The Barber of Seville

Isabella Colbran Main article: The Barber of Seville Rossini's most famous opera was produced on 20 February 1816, at the Teatro Arge ntina in Rome. The libretto, a version of Pierre Beaumarchais' stage play Le Bar bier de Sville, was newly written by Cesare Sterbini and not the same as that alr eady used by Giovanni Paisiello in his own Barbiere, an opera which had enjoyed European popularity for more than a quarter of a century. Much is made of how qu ickly Rossini's opera was written, scholarship generally agreeing upon two or th ree weeks. Later in life, Rossini claimed to have written the opera in only twel ve days. It was a colossal failure when it premiered as Almaviva; Paisiello's ad mirers were extremely indignant, sabotaging the production by whistling and shou ting during the entire first act. However, not long after the second performance , the opera became so successful that the fame of Paisiello's opera was transfer red to Rossini's, to which the title The Barber of Seville passed as an inaliena ble heritage. Later in 1822, a 30-year-old Rossini succeeded in meeting Ludwig van Beethoven, who was then aged 51, deaf, cantankerous and in failing health. Communicating in writing, Beethoven noted: "Ah, Rossini. So you're the composer of The Barber of Seville. I congratulate you. It will be played as long as Italian opera exists. Never try to write anything else but opera buffa; any other style would do viol ence to your nature."[3] [edit] Marriage and mid-career

Caricature by H. Mailly on the cover of Le Hanneton, July 4, 1867 Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced 20 operas. Of these Otello formed the cli max to his reform of serious opera, and offers a suggestive contrast with the tr eatment of the same subject at a similar point of artistic development by the co mposer Giuseppe Verdi. In Rossini's time the tragic ending was so distasteful to the public of Rome that it was necessary to invent a happy conclusion to Otello . Conditions of stage production in 1817 are illustrated by Rossini's acceptance o f the subject of Cinderella for a libretto only on the condition that the supern atural element should be omitted. The opera La Cenerentola was as successful as Barbiere. The absence of a similar precaution in construction of his Mos in Egitt o led to disaster in the scene depicting the passage of the Israelites through t he Red Sea, when the defects in stage contrivance always raised a laugh, so that the composer was at length compelled to introduce the chorus "Dal tuo stellato soglio" to divert attention from the dividing waves. In 1822, four years after the production of this work, Rossini married the renow ned opera singer Isabella Colbran. In the same year, he moved from Italy to Vien na where his operas were the rage of the audiences. He directed his Cenerentola in Vienna, where Zelmira was also performed. After this he returned to Bologna, but an invitation from Metternich to the Congress of Verona to "assist in the ge neral re-establishment of harmony" was too tempting to refuse, and he arrived at the Congress in time for its opening on October 20, 1822. Here he made friends with Chateaubriand and Dorothea Lieven. In 1823, at the suggestion of the manager of the King's Theatre, London, he came to England, being much fted on his way through Paris. In England he was given a generous welcome, which included an introduction to King George IV and the recei pt of 7000 (530000 today) after a residence of five months. The next year he becam e musical director of the Thtre des Italiens in Paris at a salary of 800 (58000 toda y) per annum. Rossini's popularity in Paris was so great that Charles X gave him

a contract to write five new operas a year, and at the expiration of the contra ct he was to receive a generous pension for life. [edit]End of career

