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ROSSINI, GIOACHINO ANTONIO (1792-1868)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 752 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROSSINI, GIOACHINO See also:ANTONIO (1792-1868) , See also:Italian musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Pesaro on the 29th of See also:February 1792. His See also:father was See also:town See also:trumpeter and inspector of slaughter-houses, his See also:mother a See also:baker's daughter. The See also:elder Rossini's sympathies for the See also:French became a source of trouble when, after the occupation of the papal See also:state by the French in 1796, the Austrians restored the old regime. He was sent to See also:prison, and his wife took Gioachino to See also:Bologna, earning her living as a prima donna See also:buff a at various theatres of the Romagna, where she was ultimately rejoined by her See also:husband. Gioachino remained at Bologna in the care of a pork See also:butcher, while his father played the See also:horn in the bands of the theatres at which his mother sang. The boy had three years' instruction in the See also:harpsichord from Prinetti of See also:Novara, but Prinetti played the See also:scale with two fingers only, combined his profession of a musician with the business of selling liquor, and See also:fell asleep while he stood, so that he was a See also:fit subject for ridicule with his See also:critical See also:pupil. Gioachino was taken from him and apprenticed to a See also:smith. In Angelo Tesei he found a congenial See also:master, and learned to read at sight, to See also:play accompaniments on the piano-forte, and to sing well enough to take See also:solo parts in the See also:church when he was ten years of See also:age. At thirteen he appeared at the See also:theatre of the See also:Commune in See also:Paer's Camilla— his only See also:appearance as a public See also:singer (18o5). He was also able to play the horn. In 1807 he was admitted to the See also:counterpoint class of Padre P. S.

Mattei, and soon after to that of Cavedagni for the 'cello at the Conservatorio of Bologna. He learned to play the 'cello with ease, but the pedantic severity of Matters views on counterpoint only served to accentuate the tendency of his See also:

genius towards a freer school of See also:composition, and his insight into orchestral resources is to be ascribed rather to knowledge gained by scoring the quartets and symphonies of See also:Haydn and See also:Mozart, than to any prescribed rules for the composition of See also:music. At Bologna he was known as " it Tedeschino " on See also:account of his devotion to Mozart. Through the friendly interposition of the See also:Marquis See also:Cavalli, his first See also:opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, was produced at See also:Venice when he was a youth of eighteen. But two years before this he had already received the See also:prize at the Conservatorio of Bologna for his See also:cantata Il pianto d' armonia per la ',torte d'Orfeo. Between 1810 and 1813, at Bologna, See also:Rome, Venice and See also:Milan, Rossini produced operas of which the successes were varying. All memory of them is eclipsed in that of Tancredi. The libretto was an arrangement of See also:Voltaire's tragedy by J. A. See also:Rossi. Traces of Path- and See also:Paisiello were undeniably See also:present in fragments of the music. But all critical feeling on the See also:part of the public was drowned in the effect of sweetness and clarity produced by such melodies as " Mi rivedrai, ti rivedro " and " Di tanti palpiti," the former of which became so popular that the Italians would sing it in crowds at the See also:law courts until called upon by the See also:judge to desist.

Rossini continued to write operas for Venice and Milan during the next few years, but their reception was tame and in some cases unsatisfactory after the success of Tancredi. In 1815 he retired to his See also:

home at Bologna, where Barbaja, the impresario of the See also:Naples theatre, who had once been a waiter in a See also:coffee-See also:house and now combined the business of theatrical management with that of farming the public gaming-tables, concluded an agreement with him by which he was to take the musical direction of the Teatro See also:San Carlo and the Teatro Del Fondo at Naples, composing for each of them one opera a See also:year. His See also:payment was to be 200 ducats (about £35 or $175) per See also:month; he was also to receive a See also:share in the gaming-tables amounting to about moo ducats (£175 or $875) per annum. The presence of Zingarelli and Paisiello in Naples was an incentive to intrigue against the success of the youthful composer, but all hostility was made futile by the See also:enthusiasm which greeted the See also:court performance of his Elisabetta See also:regina d' Inghilterra, in which See also:Isabella Colbran, who subsequently became the composer's wife, took a leading part. The libretto of this opera by See also:Schmidt was in many of its incidents an anticipation of those presented to the See also:world a few years later in See also:Scott's See also:Kenilworth. The opera was the first in which Rossini wrote the ornaments of the airs instead of leaving them to the See also:fancy of the singers, and also the first in which the recitativo See also:sac() was replaced by a recitative accompanied by a quartet of strings. In Almaviva, produced in the beginning of the next year in Rome, the libretto, a version of See also:Beaumarchais' See also:Barbier de See also:Seville by Sterbini, was the same as that already used by Paisiello in his Barbiere, an opera which had enjoyed See also:European popularity for more than a See also:quarter of a See also:century. The indignation of Paisiello's admirers expressed itself strongly on the See also:production of the new setting, but in the thirteen days devoted to the composition of his Almaviva, Rossini had created such a masterpiece of musical See also:comedy that the fame of Paisiello's opera was transferred to his, to which the See also:title of Il Barbiere di Siviglia passed as an inalienable heritage. Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced twenty operas. Of these Otello formed the See also:climax to his reform of serious opera, and offers a suggestive contrast with the treatment of the same subject at a similar point of See also:artistic development by the composer See also:Verdi. In Rossini's See also:time the tragic See also:close was so distasteful to the public of Rome that it was necessary to invent a happy conclusion to Otello; and there are still places in See also:Italy in which the Shakespearian end of the See also:story can never be performed without interruption from the See also:audience, who warn Desdemona of Otello's deadly approach. Conditions of See also:stage mechanism in 1817 are illustrated by Rossini's See also:acceptance of the subject of See also:Cinderella for a libretto only on the See also:condition that the supernatural See also:element should be omitted.

