Biography

Gioachino Antonio Rossini is one of the pivotal figures in the history of Italian bel canto and the most prominent representative of 19th-century Italian comic opera. Rossini's style exerted a significant influence on the works of Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, and many others.

Rossini was born on February 29, in Pesaro to a family of poor musicians; his father was a trumpeter in the town orchestra, and his mother was a singer. The future composer spent his first twelve years constantly on the move, and he was a staunch revolutionary. Thanks to this mobile lifestyle, the young composer had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the musical traditions and sheet music libraries of the numerous cities where he lived.

In 1804, the Rossini family found refuge in Bologna, where Gioachino studied singing and, in 1806, entered the conservatory in the class of the famous theorist and composer, Padre Stanislao Mattei. During these years, Rossini composed symphonic quartets, chamber music, a cantata, and even an entire mass.

Rossini's theatrical debut took place in Venice on November 3, 1810, when he presented the farce “The Marriage Contract” (Il cambiale di matrimonio) to the audience at the Giustiniani Theater; that same year, he received a commission for his first opera seria, “Demetrio e Polibio”. Inspired by this success, Rossini abandoned his musical studies to dedicate himself entirely to the theatre. In the fall of 1811, he was appointed maestro at the Teatro del Corso in Bologna, and he devoted the next two years primarily to comic works. The 1813^th, marked a turning point in the composer's career, distinguished by the composition of “Tancredi”, one of his most famous operas. “Tancredi” is a drama in which Rossini combines monumental choruses, heroic-patriotic pathos, and matchless music to create a grand epic canvas.

The opera was not an instant success, but it firmly won a place in the hearts of the audience. Quite frequently, one can find a wide variety of everyday objects – clocks, music boxes, paintings – associated with this plot. Our collection features musical sewing necessaries that plays an aria from “Tancredi”. “The Italian girl in Algiers” (L'italiana in Algeri) illustrates another side of Rossini's work. Stendhal jokingly listed its flaws: it is too light, too cheerful, and contains too many beautiful melodies. It is opera buffa perfected! Rossini also possessed an extraordinary talent as an impresario, which enabled him to stage the same opera simultaneously in several theatres. The following two years, 1814-1815, were marked by mixed success: while “Tancredi” made a triumphal progress through Italy, “The Turk in Italy” (Il turco in Italia), which featured rather sharp social satire (directed against the loose morals of Italian women), was received quite coldly in Milan.

Rossini set himself a new goal – to conquer Naples, the birthplace of Paisiello and Cimarosa, two of the most famous 18th-century Italian composers, and the city for which he composed “Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra” (Elizabeth, Queen of England). It was also for Naples that Rossini would write his “Otello”. The Neapolitan period was equally significant in Gioachino Rossini's personal life, as it was in 1821, that he wed Isabella Colbran, a leading soprano of the Naples opera troupe.

In 1816, Rossini signed a contract to write “The Barber of Seville” (Il barbiere di Siviglia) for the Roman Carnival. An opera based on the same plot had been composed several years earlier by the famous Neapolitan composer Giovanni Paisiello (St. Petersburg, 1782). Devotees of Paisiello booed the premiere of Rossini's “Barber”, accusing him of plagiarism. However, the second performance proved the critics wrong and became a resounding success. “The Barber of Seville” fully demonstrates Rossini's brilliant talent as a melodist: nearly all of his favourite devices, figures, and techniques can be found in this masterpiece. The opera benefited greatly from departing from a literal reading of the text, which had been characteristic of Paisiello (whose Barber was a musical setting of the Italian translation of Beaumarchais' play, whereas Rossini used an adapted libretto by Cesare Sterbini).Vivid characters, a relevant plot, sparkling humour, and brilliant music combine noble lyricism (Almaviva's serenade), life-affirming passion (Figaro's aria), playful coquetry in Rosina, and the petty malice of Bartolo and Don Basilio. The combination of all these traits allowed Rossini's Barber to enter music history forever. Necessaries, clocks, music boxes, paper music rolls and metal discs – these and many other exhibits in our museum bear witness to the immortal fame of this work.

In 1817–1818, Rossini grew distant from opera buffa. His last two significant creations in the comic genre, “La Cenerentola” (Cinderella) and “The Thieving Magpie” (La gazza ladra), date back to this period. The latter, however, went beyond the boundaries of a simple comic opera and acquired a distinct social character. That same year marked the first success of his farce “The Silken Ladder” (La scala di seta), which had been composed back in 1812 (when it was booed by the Venetian audience). While Rossini experimented with the comic opera genre in “The Thieving Magpie”, in “The Silken Ladder” he sought to alter the conventional operatic sound and introduced several extravagant innovations – for instance, instructing the violinists to gently tap their bows against the lamps illuminating their music stands at a specific moment. It was precisely these innovations that the 1812 audience failed to appreciate. However, by the mid-20th century, the situation changed, and both works became favourites for staging in musical theatres, as evidenced by a number of gramophone records stored in our collection.

This same period was significant for Rossini's tragic works. In 1818, his grand oratorio Moses in Egypt (Mosè in Editor) saw the light of day in Naples. Rossini's next major creation was “The Lady of the Lake” (La donna del lago), in which the composer aimed for an unprecedented, epic scale, employing corresponding scenery, choral, and orchestral effects. Many of Rossini's subsequent works were written in this heroic-mythological tone. Rossini also frequently turned to a genre more common at the turn of the 19th century and created pastiches (pasticcios)—a specific type of opera in which every aria was adapted from popular melodies of previous works. These works often enjoyed significant success, and one such pastiche, Eduardo e Cristina, which tells the story of the love between a Swedish military commander and a princess, is represented in our museum's collection on a wooden music barrel dating back to 1823.

The years 1820–1823 marked the end of the maestro's Italian period: in 1822, he travelled to Vienna on tour with “Zelmira”, where a resounding success awaited him. “Zelmira” would be remembered for a long time; our collection features an automaton clock that plays a melody from its overture. His return to Italy was brief due to the brutally suppressed revolutionary uprisings: in 1823, Rossini composed “Semiramide”, his last Italian opera, and that same year, he departed for Paris with his wife.

Rossini's next operatic period was dedicated almost exclusively to the French stage, for which he wrote a wide variety of works, while his primary occupation became directing the Théâtre-Italien. In Paris, he composed a number of new comic and tragic operas. His most brilliant comic opera is “Le comte Ory” (1828), which already shines not with the sparkling humour of his earlier days, but with a light irony. Among his historical dramas, it is worth mentioning the new versions of already well-known works, such as “Moïse et Pharaon” (1827), and the creation of his final operatic masterpiece, “William Tell” (1829), in which the composer achieved unprecedented character expressiveness, cohesiveness of acts, and monumentality.

The subsequent pages of Rossini's artistic biography remain one of the greatest mysteries in musicology: why did a composer applauded by Paris, Naples, and Vienna abandon composition at the very peak of his fame? Whether it was exhaustion, shifting musical trends, or financial security, researchers have been grappling with this question for over a century. His later life was tied to Paris (1829–1836), Bologna (1836–1856), and Paris once again (1856–1868) until his death. During these years, Rossini's output was quite modest: the “Petite messe solennelle” (1864), the song collection “Les soirées musicales” (1835), the “Stabat Mater” (1842), and a number of piano pieces and chamber music. Even after retiring from composition, Rossini remained a monumental figure in the musical world, hosting the crème de la crème of the composing elite.

The great composer passed away on November 13, 1868. Eminent musicians, writers, and politicians from all over the world gathered for the maestro's funeral; even Napoleon III himself came to pay homage to the remains of the "Swan of Pesaro."