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Portrait of Rossini

Gioachino Rossini

Gioachino Antonio Rossini(Italian: Gioachino Antonio Rossini; -) - Italian composer, author of 39 operas, sacred and chamber music.

Biography

Rossini was born on February 29, 1792 in the Italian town of Pesaro. His parents were musicians (his father was a trumpeter and horn player, his mother was a singer). Since childhood, Gioachino studied singing, playing the cymbal and violin, as well as music theory. Having a good voice, he sang in church choirs and acted as an accompanist and choir conductor in opera houses. From 1806 to 1810 he studied music at the Bologna Musical Lyceum, where his teachers were V. Cavedagni (cello) and S. Mattei (counterpoint). From Rossini - member of the Bologna Philharmonic Academy. The first opera (he wrote 38 operas in total), “Promissory Note for Marriage,” was written in the city. In subsequent years, he regularly wrote operas for theaters in Venice and Milan.

6 years after graduating from the Lyceum (1816), Rossini created (in 20 days) his most famous work - the opera “The Barber of Seville” based on the play by Beaumarchais.

In Rossini he marries the singer Isabella Colbran. At the invitation of the director of the Royal Theater in London, the composer travels to Great Britain, where he is paid a salary of 7,000 pounds sterling for five months' work. In Rossini he received the position of director of the Italian Theater in Paris.

In Rossini he returns to Bologna. In November 1830 he again went to Paris. From this year he lived in Bologna and Florence, and directed the Bologna Musical Lyceum.

The composer's first wife dies in the city. In Rossini he marries Olympia Pelissier. In the city he again settled in Paris, making his home one of the most fashionable music salons.

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 in the town of Passy near Paris. In the city, the composer's ashes were transported to Florence.

The conservatory in his hometown, created in accordance with his will, bears the name of Rossini.

Operas

• Marriage Bill (La Cambiale di Matrimonio) - 1810
• A Strange Case (L'equivoco stravagante) - 1811
• Demetrius and Polybius (Demetrio e Polibio) - 1812
• The Happy Deception (L'inganno felice) - 1812
• Cyrus in Babylon, or the Fall of Balthasar (Ciro in Babilonia (La caduta di Baldassare) - 1812
• The Silk Staircase (La scala di seta) - 1812
• The Stumbling Stone (La pietra del paragone) - 1812
• Chance makes a thief (L’occasione fa il ladro (Il cambio della valigia) - 1812
• Signor Bruschino (or Il figlio per azzardo) - 1813
• Tancredi - 1813
• Italian in Algeria (L’Italiana in Algeri) - 1813
• Aurelian in Palmira (Aureliano in Palmira) - 1813
• The Turk in Italy (Il Turco in Italia) - 1814
• Sigismund (Sigismondo) - 1814
• Elizabeth of England (Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra) - 1815
• Torvaldo and Dorliska - 1815
• Almaviva, or Futile Precaution (The Barber of Seville) (Almaviva (ossia L’inutile precauzione (Il Barbiere di Siviglia)) - 1816
• Newspaper (La gazzetta (Il matrimonio per concorso) - 1816
• Othello, or the Moor of Venice (Otello o Il moro di Venezia) - 1816
• Cinderella, or the Triumph of Virtue (La Cenerentola o sia La bontà in trionfo) - 1817
• The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra) - 1817
• Armida - 1817
• Adelaide of Burgundy, or Otto, King of Italy (Adelaide di Borgogna or Ottone, re d’Italia) - 1817
• Moses in Egypt (Mosè in Egitto) - 1818
• Adina, or Caliph of Baghdad (Adina or Il califfo di Bagdad) - 1818
• Ricciardo and Zoraide - 1818
• Hermione (Ermione) - 1819
• Edward and Cristina (Eduardo e Cristina) - 1819
• The Maiden of the Lake (La donna del lago) - 1819
• Bianca and Falliero (Council of Three) (Bianca e Falliero (Il consiglio dei tre) - 1819
• Maometto secondo - 1820
• Matilde di Shabran, or Bellezza e Cuor di Ferro - 1821
• Zelmira - 1822
• Semiramide - 1823
• Journey to Reims, or the Golden Lily Hotel Il viaggio a Reims (L’albergo del giglio d’oro) - 1825
• Siege of Corinth (Le Siège de Corinthe) - 1826
• Moses and Pharaoh, or the Passage through the Red Sea (Moïse et Pharaon (Le passage de la Mer Rouge) - 1827 (reworking of “Moses in Egypt”)
• Count Ory (Le Comte Ory) - 1828
• William Tell (Guillaume Tell) - 1829

