Works by Gioacchino Rossini. Italian composer Rossini: biography, creativity, life story and best works

ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO(Rossini, Gioacchino) (1792–1868), Italian opera composer, author of the immortal Barber of Seville. Born February 29, 1792 in Pesaro in the family of a city trumpeter (herald) and a singer. He fell in love with music very early, especially singing, but began to study seriously only at the age of 14, having entered the Musical Lyceum in Bologna. There he studied cello and counterpoint until 1810, when Rossini's first noteworthy work was a one-act farce opera. Promissory note for marriage (La cambiale di matrimonio, 1810) - was staged in Venice. It was followed by a number of operas of the same type, among which two - Touchstone (La pietra del paragone, 1812) and silk staircase (La scala di seta, 1812) are still popular today.

Finally, in 1813, Rossini composed two operas that immortalized his name: Tancred (Tancredi) by Tasso and then a two-act opera buffa Italian in Algeria (L "italiana in Algeri), triumphantly accepted in Venice, and then throughout northern Italy.

The young composer tried to compose several operas for Milan and Venice, but none of them (even the opera that retained its charm Turk in Italy, il Turco in Italy, 1814) - a kind of "couple" to the opera Italian in Algeria) was not successful. In 1815, Rossini was again lucky, this time in Naples, where he signed a contract with the impresario of the San Carlo Theater. It's about opera. Elizabeth, Queen of England (Elisabetta, regina d "Inghilterra), a virtuoso composition written especially for Isabella Colbran, a Spanish prima donna (soprano) who enjoyed the favor of the Neapolitan court and mistress of the impresario (a few years later, Isabella became Rossini's wife). Then the composer went to Rome, where he planned to write and stage several operas. The second of these was the opera barber of seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), first staged on February 20, 1816. The failure of the opera at the premiere turned out to be as loud as its triumph in the future.

Returning, in accordance with the terms of the contract, to Naples, Rossini staged an opera there in December 1816, which, perhaps, was most highly appreciated by his contemporaries - Othello according to Shakespeare: there are really beautiful fragments in it, but the work is spoiled by the libretto, which distorted Shakespeare's tragedy. Rossini composed the next opera again for Rome: his Cinderella (La cenerentola, 1817) was subsequently favorably received by the public; the premiere did not give any grounds for assumptions about future success. However, Rossini survived the failure much more calmly. In the same 1817 he traveled to Milan to stage an opera magpie thief (La gazza ladra) is a delicately orchestrated melodrama, now almost forgotten, except for the magnificent overture. On his return to Naples, Rossini staged an opera there at the end of the year. Armida (Armida), which was warmly received and is still valued much higher than magpie thief: on resurrection Armides in our time, you can still feel the tenderness, if not the sensuality that this music radiates.

Over the next four years, Rossini managed to compose a dozen more operas, mostly not particularly interesting. However, before the termination of the contract with Naples, he presented the city with two outstanding works. In 1818 he wrote an opera Moses in Egypt (Mose in Egitto), which soon conquered Europe; in fact, this is a kind of oratorio, majestic choirs and the famous "Prayer" are remarkable here. In 1819 Rossini introduced Lake Maiden (La donna del lago), which was a somewhat more modest success, but contained charming romantic music. When the composer finally left Naples (1820), he took Isabella Colbrand with him and married her, but in the future their family life was not very happy.

In 1822, Rossini, accompanied by his wife, left Italy for the first time: he entered into an agreement with his old friend, the impresario of the San Carlo Theater, who now became director of the Vienna Opera. The composer brought his latest work, an opera, to Vienna Zelmira (Zelmira), which won the author an unprecedented success. True, some musicians, led by K.M. von Weber, sharply criticized Rossini, but others, among them F. Schubert, gave favorable assessments. As for society, it unconditionally took the side of Rossini. The most remarkable event of Rossini's trip to Vienna was his meeting with Beethoven, which he later recalled in a conversation with R. Wagner.

In the autumn of the same year, Prince Metternich himself summoned the composer to Verona: Rossini was supposed to honor the conclusion of the Holy Alliance with cantatas. In February 1823, he composed a new opera for Venice - Semiramis (Semiramida), from which only the overture remains in the concert repertoire. Howbeit, Semiramide can be recognized as the culmination of the Italian period in the work of Rossini, if only because it was the last opera he composed for Italy. Furthermore, Semiramide passed with such brilliance in other countries that after it the reputation of Rossini as the greatest opera composer of the era was no longer in doubt. No wonder Stendhal compared the triumph of Rossini in the field of music with Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.