Gioachino Rossini, photographed by Flix Nadar, 1858 During his Paris years, between 1824 and 1829, Rossini created the comic opera L e comte Ory and Guillaume Tell (William Tell). The production of the latter in 1 829 brought his career as a writer of opera to a close. He was thirty-eight year s old and had already composed thirty-eight operas. Guillaume Tell was a politic al epic adapted from Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell (1804) about the 13th-century Swiss patriot who rallied his country against the Austrians. The libretto was by tienne Jouy and Hippolyte Bis (fr), but their version was revised by Armand Marr ast.[7] Photograph of Gioachino Rossini (Ransom Humanities Research Center, The Universi ty of Texas at Austin) The music is remarkable for its freedom from the conventions discovered and util ized by Rossini in his earlier works, and marks a transitional stage in the hist ory of opera, the overture serving as a model for romantic overtures throughout the 19th century. Though an excellent opera, it is rarely heard uncut today, as the original score runs more than four hours in performance. The overture is one of the most famous and frequently recorded works in the classical repertoire. In 1829 he returned to Bologna. His mother had died in 1827, and he was anxious to be with his father. Arrangements for his subsequent return to Paris on a new agreement were temporarily upset by the abdication of Charles X and the July Rev olution of 1830. Rossini, who had been considering the subject of Faust for a ne w opera, did return, however, to Paris in November of that year. Six movements of his Stabat Mater were written in 1832 by Rossini himself and th e other six by Giovanni Tadolini, a good musician who was asked by Rossini to co mplete the work. However, Rossini composed the rest of the score in 1841. The su ccess of the work bears comparison with his achievements in opera, but his compa rative silence during the period from 1832 to his death in 1868 makes his biogra phy appear almost like the narrative of two livesthe life of swift triumph and th e long life of seclusion, of which biographers give us pictures in stories of th e composer's cynical wit, his speculations in fish culture, his mask of humility and indifference. [edit]Later years His first wife died in 1845, and on 16 August 1846, he married Olympe Plissier, w ho had sat for Vernet for his picture of Judith and Holofernes. Political distur bances compelled Rossini to leave Bologna in 1848. After living for a time in Fl orence, he settled in Paris in 1855, where he hosted many artistic and literary figures. Rossini had been a well-known gourmand and an excellent amateur chef hi s entire life, but he indulged these two passions fully once he retired from com posing, and today there are a number of dishes with the appendage "alla Rossini" to their names that were either created by or specifically for him. Probably th e most famous of these is Tournedos Rossini, still served by many restaurants to day. In the meantime, after years of various physical and mental illnesses, he had sl owly returned to music, composing obscure little works intended for private perf ormance. These included his Pchs de vieillesse ("Sins of Old Age"), which are grou ped into 14 volumes, mostly for solo piano, occasionally for voice and various c hamber ensembles. Often whimsical, these pieces display Rossini's natural ease o f composition and gift for melody, showing obvious influences of Beethoven and C hopin, with many flashes of the composer's long buried desire for serious, acade mic composition. They also underpin the fact that Rossini himself was an outstan ding pianist whose playing attracted high praise from people such as Franz Liszt

, Sigismond Thalberg, Camille Saint-Sans and Louis Dimer.[8] He died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house at Passy on Friday, 13 November 1868. He was buried in Pre Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. In 18 87, his remains were moved to the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze, in Florenc e, at the request of the Italian government. [edit]Legacy According to Herbert Weinstock's 1968 biography,[9] the composer's estate was va lued at 2.5 million francs upon his death in 1868, the equivalent of about 1.4 m illion US dollars. According to one contemporary account, at the time of his dea th Rossini's estate yielded revenues of 150,000 francs per year.[10] Apart from some individual legacies in favour of his wife and relatives,[11] Rossini willed his entire estate to the Comune of Pesaro.[12] The inheritance was invested to establish a Liceo Musicale (Conservatory) in the town. When, in 1940, the Liceo was put under state control and turned into the Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini", the corporate body to which Rossini's inheritance had been conveyed, assumed the style of Fondazione G. Rossini. The aims of the institutio n, which is still in full activity, are to support the Conservatorio initiatives and to promote the study and the spread worldwide of the figure, the memory, an d the works of Rossini. The institution has collaborated since the beginning wit h the Rossini Opera Festival.[13] Rossini's estate also provided funding for the Prix Rossini, a prize to be award ed to young French composers and librettists. The provision took effect in 1878 on the death of his widow and was awarded by the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts. Prize-wi nning works were produced by the Socit des Concerts, Institut de France, from 1885 to 1911.[14] The bequest sought to reward composers of music which emphasized m elody, which Rossini wrote "today is neglected" ("melodia, oggi si trascurata"). The prize for librettists was to be given to writers that observed "the laws of morality, which the modern writers completely ignore" ("osservando le leggi del la morale di cui i moderni scrittori piu non tengono verun conto"). The prizes w ere exclusively for French composers and librettists ("exclusivamente per I Fran cesi").[15] [edit]Honors and tributes

