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Gioachino Rossini Composer


Gioachino Rossini was not only the chief operatic composer of his time but also a great innovator. Lesueur, the greatest composer of the French school, claimed his ardent genius had opened a new road and marked a new epoch in musical art. In the opera seria, he substituted singing instead of long recitatives; in the opera buffa, he inaugurated new comedy styles. Further, he introduced many new instruments to Italian orchestras. To him belongs the preghiera for a whole body of voices.

He had a good baritone voice and was an excellent pianist. In 1804, he had lessons in singing and pianoforte playing at Bologna. Two years later, he acted as musical director to a traveling company, but he soon returned to Bologna to study composition at the Lyceum.

His first successes were at Venice and Milan. In 1813, he wrote Tancredi, the first of his operas, which, with L'Italiana in Algeria, became celebrated throughout Europe. In 1816 and 1817, he composed for the Teatro Valle at Rome his happiest, if not his greatest works, The Barber of Seville and Cenerentola. Meanwhile, he had begun his career at the San Carlo in Naples and wrote for this important opera-house in 1818.

In 1823, Semiramide premiered at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, making it his last work in Italy and his thirty-fourth opera.  In 1824, he spent the season in London. At the first concert, he himself sang the solo. In the same year, he undertook the direction first of the Italian Opera and then of the Académie in Paris.

His last and finest opera, William Tell, was written for Paris in 1829. He lived with his father in Bologna from 1836 until 1866, when he moved to France. He remained in France until his death in 1868.

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[click a title below to play]

  • The Barber of Seville - Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein takes you through the musical world of Rossini’s comedy
  • La Cenerentola - Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein takes you through the musical world of Donizetti’s princess tale


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