At the end of 1823, Rossini ended up in London (where he stayed for six months), and before that he spent a month in Paris. The composer was hospitably greeted by King George VI, with whom he sang duets; Rossini was in great demand in secular society as a singer and accompanist. The most important event of that time was the receipt of an invitation to Paris as artistic director of the Théâtre Italiane Opera House. The significance of this contract, firstly, is that it determined the place of residence of the composer until the end of his days, and secondly, that he confirmed the absolute superiority of Rossini as an opera composer. It must be remembered that Paris was then the center of the musical universe; an invitation to Paris was for the musician the highest honor imaginable.

Rossini took up his new duties on December 1, 1824. Apparently, he managed to improve the management of the Italian Opera, especially in terms of conducting performances. Two previously written operas were performed with great success, which Rossini radically revised for Paris, and most importantly, he composed a charming comic opera. Count Ory (Le comte Ory). (She was, as one might expect, a huge success when resumed in 1959.) Rossini's next work, which appeared in August 1829, was the opera William Tell (Guillaume Tell), a composition that is usually considered the composer's greatest achievement. Recognized by performers and critics as an absolute masterpiece, this opera, however, never aroused such enthusiasm among the public as barber of seville, Semiramide or even Moses: ordinary listeners thought Tellya an opera too long and cold. However, it cannot be denied that the second act contains the most beautiful music, and fortunately, this opera has not completely disappeared from the modern world repertoire and the listener of our days has the opportunity to make his own judgment about it. We only note that all Rossini's operas created in France were written to French librettos.

After William Tell Rossini did not write another opera, and in the next four decades he created only two significant compositions in other genres. Needless to say, such a cessation of composer activity at the very zenith of mastery and fame is a unique phenomenon in the history of world musical culture. Many different explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed, but, of course, no one knows the full truth. Some said that Rossini's departure was caused by his rejection of the new Parisian opera idol - J. Meyerbeer; others pointed to the resentment caused to Rossini by the actions of the French government, which, after the revolution in 1830, tried to terminate the contract with the composer. The deterioration of the musician's well-being and even his supposedly incredible laziness were also mentioned. Perhaps all of the above factors played a role, except for the last one. It should be noted that when leaving Paris after William Tell, Rossini was determined to take on a new opera ( Faust). He is also known to have continued and won a six-year lawsuit against the French government over his pension. As for the state of health, having experienced the shock of the death of his beloved mother in 1827, Rossini really felt unwell, at first not very strong, but later progressing at an alarming rate. Everything else is more or less plausible speculation.

During the next Tellem For decades, Rossini, although he retained an apartment in Paris, lived mainly in Bologna, where he hoped to find the peace he needed after the nervous tension of the previous years. True, in 1831 he went to Madrid, where the now widely known Stabat mater(in the first edition), and in 1836 - to Frankfurt, where he met with F. Mendelssohn and thanks to him discovered the work of J.S. Bach. But still, it was Bologna (not counting regular trips to Paris in connection with litigation) that remained the composer's permanent residence. It can be assumed that he was called to Paris not only by court cases. In 1832 Rossini met Olympia Pelissier. Rossini's relationship with his wife had long since left much to be desired; in the end, the couple decided to leave, and Rossini married Olimpia, who became a good wife for the sick Rossini. Finally, in 1855, after a scandal in Bologna and disappointment from Florence, Olympia persuaded her husband to hire a carriage (he did not recognize trains) and go to Paris. Very slowly his physical and mental condition began to improve; a share, if not of gaiety, then of wit, returned to him; music, which had been a taboo subject for years, began to come to his mind again. April 15, 1857 - the name day of Olympia - became a kind of turning point: on this day, Rossini dedicated a cycle of romances to his wife, which he composed in secret from everyone. It was followed by a series of small plays - Rossini called them Sins of my old age; the quality of this music needs no comment for the fans magic shop (La boutique fantasque) - the ballet for which the plays served as the basis. Finally, in 1863, the last - and truly significant - work of Rossini appeared: Little Solemn Mass (Petite messe solennelle). This mass is not very solemn and not at all small, but beautiful in music and imbued with deep sincerity, which attracted the attention of the musicians to the composition.

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 and was buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery. After 19 years, at the request of the Italian government, the composer's coffin was transported to Florence and buried in the church of Santa Croce next to the ashes of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and other great Italians.