Other musical works

• Il pianto d'armonia per la morte d'Orfeo
• Petite Messe Solennelle
• Stabat Mater
• Cats Duet (attr.)
• Bassoon concerto
• Messa di Gloria

Notes

Links

• Brief summaries (synopses) of Rossini's operas on the "100 Operas" website
• Gioachino Antonio Rossini: Sheet music of works at the International Music Score Library Project

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See what “Rossini, Gioachino Antonio” is in other dictionaries:

ROSSINI (Rossini) Gioachino Antonio (1792 1868), Italian. opera composer. According to A.M. Vereshchagina, L. “at the top of his lungs and until he lost his breath” sang a duet from R.’s opera “Semiramide” (1823) (letter dated August 18, 1835; VI, 468). L. mentions the name of the composer... Lermontov Encyclopedia

Rossini Gioachino Antonio, Italian composer. Born into a family of musicians (father is a trumpeter and horn player, mother is a singer). Since childhood I studied... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (29 II 1792, Pesaro 13 November 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris) But the blue evening is already darkening, It’s time for us to go to the opera quickly; There is the delightful Rossini, Europe's darling Orpheus. Not heeding harsh criticism, He is eternally the same; forever new. He pours sounds, they boil. They flow... ... Musical dictionary

Gioacchino Antonio Rossini ... Wikipedia

- (Rossini) (1792 1868), Italian composer. The flourishing of Italian opera at the beginning of the 19th century is associated with Rossini’s work. His music is distinguished by inexhaustible melodic richness, precision, and witty characteristics. Enriched with realistic content... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Gioachino Antonio Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini Composer Date of birth: February 29, 1792 ... Wikipedia

Rossini, Gioachino Gioachino Antonio Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini Composer, portrait by Vincenzo Camuccini ... Wikipedia

ROSSINI- (Gioacchino Antonio R. (1792 1868) Italian composer; see also PEZARSKY) Now I drink the foamy Rossini again in a new way And I see only through love That the skies are so childishly blue. Kuz915 (192) ... Proper name in Russian poetry of the 20th century: dictionary of personal names

- (Rossini) Gioachino Antonio (29 II 1792, Pesaro 13 XI 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris) Italian. composer. His father, a man of progressive, republican convictions, was a mountain musician. spirit. orchestra, mother a singer. Learned to play the spinet... Music Encyclopedia

Books

• Practical school of modern singing. 18 trills (rulads) and 4 solfeggios. 12 vocalises for high, Rossini Gioacchino. Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) - Italian opera composer, author of sacred and chamber music, 39 operas, including the immortal "The Barber of Seville". This book presents...

What kind of praise did the poets of Gioachino Rossini lavish! Heinrich Heine called him “the divine maestro”, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - “Europe’s darling”... but, perhaps, it would be most correct to call him the savior of Italian opera. Italy is invariably associated with the art of opera, and it is not easy to imagine that Italian opera could lose ground, degenerate into something meaningless - into empty entertainment in opera buffa and a series of far-fetched plots in opera seria. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the nineteenth century the situation was exactly this. The genius of Rossini was needed to correct the situation, to breathe new life into Italian opera.

Gioachino Rossini's life was connected with opera even in his childhood: born in Pesaro, the boy wandered around Italy with his father and mother, an orchestral horn player and opera singer. There was no talk of systematic training, but my hearing and musical memory developed perfectly.

Gioacchino had a beautiful voice. Due to his overly ardent temperament, his parents doubted that he could become an opera singer, but believed that he could become a composer. There were reasons for such assumptions - by the age of thirteen, the boy had already created several sonatas for string instruments. He was introduced to composer Stanislao Mattei. Fourteen-year-old Rossini began studying composition with him at the Bologna Musical Lyceum. Even then, Gioacchino determined the direction of his future creative path, creating the opera “Demetrio and Polibio” - however, it was staged only in 1812, therefore, it cannot be considered Rossini’s operatic debut.

Rossini's real operatic debut took place later, in 1810, with the farce opera The Marriage Bill, presented at the Venetian Teatro San Moise. The composer spent a few days creating the music. Speed ​​and ease of work will continue to be Rossini's hallmark. The following comic operas - “A Strange Case” and “A Happy Deception” - were also staged in Venice, and the plot of the latter was used by Giovanni Paisiello before Rossini (a similar situation would arise in the composer’s creative biography). This was followed by the first opera seria after Demetrio and Polibio - Cyrus in Babylon. And finally, an order from La Scala. The success of the opera Touchstone, created for this theater, made the twenty-year-old composer famous. His opera buffa "" and the opera on a heroic plot "Tancred" brought him international fame.

