On 13 November 1868, Gioacchino Rossini, who had successfully revolutionised the techniques of opera composition in the early years of the 19th century, died – universally honoured – in his country villa at Passy, close to Paris. He was nearly 76. He was buried in the Parisian cemetery of Pere Lachaise. A large statue to honour his memory as a great composer still stands on the grave where he was buried.
Rossini composed an incredible number of works: 39 operas in all (of which barely nine are still performed these days); sacred music, such as the Stabat Mater and the Petite Messe Solenelle (which is anything but petite!); short character pieces (vocal and instrumental) such as the Peches de Viellesse (Sins of Old Age), composed in 1857–1868); cantatas and various songs. But he preceded the age of verismo in the opera world, which is why so few of his operas have stood the test of time.
Gioacchino Rossini was born in Pesaro on 29 February 1792, a leap year. His birthday therefore only ‘came round’ every four years, which prompted the maestro, who had a well-developed sense of humour (and a bon vivant) to invite his numerous friends in Paris to a grandiose dinner “to celebrate his 18th birthday” when he reached the age of 72.
His father, Giuseppe Rossini, a native of Lugo in Romagna, was by profession a music composer who played the horn as well as the trumpet to earn a living.
In 1799, when Napoleon’s troops occupied Pesaro, Giuseppe posed as a supporter of the French. But when Papal rule was restored once again, he was compelled to flee Pesaro. He wandered from town to town for quite some time, during which he and his wife, Anna, appeared on stage in various theatres in the provinces of Le Marche and Emilia Romagna. Anna profited because she put her talents as a soprano to good use.
Later, Giuseppe was arrested in Bologna and incarcerated at Pesaro. After one year in prison, he was released and returned with his family to Bologna.
The family then moved to Lugo, where Gioacchino was instructed in basso cifrato and in composition by Giuseppe and Luigi Malerbi. He improved his playing on the harpsichord, and was greatly influenced by the musical techniques of Mozart and Haydn. In 1804 Gioacchino moved to Bologna, where be became a pupil of a great musical teacher, Fr Angelo Tesei, and later he fell under the spell of a great musical patron, Agostino Triossi of Ravenna, for whom he wrote his first commissioned composition. At the age of 12 Rossini was perfectly capable of playing diverse wind instruments. He taught the harpsichord later on at various theatres and also sang soprano parts.
Soon after, Rossini attended the Bologna Conservatory of Music, where he taught the cello and piano, as well as participating with Fr Stanislao Mattei in teaching Counterpoint. On the strength of his remarkable ability, he was admitted into the Philharmonic Academy.
Rossini's opera career began when he was only 18 with the first performance of the farce
La Cambiale di Matrimonio on
3 November 1810, in the Teatro San Moise in Venice. The success of this opera led to the Teatro del Corso of Bologna commissioning him to compose an opera buffa (a comic opera). This launched Gioacchino into an extremely productive phase of composition, which was subsequently referred to as the settentrionale (and by some, as the Venetian-Milanese period of his career.
In 1812 Rossini composed five, and in the following year, four operas, mostly completed within three or four weeks. His fame rapidly spread to the neighbouring duchies and states, such that later on he was invited to Naples by the director of the Teatro San Carlo, Domenico Barbaja (1778–1841) – possibly the most famous impresario in the history of opera – who appointed him director of music at that theatre. Here he met a
well-established prima-donna of
her day, Isabella Colbran (1785–1845), supposedly the mistress of Barbaja and also of the King of Naples. Her shadings of vocal expression and the power of her appearance on the stage embodied a new type of performance for prima donnas.
Rossini had Colbran's voice in mind when he composed his most important female roles, such as his very successful opera Elisabeth, Queen of England which he composed for San Carlo. This began his so-called meridinale or Napoletano-Romano phase of his career, in which he composed masterpieces in opera buffa such as The Barber of Seville in 1816, and La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), and an opera seria, such as Otello in 1816 and Moses in Egypt the following year.
Subsequently, Rossini began to compose at a less rapid and intensive rhythm than he had done so far. He composed comic and semi-serious operas for the theatres of Rome, Milan and Venice. Later, he married Isabella Colbran, a Spaniard, and settled in Vienna. His “Italian'' career ended with Semiramide in 1823, and in December of that year the maestro travelled to London to conduct his opera, and to compose another.
Later, Rossini settled in Paris where he was appointed director of the Theatre Italien. This 'French' and last phase of his career as a composer started with Il viaggio a Reims, a scenic cantanta which he composed in honour of the coronation of King Charles X.
In 1829, Rossini composed William Tell for the Theatre of the French Royal Academy of Music: his last work for the stage. From then on, he composed only sacred music and short character pieces. In the same year, he moved to Bologna, but not for long. He returned to Paris in 1830 in order to take legal action against Louis Philippe’s government which had no right to control his work once he had been promised a French contract. Later on, he journeyed through Spain with his friend the banker Aguado.
In 1831, the maestro returned to Paris a sick man. He suffered a nervous breakdown, and while living alone in the French capital, he got to know Olympe Descuilliers Pelissiere. His relationship with Isabella Colbran had gradually deteriorated and in 1837 they were divorced.
After living alone in Paris for some time, Rossini set off for Bologna, travelling via Belgium and Germany. There he was
first appointed a consultant and then director of the Liceo Musicale.
On 21 August 1846 Isabella died, and Rossini married his lover Olympe on the 27 of that month. He then went through a period of unpopularity among the Parisians: in fact, some young French patriots hissed Rossini as he stood on the balcony of his house. Disgusted by this turn of events, he left Paris the following day and journeyed to Florence. There he stayed, apart from a short sojourn in Bologna, feeling constantly sick, and without any stimulus to work, until the end of April 1855.
And so he returned once again to Paris, where he remained to the end of his days.
He gravitated between his home in the capital and his villa in Passy. He died in Passy on 13 November 1868, greatly mourned by all who knew him, and by music lovers everywhere.