Gioacchino Antonio Rossini(1792-1868) - an outstanding Italian composer, author of 39 operas, sacred and chamber music.

short biography

Born in Pesaro (Italy), in the family of a horn player. In 1810 he wrote the opera "The Marriage Bill", which did not receive recognition. Success came to Rossini three years later, when his opera Tancred was staged in Venice, which won the largest opera scenes in Italy. Since then, success has accompanied him in almost all European countries. In 1815, in Naples, he signed a contract with the entrepreneur D. Barbaia, undertaking to write two operas a year for a constant annual salary. Until 1823, the composer worked selflessly, fulfilling the terms of the contract. At the same time, he made a tour trip to Vienna, where he was given an enthusiastic reception.

After a short stay in Venice, and having written the opera "Semiramide" for the local theater, Rossini went to London, where he enjoyed great success as a composer and conductor, and then to Paris. In Paris, he becomes director of the Italian Opera, but he is soon dismissed from this position. Considering the merits of Rossini as the greatest composer of the era, the position of chief intendant of royal music is created for him, and then the chief inspector of singing in France.

Having finished work on William Tell in 1829, Rossini did not write another opera until his death. All his composing work of this time was limited to "Stabat Mater", several chamber and choral works and songs. This is perhaps the only case in the history of music when the composer himself deliberately interrupted his creative work.

From time to time he still conducted, but, basically, he enjoyed the fame of an honored musician-composer and was engaged in the kitchen. A great gourmet, he loved delicious dishes and knew how to cook them, endlessly inventing new recipes. For some time he was a co-owner of the Paris Opera House. From 1836 he lived in Italy, mainly in Bologna, but after 19 years, he returned to Paris again and did not leave it until the end of his life.

When it was decided during the life of Rossini to erect a monument worth two million lire in his homeland in Pesaro, the composer did not agree, arguing: "Give me this money, and every day for two years I will stand for two hours on a plinth in any position" .

Rossini's creative heritage includes 37 operas ("The Barber of Seville", "The Thieving Magpie", "Italian in Algiers", "Cinderella", "William Tell", etc.), "Stabat Mater", 15 cantatas, numerous choral works, songs, chamber works (mainly quartets for wind instruments). His music is sustained in the style of late classicism and in Italian traditions. She is distinguished by her extraordinary temperament, inexhaustible melodic diversity, lightness, brilliant use of all shades of instruments and performing voices (including the coloratura mezzo-soprano, which had never been seen before), rich accompaniment, independent interpretation of orchestral parts, skillful characterization of stage situations. All these virtues place Rossini, along with Mozart and Wagner, among the greatest opera composers.

Artworks

Italy is an amazing country. Either the nature there is special, or the people living in it are extraordinary, but the world's best works of art are somehow connected with this Mediterranean state. Music is a separate page in the life of Italians. Ask any of them what was the name of the great Italian composer Rossini and you will immediately get the correct answer.

Talented Bel Canto Singer

It seems that the gene of musicality is embedded in every inhabitant by nature itself. It is no coincidence that all the scores used in writing came from the Latin language.

It is impossible to imagine an Italian who cannot sing beautifully. Beautiful singing, bel canto in Latin, is a truly Italian manner of performing musical works. Composer Rossini became famous throughout the world for his delightful compositions created in this manner.

In Europe, the fashion for bel canto came at the end of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We can say that the outstanding Italian composer Rossini was born at the right time and in the right place. Was he a darling of fate? Doubtful. Most likely, the reason for his success is the divine gift of talent and character traits. And besides, the process of composing music was not at all tiring for him. Melodies were born in the composer's head with amazing ease - just have time to write it down.

Composer's childhood

The full name of the composer Rossini sounds like Gioacchino Antonio Rossini. He was born on February 29, 1792 in the city of Pesaro. The kid was incredibly adorable. “Little Adonis” was the name of the Italian composer Rossini in early childhood. The local artist Mancinelli, who painted the walls of the church of St. Ubaldo at that time, asked permission from Gioacchino's parents to depict the baby on one of the frescoes. He captured it in the form of a child, to whom an angel shows the way to heaven.

His parents, although they did not have a special professional education, were musicians. Mother, Anna Guidarini-Rossini, had a very beautiful soprano and sang in musical performances of the local theater, and her father, Giuseppe Antonio Rossini, also played the trumpet and horn there.

The only child in the family, Gioacchino was surrounded by the care and attention of not only his parents, but also numerous uncles, aunts, grandparents.

First musical works

He made his first attempts to compose music as soon as he got the opportunity to pick up musical instruments. The scores of a fourteen-year-old boy look quite convincing. They clearly trace the tendencies of the opera construction of musical plots - frequent rhythmic permutations are accentuated, in which characteristic, song melodies predominate.