It cannot be said that Rossini’s creative biography was a continuous “road of glory” - for example, “The Turk in Italy,” created in 1814 for Milan, did not bring him success. Much more successful circumstances developed in Naples, where Rossini created the opera “Elizabeth, Queen of England.” The main role was intended for Isabella Colbran. A few years later, the prima donna became Rossini’s wife... But “Elizabeth” is not only remarkable for this: if before the singers arbitrarily improvised graces, demonstrating their brilliant technique, now Rossini put an end to this arbitrariness of the performers, carefully writing out all the vocal embellishments and demanding their exact reproduction.

A remarkable event in Rossini’s life occurred in 1816 - his opera Almaviva, later known under the title “Almaviva,” was staged for the first time in Rome. The author did not dare to title it the same as the comedy by Pierre Augustin Beaumarchais, since before him this plot was embodied in the opera by Giovanni Paisiello. Opera buffa was a fiasco in Rome and was a resounding success in other theaters, not only Italian ones. According to Stendhal, after Napoleon, Rossini became the only person talked about throughout Europe.

Rossini creates another comic opera - "", but written in 1817 "" is closer to drama. In the future, the composer was more interested in dramatic, tragic and legendary subjects: “Othello”, “Mohammed II”, “Maiden of the Lake”.

In 1822 Rossini spent four months in Vienna. His opera “Zelmira” was staged here. Not everyone was delighted with it - for example, Carl Maria von Weber sharply criticized it - but on the whole Rossini was a success with the Viennese public. From Vienna he briefly returns to Italy, where his opera “”, which became the last example of opera seria, is staged, and then visits London and Paris. A warm reception awaited him in both capitals, and in France, at the suggestion of the Minister of the Royal Household, he headed the Italian Theater. His first work created in this capacity was the opera “,” dedicated to the coronation of Charles X.

In an effort to create an opera for the French public, Rossini carefully studied its tastes, as well as the peculiarities of the French language and theater. The result of the work is the successful execution of new editions of two works - “Mohammed II” (under the title “The Siege of Corinth”) and “”, as well as a work in the genre of French comic opera - “Count Ory”. In 1829, his new heroic opera “” was staged at the Grand Opera.

And so, after such a grandiose masterpiece, Rossini stops creating operas. In subsequent years, he wrote “,” a cycle of piano pieces “Sins of Old Age,” but did not create anything else for musical theater.

Rossini spent twenty years - from 1836 to 1856 - in his native country, where he headed the Bologna Lyceum, then returned to France, where he remained until his death in 1868.

Since 1980, the Rossini Opera Festival has been held annually in Pesaro.

Musical Seasons

(29 II 1792, Pesaro - 13 November 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris)

Gioachino Rossini Rossini opened the brilliant 19th century in the music of Italy, followed by a whole galaxy of opera creators: Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, as if passing the baton of the world glory of Italian opera to each other. The author of 37 operas, Rossini raised the genre of opera buffa to unattainable heights. His “The Barber of Seville,” written almost a century after the birth of the genre, became the pinnacle and symbol of opera buffa in general. On the other hand, it was Rossini who completed the almost one and a half century history of the most famous opera genre - opera seria, which conquered all of Europe, and opened the way for the development of a new heroic-patriotic opera of the era of romanticism that replaced it. The main strength of the composer, heir to Italian national traditions, is the inexhaustible inventiveness of melodies, fascinating, brilliant, virtuosic.

A singer, conductor, and pianist, Rossini was distinguished by his rare friendliness and sociability. Without any envy, he spoke with admiration about the successes of his young Italian contemporaries, ready to help, advise, and support. His admiration for Beethoven, whom Rossini met in Vienna in the last years of his life, is known. In one of his letters, he wrote about this in his usual humorous manner: “I study Beethoven twice a week, Haydn four, and Mozart every day... Beethoven is a colossus who often gives you a good punch in the side, whereas Mozart always amazing." Rossini called Weber, with whom they competed, “a great genius, and also a genuine one, for he created originality and did not imitate anyone.” He also liked Mendelssohn, especially his Songs without Words. When they met, Rossini asked Mendelssohn to play him Bach, “a lot of Bach”: “His genius is simply overwhelming. If Beethoven is a miracle among men, then Bach is a miracle among gods. I have subscribed to his complete works." Rossini treated even Wagner, whose work was very far from his operatic ideals, with respect and was interested in the principles of his reform, as evidenced by their meeting in Paris in 1860.