The opera Cenerentola is to be ranked with the Barbiere. The See also:

absence of a similar precaution in the construction of his Mose in Egitto led to disaster in the See also:scene depicting the passage of the Israelites through the Red See also:Sea, when the defects in stage contrivance always raised a laugh, so that the composer was at length compelled to introduce the See also:chorus " Dal tuo stellato Soglio " to divert See also:attention from the dividing waves. In 1821, three years after the production of this See also:work, Rossini married Isabella Colbran. In 1822 he directed his Cenerentola in See also:Vienna, where Zelmira was also performed. After this he returned to Bologna; but an invitation from See also:Prince Metternich to come to See also:Verona and " assist in the See also:general re-establish- ment of See also:harmony " was too tempting to be refused, and he arrived at the See also:Congress in time for its opening on the 20th of See also:October 1822. Here he made See also:friends with See also:Chateaubriand and Madame de Lieven. In 1823, at the See also:suggestion of the manager of the See also:King's Theatre, See also:London, he came to See also:England, being much feted on his way through See also:Paris. In England he was given a generous welcome, which included an introduction to King See also:George IV. and the See also:receipt of f7000 after a See also:residence of five months. In 1824 he became musical director of the Theetre Italien in Paris at a See also:salary of £800 per annum, and when the agreement came to an end he was rewarded with the offices of See also:chief composer to the king and inspector-general of singing in See also:France, to which was attached the same income. The production of his See also:Guillaume Tell in 1829 brought his career as a writer of opera to a close. The libretto was by See also:Etienne See also:Jolly and Hippolyte Bis, but their version was revised by Armand Marrast. The music is remarkable for its freedom from the conventions discovered and utilized by Rossini in his earlier See also:works, and marks a transitional stage in the See also:history of opera.

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 upset by the See also:

abdication of See also:Charles X. and the See also:July Revolution of 183o. Rossini, who had been considering the subject of See also:Faust for a new opera, returned, however, to Paris in the See also:November of that year. Six movements of his Stabat Mater were written in 1832 and the See also:rest in 1839, the year of his father's See also:death, and the success of the work bears comparison with his achievements in opera; but his See also:comparative silence during the See also:period from 1832 to 1868 makes his See also:biography appear almost like the narrative of two lives—the See also:life of See also:swift See also:triumph, and the See also:long life of seclusion, of which the biographers give us pictures in stories of the composer's cynical wit, his speculations in See also:fish culture, his See also:mask of humility and indifference. His first wife died in 1845, and See also:political disturbances in the Romagna compelled him to leave Bologna in 1847, the year of his second See also:marriage with Olympe See also:Pelissier, who had sat to See also:Vernet for his picture of " See also:Judith and Holofernes." After living for a time in See also:Florence he settled in Paris in 1855, where his house was a centre of artistic society. He died at his See also:country house at Passy on the 13th of November 1868. He was a See also:foreign See also:associate of the See also:Institute, See also:grand officer of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour, and the recipient of innumerable orders. In his compositions Rossini plagiarized even more freely from him-self than from other musicians, and few of his operas are without such admixtures frankly introduced in the See also:form of arias or overtures. A characteristic mannerism in his musical See also:writing earned for him the See also:nickname of " See also:Monsieur Crescendo." His music is associated with the names of the greatest singers in lyrical See also:drama, such as Tamburini, See also:Mario, Rubini, Delle Sedie, See also:Albani, See also:Grisi, See also:Patti and See also:Nilsson.

End of Article: ROSSINI, GIOACHINO ANTONIO (1792-1868)

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