Six scores with sonatas for quartet are kept in the USA. They are dated 1806.

"The Barber of Seville": the history of the composition

All over the world, the composer Rossini is known primarily as the author of the buff opera The Barber of Seville, but few can say what the story of its appearance was. The original title of the opera is "Almaviva, or Vain Precaution". The fact is that one “Barber of Seville” already existed by that time. The first opera based on a funny play by Beaumarchais was written by the venerable Giovanni Paisiello. His composition with great success went on the stages of Italian theaters.

The Argentino Theater commissioned the young maestro for a comic opera. All librettos proposed by the composer were rejected. Rossini asked Paisiello to allow him to write his opera based on the play by Beaumarchais. He didn't mind. Rossini composed the famous Barber of Seville in 13 days.

Two premieres with different results

The premiere was a resounding failure. In general, many mystical incidents are connected with this opera. In particular, the disappearance of the score with the overture. It was a potpourri of several cheerful folk songs. The composer Rossini had to hastily come up with a replacement for the lost pages. In his papers, the notes to the long-forgotten opera Strange Case, written seven years ago, have been preserved. Having made minor changes, he included lively and light melodies of his own composition in the new opera. The second performance was a triumph. It was the first step on the way to the world fame of the composer, and his melodious recitatives still delight the public.

He had no more serious worries about the productions.

The fame of the composer quickly reached continental Europe. Information has been preserved about the name of the composer Rossini by his friends. Heinrich Heine considered him the "Sun of Italy" and called him the "Divine Maestro".

Austria, England and France in the life of Rossini

After the triumph in the homeland of Rossini with Isabella Colbrand went to conquer Vienna. Here he was already well known and recognized as an outstanding contemporary composer. Schumann applauded him, and Beethoven, completely blind by this time, expressed admiration and advised him not to leave the path of composing opera buffs.

Paris and London met the composer with no less enthusiasm. In France, Rossini stayed for a long time.

During his extensive tour, he composed and staged most of his operas on the best stages of the capital. The maestro was favored by the kings and made acquaintances with the most influential people in the world of art and politics.

Rossini will return to France at the end of his life to be treated for gastric ailments. In Paris, the composer will die. This will take place on November 13, 1868.

"William Tell" - the composer's last opera

Rossini did not like to spend too much time on work. Often in new operas he used the same motifs long ago invented. Each new opera rarely took him more than a month. In total, the composer wrote 39 of them.

He devoted six whole months to William Tell. He wrote all the parts anew, without using the old scores.

Rossini's musical depiction of the Austrian soldiers-invaders is deliberately emotionally poor, monotonous and angular. And for the Swiss people, who refused to submit to the enslavers, the composer, on the contrary, wrote diverse, melodic, rhythm-rich parts. He used the folk songs of the Alpine and Tyrolean shepherds, adding to them Italian flexibility and poetry.

In August 1829, the premiere of the opera took place. King Charles X of France was delighted and awarded Rossini with the Order of the Legion of Honor. The audience reacted coldly to the opera. Firstly, the action lasted for four hours, and secondly, the new musical techniques invented by the composer turned out to be difficult to perceive.

In the following days, the theater management cut the performance short. Rossini was outraged and offended to the core.

Despite the fact that this opera had a huge impact on the further development of opera art, as can be seen in similar works of the heroic genre by Gaetano Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi and Vincenzo Bellini, William Tell is extremely rarely staged today.

Revolution in opera

Rossini took two major steps to modernize modern opera. He was the first to record in the score all the vocal parts with the appropriate accents and graces. In the past, singers would improvise with their parts however they wanted.

The next innovation was the accompaniment of recitatives with musical accompaniment. In the opera series, this made it possible to create through instrumental inserts.

Completion of writing activity

Art critics and historians have not yet come to a consensus, which forced Rossini to leave his career as a composer of musical works. He himself said that he had completely secured a comfortable old age for himself, and he was tired of the bustle of public life. If he had children, then he would certainly continue to write music and stage his performances on opera stages.

The last theatrical work of the composer was the opera series "William Tell". He was 37 years old. In the future, he sometimes conducted orchestras, but never returned to composing operas.

Cooking is the maestro's favorite pastime

The second great hobby of the great Rossini was cooking. He suffered a lot because of his addiction to delicious foods. Retiring from public musical life, he did not become an ascetic. His house was always full of guests, feasts abounded with exotic dishes that the maestro invented personally. You might think that composing operas gave him the opportunity to earn enough money to devote himself to his favorite hobby with all his heart in his declining years.