Wit was characteristic of Rossini not only in his work, but also in life. He claimed that this was foreshadowed by the very date of his birth - February 29, 1792. The composer's homeland is the seaside town of Pesaro. His father played the trumpet and horn, his mother, although she did not know notes, was a singer and sang by ear (according to Rossini, “out of a hundred Italian singers, eighty are in the same position”). Both were members of a traveling troupe. Gioachino, who showed an early talent for music, at the age of 7, along with writing, arithmetic and Latin, studied the harpsichord, solfeggio and singing at a boarding school in Bologna. At the age of 8, he was already performing in churches, where he was entrusted with the most difficult soprano roles, and once was assigned a child's role in a popular opera. Admiring listeners predicted that Rossini would become a famous singer. He accompanied himself from sight, read orchestral scores fluently, and worked as an accompanist and choir director in the theaters of Bologna. In 1804, he began systematically studying the viola and violin; in the spring of 1806, he entered the Bologna Musical Lyceum, and within a few months the famous Bologna Academy of Music unanimously elected him as a member. Then the future glory of Italy was only 14 years old. And at 15 he wrote his first opera. Stendhal, who heard it several years later, admired its melodies - “the first colors created by Rossini’s imagination; they had all the freshness of the morning of his life.”

He studied at the Lyceum Rossini (including playing the cello) for about 4 years. His counterpoint teacher was the famous Padre Mattei. Subsequently, Rossini regretted that he could not take a full composition course - he had to earn a living and help his parents. During his years of study, he independently became acquainted with the music of Haydn and Mozart, organized a string quartet, where he performed the viola part; At his insistence, the ensemble replayed many of Haydn's works. He borrowed the scores of Haydn's oratorios and Mozart's operas from a music lover and rewrote them: first, only the vocal part, for which he composed his own accompaniment, and then compared it with the author's. However, Rossini dreamed of a much more prestigious career as a singer: “when the composer received fifty ducats, the singer received a thousand.” According to him, he fell on the path of composing almost by accident - a mutation of his voice began. At the Lyceum, he tried his hand at different genres: he wrote 2 symphonies, 5 string quartets, variations for solo instruments with orchestra, and a cantata. One of the symphonies and a cantata were performed at lyceum concerts.

After completing his studies, the 18-year-old composer saw his opera for the first time on November 3, 1810, on the stage of the Venetian theater. The following autumn season, Rossini was engaged by the theater in Bologna to write a two-act opera buffa. During 1812, he composed and staged 6 operas, including one zepa. “I had ideas quickly and all I needed was time to write them down. I've never been one of those people who sweats when composing music." The opera buffa “Touchstone” was staged at the largest theater in Italy, La Scala in Milan, where it was performed 50 times in a row; to listen to her, according to Stendhal, “crowds of people came to Milan from Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo and Brescia and from all the cities within twenty miles in the area. Rossini became the first man of his region; everyone wanted to see him at all costs.” And the opera brought the 20-year-old author exemption from military service: the general commanding in Milan liked “Touchstone” so much that he turned to the viceroy, and the army was missing one soldier.

The turning point in Rossini’s work was the year 1813, when, within three and a half months, two operas that are popular to this day (Tancred and Italian in Algiers) saw the light of the stage in the theaters of Venice, and the third, which failed at the premiere and is now forgotten, brought an immortal overture - Rossini used it twice more, and now everyone knows it as the overture to The Barber of Seville. After 4 years, the impresario of one of the best theaters in Italy and the largest in Europe, the Neapolitan San Carlo, the enterprising and successful Domenico Barbaia, nicknamed the Viceroy of Naples, signed a long-term contract with Rossini for 6 years. The prima donna of the troupe was the beautiful Spaniard Isabella Colbran, who had a luxurious voice and dramatic talent. She had known the composer for a long time - in the same year, 14-year-old Rossini and Colbran, 7 years older than him, were elected members of the Bologna Academy. Now she was a friend of Barbaya and at the same time enjoyed the patronage of the king. Colbran soon became Rossini's lover, and in 1822, his wife.

Over the course of 6 years (1816-1822), the composer wrote 10 seria operas for Naples, based on Colbran, and 9 for other theaters, mainly buffa, since Colbran did not perform comic roles. Among them are “The Barber of Seville” and “Cinderella”. At the same time, a new romantic genre was born, which would later supplant opera seria: folk-heroic opera, dedicated to the theme of the struggle for liberation, with the depiction of large masses of people, the widespread use of choral scenes, occupying no less a place than arias (“Moses”, “ Mohammed II").

