was an Italian composer responsible for over 30 operas and many works of sacred and chamber music. His most renowned music works include The Barber of Seville and William Tell, the end of which is known in popular culture as the theme song for the popular television series "The Lone Ranger."
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Born in Pesaro in 1792, Gioacchino Rossini began attending a music college in Bologna at the age of fourteen. In 1810 he made his debut in Venice with "The Bill of Marriage" (La cambiale di matrimonio), a one act farce based on a libretto by G. Rossi, which met with success, which was followed by the triumph at La Scala in Milan in 1812 with "The Touchstone" (La pietra del paragone), a two act comic opera based on a libretto by L. Romanelli: a form this, in which he was to fully express his talent, despite the fact that his earliest work, while still a student in 1806, had been "Demetrius and Polibius" (Demetrio e Polibio), a dramatic opera that was only to be staged in Rome in 1812.
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Famous at 21, Gioacchino Rossini was recognized as the master composer of his generation. His 40-some operas conquered Europe from around 1810 to the 1860s. Today's audiences are most familiar with "The Barber of Seville," "William Tell," "Cinderella" and a few others, including "The Turk in Italy" or "Il Turco in Italia" - currently playing at Covent Garden.
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Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) is best remembered for his operas, having enjoyed a “rock star” status for his popular operas between 1810 and 1829. It is amazing to realize that Rossini wrote nothing for the last four decades of his life.
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Gioacchino Antonio Rossini was born in Pesaro, Italy, to a horn player (his father) and a singer (his mother). His parents toured during his childhood and he received practically no musical training until the age of 14, when he entered the Liceo Musicale (now the Conservatorio) in Bologna. He remained there until 1810, studying cello, counterpoint, and the fugue. That year his first composition of importance, a one-act operatic farce La Cambiale di matrimonio (Marriage by Promissory Note), was produced at Venice. A succession of similar pieces followed. Through his parents’ connections he managed to have his early works produced in northern Italian theaters.
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The Rossinis moved to Paris in 1823 where Rossini would compose Le Siege de Corinthe (1826), Le Compte Ory (1825) and Guillaume Tell (1829). Guillaume Tell is considered to be Rossini's finest opera containing some of his most inspired music, elaborate orchestrations, spectacular ballets and processions. Apparently, Rossini felt this to be the pinnacle of his operatic career and at the age of 37 stopped writing opera for the remainder of his life. He and Isabella left Paris in 1837 to live in Italy where he suffered from neurasthenia (a mental disorder with psychosomatic symptoms). Isabella died in 1845 and the next year, Rossini married Olympe Pelissier. By 1855, he and Olympe returned to Paris where he seemed to regain his health and began composing again for piano and voice.
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