Rossini's now-empty tomb at Pre Lachaise Cemetery in Paris Rossini was a foreign associate of the institute, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and recipient of innumerable orders. Rossini's final resting place, in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence Immediately after Rossini's death, Giuseppe Verdi proposed to collaborate with t welve other Italian composers on a Requiem for Rossini, to be performed on the f irst anniversary of Rossini's death, conducted by Angelo Mariani. The music was written, but the performance was abandoned shortly before its scheduled premiere . Verdi re-used the "Libera me, Domine" he had written for the Rossini Requiem i n his 1872 Requiem for Manzoni. In 1989 the conductor Helmuth Rilling recorded t he original Requiem for Rossini in its world premiere. In 1900 Giuseppe Cassioli created a monument to Rossini in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.[16] [edit]Rossiniana Mauro Giuliani (who died in 1829) wrote six sets of variations for guitar on the mes by Rossini, Opp. 119124 (c. 1820-1828). Each set was called "Rossiniana", and collectively they are called "Rossiniane". This was the first known tribute by one composer to another using a title with the ending -ana. In 1925, Ottorino Respighi orchestrated four pieces from Pchs de vieillesse as the suite Rossiniana (he had earlier used pieces from the same collection as the ba sis of his ballet La Boutique fantasque).

[edit]Music

Portrait of Gioachino Rossini by Francesco Hayez, 1870 Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan According to the Oxford History of Western Music, "Rossini's fame surpassed that of any previous composer, and so, for a long time, did the popularity of his wo rks. Audiences took to his music as if to an intoxicating drug -- or, to put it more decorously, to champagne, with which Rossini's bubbly music was constantly compared."[17] Rossini took existing operatic genres and forms and perfected them in his own st yle. Through his own work, as well as through that of his followers and imitator s, Rossini's style dominated Italian opera throughout the first half of the 19th Century.[17] In his compositions, Rossini plagiarized freely from himself, a common practice among deadline-pressed opera composers of the time. Few of his operas are withou t such admixtures, frankly introduced in the form of arias or overtures. For exa mple, in Il Barbiere there is an aria for the Count (often omitted) "Cessa di pi resistere", which Rossini used (with minor changes) in the cantata Le Nozze di T eti e di Peleo and in La Cenerentola (the cabaletta for Angelina's rondo is almo st unchanged). Moreover, four of his best known overtures (La cambiale di matrim onio, Tancredi, La Cenerentola and The Barber of Seville) share operas apart fro m those with which they are most famously associated. A characteristic mannerism in Rossini's orchestral scoring is a long, steady bui lding of sound over an ostinato figure, creating "tempests in teapots by beginni ng in a whisper and rising to a flashing, glittering storm,"[18] which earned hi m the nickname of "Signor Crescendo". A few of Rossini's operas remained popular throughout his lifetime and continuou sly since his death; others were resurrected from semi-obscurity in the last hal f of the 20th century, during the so-called "bel canto revival." Rossini himself correctly predicted that his Barber of Seville would continue to find favor with posterity, telling a friend: One thing I believe I can assure you: that of my works, the second act of Guglie lmo Tell, the third act of Otello, and all of il Barbiere di Seviglia will certa inly endure. (Ma di una cosa credo potervi assicurare: che di mio rimarr di certo il secondo atto del Guglielmo Tell, il terzo atto dellOtello, e tutto il barbier e di Seviglia.)[19] [edit]