The year 1822 opens a new page in the life of Rossini. In the spring, he and the Neapolitan troupe go to Vienna, where his operas have been successfully staged for 6 years. For 4 months, Rossini basked in the rays of fame, he was recognized on the streets, crowds gathered under the windows of his house to see the composer, and sometimes listen to him sing. In Vienna, he meets Beethoven - sick, lonely, huddled in a squalid apartment, whom Rossini tries in vain to help. The Vienna tour was followed by a London tour that was even longer and more successful. For 7 months, until the end of July 1824, he conducted his operas in London, performed as an accompanist and singer in public and private concerts, including in the royal palace: the English king is one of his most loyal fans. The cantata “The Complaint of the Muses on the Death of Lord Byron” was also written here, at the premiere of which the composer sang the part of the solo tenor. At the end of the tour, Rossini took out a fortune from England - 175 thousand francs, which made him remember the fee for his first opera - 200 lire. And not even 15 years have passed since then...

After London, Rossini waited for Paris and a well-paid position as head of the Italian Opera. However, Rossini remained in this post for only 2 years, although he made a dizzying career: “composer of His Majesty the King and inspector of singing of all musical institutions” (the highest musical position in France), member of the Council for the Management of the Royal Music Schools, member of the committee of the Grand Opera Theater. Here Rossini created his innovative score - the folk-heroic opera William Tell. Born on the eve of the revolution of 1830, it was perceived by contemporaries as a direct call for uprising. And at this peak, at the age of 37, Rossini stopped his operatic activities. However, he did not stop composing. 3 years before his death, he said to one of his guests: “Do you see this bookcase full of musical manuscripts? All this was written after William Tell. But I don't publish anything; I write because I cannot do otherwise.”

Rossini's largest works of this period belong to the genre of spiritual oratorio (Stabat Mater, Little Solemn Mass). A lot of chamber vocal music was also created. The most famous ariettas and duets were included in “Musical Evenings”, others were included in the “Album of Italian Songs”, “Mixture of Vocal Music”. Rossini also wrote instrumental pieces, often providing them with ironic titles: “Restrained Pieces”, “Four Appetizers and Four Desserts”, “Painkiller Music”, etc.

From 1836, Rossini returned to Italy for almost 20 years. He devotes himself to teaching work, supporting the newly founded Experimental Musical Gymnasium in Florence, and the Bologna Musical Lyceum, which he himself once graduated from. For the last 13 years, Rossini has been living in France again, both in Paris itself and in a villa on the outskirts of Passy, ​​surrounded by honor and glory. After the death of Colbran (1845), from whom he separated about 10 years earlier, Rossini married the Frenchwoman Olympe Pelissier. Contemporaries describe her as an unremarkable woman, but endowed with a sympathetic and kind heart, but Rossini's Italian friends consider her stingy and inhospitable. The composer regularly organizes receptions that are famous throughout Paris. These “Rossini Saturdays” gather the most brilliant society, attracted by both sophisticated conversation and exquisite cuisine, of which the composer was reputed to be an expert and was even the inventor of some culinary recipes. The sumptuous dinner was followed by a concert, the owner often sang and accompanied the singers. The last such evening took place on September 20, 1868, when the composer was 77 years old; he performed the recently composed elegy “Farewell to Life.”

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 at his villa in Passy near Paris. In his will, he allocated two and a half million francs for the creation of a music school in his native Pesaro, where 4 years earlier a monument was erected to him, as well as a large sum for the establishment in Passy of a home for elderly singers - French and Italian, who had made a career in France. About 4 thousand people attended the funeral mass. The funeral procession was accompanied by two battalions of infantry and bands of two legions of the National Guard, who performed excerpts from operas and spiritual works by Rossini.

The composer was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris next to Bellini, Cherubini and Chopin. Upon learning of Rossini's death, Verdi wrote: “A great name has died out in the world! It was the most popular name of our era, the widest fame - and this was the glory of Italy!” He invited Italian composers to honor the memory of Rossini by writing a collective Requiem, which was to be solemnly performed in Bologna on the first anniversary of his death. In 1887, Rossini's embalmed body was transported to Florence and buried in the Cathedral of Santa Croce, in the pantheon of the great men of Italy, next to the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo.

A. Koenigsberg

Italian composer. One of the outstanding representatives of the opera genre in the 19th century. His work is at the same time the completion of the development of music of the 18th century. and opens the way to the artistic achievements of romanticism. His first opera, Demetrio and Polibio (1806), was written quite in line with the traditional opera seria. Rossini turned to this genre more than once. Among the best works are "Tancred" (1813), "Othello" (1816), "Moses in Egypt" (1818), "Zelmira" (1822, Naples, libretto by A. Tottola), "Semiramis" (1823).