Two marriages

Gioacchino Rossini was married twice. His first wife, Isabella Colbran, the owner of the divine dramatic soprano, performed all the solo parts in the maestro's operas. She was seven years older than her husband. Did her husband, the composer Rossini, love her? The biography of the singer is silent about this, and as for Rossini himself, it is assumed that this union was more business than love.

His second wife, Olympia Pelissier, became his companion for the rest of her life. They led a peaceful existence and were quite happy together. Rossini wrote no more music, with the exception of two oratorios, the Catholic Mass "The Sorrowful Mother Stood" (1842) and "A Little Solemn Mass" (1863).

Three Italian cities, the most significant for the composer

Residents of three Italian cities proudly claim that the composer Rossini is their countryman. The first is the birthplace of Gioacchino, the city of Pesaro. The second is Bologna, where he lived the longest and wrote his main works. The third city is Florence. Here, in the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Italian composer D. Rossini was buried. His ashes were brought from Paris, and the wonderful sculptor Giuseppe Cassioli made an elegant tombstone.

Rossini in literature

Rossini's biography, Gioacchino Antonio, was described by his contemporaries and friends in several fiction books, as well as in numerous art studies. He was in his early thirties when the first biography of the composer, described by Frederik Stendhal, was published. It is called "The Life of Rossini".

Another friend of the composer, a writer-novelist, described him in a short novel "Dinner at Rossini's, or Two Students from Bologna". The lively and sociable disposition of the great Italian is captured in numerous stories and anecdotes preserved by his friends and acquaintances.

Subsequently, separate books were published with these funny and funny stories.

Filmmakers also did not ignore the great Italian. In 1991, Mario Monicelli presented to the audience his film about Rossini with Sergio Castellito in the title role.

But the blue evening is getting dark,
It's time for us to the opera soon;
There is the delightful Rossini,
Europe's minions - Orpheus.
Ignoring harsh criticism
He is always the same; forever new.
He pours sounds - they boil.
They flow, they burn.
Like young kisses
Everything is in bliss, in the flame of love,
Like a hissed ai
A jet and splashes of gold...
A. Pushkin

Among the Italian composers of the XIX century. Rossini occupies a special place. The beginning of his creative path falls at a time when the operatic art of Italy, which not so long ago dominated Europe, began to lose ground. Opera-buffa was drowning in mindless entertainment, and opera-seria degenerated into a stilted and meaningless performance. Rossini not only revived and reformed Italian opera, but also had a huge impact on the development of the entire European operatic art of the last century. "Divine maestro" - so called the great Italian composer G. Heine, who saw in Rossini "the sun of Italy, squandering its sonorous rays around the world."

Rossini was born into the family of a poor orchestral musician and a provincial opera singer. With a traveling troupe, the parents wandered around various cities of the country, and the future composer from childhood was already familiar with the life and customs that dominated the Italian opera houses. An ardent temperament, a mocking mind, a sharp tongue coexisted in the nature of little Gioacchino with subtle musicality, excellent hearing and an extraordinary memory.

In 1806, after several years of unsystematic studies in music and singing, Rossini entered the Bologna Music Lyceum. There, the future composer studied cello, violin and piano. Classes with the famous church composer S. Mattei in theory and composition, intensive self-education, enthusiastic study of the music of J. Haydn and W. A. ​​Mozart - all this allowed Rossini to leave the Lyceum as a cultural musician who mastered the skill of composing well.

Already at the very beginning of his career, Rossini showed a particularly pronounced penchant for musical theater. He wrote his first opera Demetrio and Polibio at the age of 14. Since 1810, the composer has been composing several operas of various genres every year, gradually gaining fame in wide opera circles and conquering the stages of the largest Italian theaters: Fenice in Venice, San Carlo in Naples, La Scala in Milan.

1813 was a turning point in the composer's operatic work, 2 compositions staged this year - "Italian in Algiers" (onepa-buffa) and "Tankred" (heroic opera) - determined the main ways of his further work. The success of the works was due not only to excellent music, but also to the content of the libretto, imbued with patriotic sentiments, so consonant with the national liberation movement for the reunification of Italy, which unfolded at that time. The public outcry caused by Rossini's operas, the creation of the "Hymn of Independence" at the request of the patriots of Bologna, as well as participation in the demonstrations of the freedom fighters in Italy - all this led to a long-term secret police supervision, which was established for the composer. He did not at all consider himself a politically minded person and wrote in one of his letters: “I never interfered in politics. I was a musician, and it never occurred to me to become anyone else, even if I experienced the liveliest participation in what was happening in the world, and especially in the fate of my homeland.