Rossini made a huge contribution to the development of opera buffa. The first experiments in this genre were “Promissory Note for Marriage” (1810, Venice, libretto by G. Rossi), “Signor Bruschino” (1813) and a number of other works. It was in opera buffa that Rossini created his own type of overture, based on the contrast of a slow introduction followed by a rapid allegro. We see one of the earliest classical examples of such an overture in his opera The Silk Staircase (1812). Finally, in 1813, Rossini created his first masterpiece in the buffo genre: “An Italian Woman in Algiers,” where the features of the composer’s mature style are already clearly visible, especially in the remarkable finale of the first act. His success was also the opera buffa “The Turk in Italy” ( 1814). Two years later, the composer wrote his best opera, “The Barber of Seville,” which rightfully occupies an outstanding place in the history of the genre.

Created in 1817, Cinderella demonstrates Rossini's desire to expand the palette of artistic media. Purely buffoonish elements are replaced by a combination of comic and lyrical principles; in the same year, “The Thieving Magpie” appears, written in the genre of opera-semiseria, in which lyrical-comedy elements coexist with tragic ones (how can one not recall Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”). In 1819, Rossini created one of his most romantic works - “The Virgin of the Lake” (based on the novel by W. Scott).

Among his later works, “The Siege of Corinth” (1826, Paris, is a French edition of his earlier opera series “Mahomet II”), “Count Ory” (1828), written in the style of French comic opera (in which the composer used a number of the most successful those from the opera "Journey to Reims", created three years earlier on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X in Reims), and, finally, Rossini's last masterpiece - "William Tell" (1829). This opera, with its drama, individually defined characters, large cross-cutting scenes, already belongs to another musical era - the age of romanticism. This composition concludes Rossini's career as an opera composer. Over the next 30 years, he created a number of vocal and instrumental works (among them “Stabat Mater”, etc.), vocal and piano miniatures.

(1792-1868) Italian composer

G. Rossini is an outstanding Italian composer of the last century, whose work marked the flowering of the national operatic art. He managed to breathe new life into the traditional Italian types of opera - comic (buffa) and “serious” (seria). Rossini's talent was revealed especially clearly in opera buffa. The realism of life sketches, accuracy in depicting characters, swiftness of action, melodic richness and sparkling wit ensured his works enormous popularity.

Rossini's period of intense creativity lasted about 20 years. During this time, he created over 30 operas, many of which in a short time went around the capital theaters of Europe and brought the author worldwide fame.

Gioachino Rossini was born on February 29, 1792 in Pesaro. The future composer had a wonderful voice and sang in church choirs from the age of 8. At age 14, he undertook a solo trip with a small theater company as a conductor. Rossini completed his education at the Bologna Musical Lyceum, after which he chose the path of an opera composer.

Moving from city to city and fulfilling orders from local theaters, he wrote several operas a year. The works created in 1813 - the opera buffa "Italian in Algiers" and the heroic opera-serial "Tancred" - brought him wide fame. The melodies of Rossini's arias were sung on the streets of Italian cities. “In Italy there lives a man,” Stendhal wrote, “about whom they talk more than about Napoleon; this is a composer who is not yet twenty years old.”

In 1815, Rossini was invited to become resident composer at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. It was one of the best theaters of that time, with excellent singers and musicians. The first opera he wrote in Naples, “Elizabeth, Queen of England,” was received with enthusiasm. A stage of calm, prosperous life began in Rossini's life. It was in Naples that all his major operas were written. His musical and theatrical style reached high maturity in the monumental heroic operas Moses (1818) and Mohammed II (1820). In 1816, Rossini wrote the comic opera “The Barber of Seville” based on the famous comedy by Beaumarchais. Its premiere was also a triumphant success, and soon the whole of Italy was singing melodies from this opera.

In 1822, the political reaction that occurred in Italy forced Rossini to leave his homeland. He went on tour with a group of artists. They performed in London, Berlin, Vienna. There Rossini met Beethoven, Schubert and Berlioz.

From 1824 he settled in Paris. For several years he served as director of the Italian opera house. Taking into account the requirements of the French stage, he reworked a number of previous operas and created new ones. Rossini's greatest achievement was the heroic-romantic opera William Tell (1829), which glorified the leader of the national liberation struggle in Switzerland in the 14th century. Appearing on the eve of the 1830 revolution, this opera responded to the freedom-loving sentiments of the leading part of French society. "William Tell" is Rossini's last opera.

In the prime of his creative powers, not yet forty years old, Rossini suddenly stopped writing opera music. He was involved in concert activities, composed instrumental pieces, and traveled a lot. In 1836 he returned to Italy, living first in Bologna and then in Florence. In 1848, Rossini composed the Italian national anthem.

But soon after this he returned to France again and settled on his estate in Passy, ​​near Paris. His house became one of the centers of artistic life. Many famous singers, composers, and writers attended the musical evenings that he organized. In particular, there are known memories of one of these concerts, written by I. S. Turgenev. It is curious that one of Rossini’s hobbies during these years was cooking. He loved to treat his guests to his own prepared dishes. “Why do you need my music if you have my pate?” - the composer jokingly said to one of the guests.

Gioachino Rossini died on November 13, 1868. A few years later, his ashes were transported to Florence and solemnly buried in the pantheon of the Church of Santa Croce next to the remains of other prominent figures of Italian culture.

Italy is an amazing country. Either the nature there is special, or the people living there are extraordinary, but the world’s best works of art are somehow connected with this Mediterranean state. Music is a separate page in the life of Italians. Ask any of them what the name of the great Italian composer Rossini was, and you will immediately receive the correct answer.

Talented bel canto singer

It seems that the gene of musicality is inherent in every resident by nature itself. It is no coincidence that all those used in writing scores originate from the Latin language.

It is impossible to imagine an Italian who does not know how to sing beautifully. Beautiful singing, bel canto in Latin, is a truly Italian style of performing musical works. The composer Rossini became famous throughout the world for his delightful compositions created in this very manner.

In Europe, the fashion for bel canto began at the end of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We can say that the outstanding Italian composer Rossini was born at the most suitable time and in the most suitable place. Was he the darling of fate? Doubtful. Most likely, the reason for his success is the divine gift of talent and character traits. And besides, the process of composing music was not at all tiring for him. Melodies were born in the composer’s head with amazing ease - just have time to write them down.

The composer's childhood

The full name of the composer Rossini is Gioachino Antonio Rossini. He was born on February 29, 1792 in the city of Pesaro. The baby was incredibly adorable. “Little Adonis” was the name of the Italian composer Rossini in his early childhood. Local artist Mancinelli, who was painting the walls of the Church of St. Ubaldo at that time, asked Gioacchino’s parents for permission to depict the baby in one of the frescoes. He captured him in the form of a child, to whom an angel shows the way to heaven.

His parents, although they did not have any special professional education, were musicians. His mother, Anna Guidarini-Rossini, had a very beautiful soprano voice and sang in musical performances at the local theater, and her father, Giuseppe Antonio Rossini, played the trumpet and horn there.

The only child in the family, Gioachino was surrounded by the care and attention of not only his parents, but also numerous uncles, aunts, grandparents.

First musical works

He made his first attempts to compose music as soon as he had the opportunity to pick up musical instruments. The fourteen-year-old boy's scores look quite convincing. They clearly show the tendencies of operatic construction of musical plots - frequent rhythmic rearrangements are emphasized, in which characteristic, song-like melodies predominate.

There are six scores of sonatas for quartet in the United States. They are dated 1806.

“The Barber of Seville”: the history of the composition

Throughout the world, the composer Rossini is known primarily as the author of the buffa opera “The Barber of Seville,” but few can say what the history of its appearance was. The original title of the opera was “Almaviva, or Vain Precaution.” The fact is that by that time one “Barber of Seville” already existed. The first opera based on Beaumarchais' funny play was written by the venerable Giovanni Paisiello. His work was performed with great success on the stages of Italian theaters.

The Argentino Theater commissioned the young maestro for a comic opera. All librettos proposed by the composer were rejected. Rossini asked Paisiello to allow him to write his own opera based on Beaumarchais's play. He didn't mind. Rossini composed the famous “The Barber of Seville” in 13 days.

Two premieres with different results

The premiere was a resounding failure. In general, many mystical incidents are associated with this opera. In particular, the disappearance of the score with the overture. It was a medley of several funny folk songs. The composer Rossini had to quickly come up with a replacement for the lost pages. His papers preserved the notes for the opera “A Strange Case,” written seven years ago and long forgotten. Having made minor changes, he included lively and light melodies of his own composition into the new opera. The second performance turned out to be a triumph. It became the first step on the path to world fame for the composer, and his melodious recitatives still delight the public.

He had no more serious worries about the productions.

The composer's fame quickly reached continental Europe. Information has been preserved about what the composer Rossini was called by his friends. Heinrich Heine considered him the “Sun of Italy” and called him the “Divine Maestro”.

Austria, England and France in the life of Rossini

After the triumph in their homeland, Rossini and Isabella Colbran set off to conquer Vienna. Here he was already well known and recognized as an outstanding composer of our time. Schumann applauded him, and Beethoven, completely blind by this time, expressed admiration and advised him not to abandon the path of composing opera buffes.

Paris and London greeted the composer with no less enthusiasm. Rossini stayed in France for a long time.

During his extensive tour, he composed and staged most of his operas on the best stages in the capital. The maestro was favored by kings and made acquaintances with the most influential people in the world of art and politics.

Rossini would return to France at the end of his life to be treated for stomach ailments. The composer will die in Paris. This will happen on November 13, 1868.

"William Tell" - the composer's last opera

Rossini did not like to spend too much time on work. Often in new operas he used the same, long-invented motifs. Each new opera rarely took him more than a month. In total, the composer wrote 39 of them.

He devoted six months to William Tell. I wrote all the parts anew, without using old scores.

Rossini's musical depiction of the Austrian soldiers-invaders is deliberately emotionally poor, monotonous and angular. And for the Swiss people, who refused to submit to their enslavers, the composer, on the contrary, wrote diverse, melodic, rhythm-rich parts. He used folk songs of Alpine and Tyrolean shepherds, adding Italian flexibility and poetry to them.

The opera premiered in August 1829. King Charles X of France was delighted and awarded Rossini the Order of the Legion of Honor. The public reacted coldly to the opera. Firstly, the action lasted for four hours, and secondly, the new musical techniques invented by the composer turned out to be difficult to perceive.

In the following days, the theater management shortened the performance. Rossini was outraged and offended to the core.

Despite the fact that this opera had a huge influence on the further development of opera, as can be seen in similar works of the heroic genre by Gaetano Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi and Vincenzo Bellini, “William Tell” is now extremely rarely staged.

Revolution in opera

Rossini took two serious steps to modernize modern opera. He was the first to record all the vocal parts in the score with the appropriate accents and flourishes. In the past, singers improvised their parts however they wanted.

The next innovation was the accompaniment of recitatives with musical accompaniment. In opera seria, this made it possible to create cross-cutting instrumental inserts.

End of writing activity

Art critics and historians have still not come to a consensus on what forced Rossini to leave his career as a composer of musical works. He himself said that he had completely secured a comfortable old age for himself, and he was tired of the bustle of public life. If he had children, he would certainly continue to write music and stage his performances on opera stages.

The composer's last theatrical work was the opera series "William Tell". He was 37 years old. Later, he sometimes conducted orchestras, but never returned to composing operas.

Cooking is the maestro's favorite pastime

The second great hobby of the great Rossini was cooking. He suffered a lot because of his addiction to exquisite foods. After leaving public musical life, he did not become an ascetic. His house was always full of guests, the feasts were replete with exotic dishes that the maestro personally invented. One might think that composing operas gave him the opportunity to earn enough money so that in his declining years he could devote himself wholeheartedly to his most beloved hobby.

Two marriages

Gioachino Rossini was married twice. His first wife, Isabella Colbran, the owner of a divine dramatic soprano, performed all the solo roles in the maestro's operas. She was seven years older than her husband. Did her husband, the composer Rossini, love her? The singer’s biography is silent about this, but as for Rossini himself, it is assumed that this union was more business than love.

His second wife, Olympia Pelissier, became his companion for the rest of his life. They led a peaceful existence and were quite happy together. Rossini wrote no more music, with the exception of two oratorio works - the Catholic mass "The Sorrowful Mother Stood" (1842) and "Little Solemn Mass" (1863).

Three Italian cities most significant for the composer

Residents of three Italian cities proudly claim that the composer Rossini is their fellow countryman. The first is Gioacchino's birthplace, the city of Pesaro. The second is Bologna, where he lived the longest and wrote his main works. The third city is Florence. Here, in the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Italian composer D. Rossini was buried. His ashes were brought from Paris, and the wonderful sculptor Giuseppe Cassioli made an elegant tombstone.

Rossini in literature

Rossini's biography, Gioachino Antonio, has been described by his contemporaries and friends in several books of fiction, as well as in numerous art historical studies. He was in his thirties when the first biography of the composer, described by Frederic Stendhal, was published. It's called "The Life of Rossini".

Another friend of the composer, a literary novelist, described him in a short story “Lunch at Rossini, or Two Students from Bologna.” The lively and sociable disposition of the great Italian is captured in numerous stories and anecdotes kept by his friends and acquaintances.

Subsequently, separate books with these funny and cheerful stories were published.

Filmmakers also did not ignore the great Italian. In 1991, Mario Monicelli presented the audience with his film about Rossini with Sergio Castellito in the title role.