After "Italian in Algiers" and "Tancred" Rossini's work quickly goes uphill and after 3 years reaches one of the peaks. At the beginning of 1816, The Barber of Seville premiered in Rome. Written in just 20 days, this opera was not only the highest achievement of Rossini's comedy-satirical genius, but also the culminating point in almost a century of development of the opera-buifa genre.

With The Barber of Seville, the composer's fame went beyond Italy. Brilliant Rossini style refreshed the art of Europe with ebullient cheerfulness, sparkling wit, foaming passion. “My Barber is becoming more and more successful every day,” wrote Rossini, “and even to the most inveterate opponents of the new school he managed to suck up so that they, against their will, begin to love this clever guy more and more.” The fanatically enthusiastic and superficial attitude towards Rossini's music of the aristocratic public and the bourgeois nobility contributed to the emergence of many opponents for the composer. However, among the European artistic intelligentsia there were also serious connoisseurs of his work. E. Delacroix, O. Balzac, A. Musset, F. Hegel, L. Beethoven, F. Schubert, M. Glinka were under the spell of Rossin's music. And even K. M. Weber and G. Berlioz, who occupied a critical position in relation to Rossini, did not doubt his genius. “After the death of Napoleon, there was another person who is constantly being talked about everywhere: in Moscow and Naples, in London and Vienna, in Paris and Calcutta,” Stendhal wrote about Rossini.

Gradually the composer loses interest in onepe-buffa. Written soon in this genre "Cinderella" does not show the listeners new creative revelations of the composer. The opera The Thieving Magpie, composed in 1817, completely goes beyond the comedy genre, becoming an example of a musical and everyday realistic drama. Since that time, Rossini began to pay more attention to heroic-dramatic operas. Following "Othello" Legendary historical works appear: "Moses", "Lady of the Lake", "Mohammed II".

After the first Italian revolution (1820-21) and its brutal suppression by the Austrian troops, Rossini went on tour to Vienna with a Neapolitan opera troupe. The Viennese triumphs further strengthened the composer's European fame. Returning for a short time to Italy for the production of Semiramide (1823), Rossini went to London and then to Paris. He lives there until 1836. In Paris, the composer heads the Italian Opera House, attracting his young compatriots to work in it; reworks the operas Moses and Mohammed II for the Grand Opera (the latter was staged in Paris under the title The Siege of Corinth); writes, commissioned by the Opera Comique, the elegant opera The Comte Ory; and finally, in August 1829, he staged his last masterpiece on the Grand Opera stage - the opera William Tell, which had a huge impact on the subsequent development of the Italian heroic opera genre in the work of V. Bellini, G. Donizetti and G. Verdi.

"William Tell" completed the musical stage work of Rossini. The operatic silence of the brilliant maestro that followed him, who had about 40 operas behind him, was called by contemporaries the mystery of the century, surrounding this circumstance with all sorts of conjectures. The composer himself later wrote: “How early, as a barely mature young man, I began to compose, just as early, earlier than anyone could have foreseen it, I stopped writing. It always happens in life: whoever starts early must, according to the laws of nature, finish early.

However, even after ceasing to write operas, Rossini continued to remain in the center of attention of the European musical community. All of Paris listened to the composer's aptly critical word, his personality attracted musicians, poets, and artists like a magnet. R. Wagner met with him, C. Saint-Saens was proud of his communication with Rossini, Liszt showed his works to the Italian maestro, V. Stasov spoke enthusiastically about meeting with him.

In the years following William Tell, Rossini created the majestic spiritual work Stabat mater, the Little Solemn Mass and the Song of the Titans, an original collection of vocal works called Musical Evenings, and a cycle of piano pieces bearing the playful title Sins of Old Age. . From 1836 to 1856 Rossini, surrounded by glory and honors, lived in Italy. There he directed the Bologna Musical Lyceum and was engaged in teaching activities. Returning then to Paris, he remained there until the end of his days.

12 years after the death of the composer, his ashes were transferred to his homeland and buried in the pantheon of the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, next to the remains of Michelangelo and Galileo.

Rossini bequeathed his entire fortune to the benefit of the culture and art of his native city of Pesaro. Nowadays, Rossini opera festivals are regularly held here, among the participants of which one can meet the names of the largest contemporary musicians.

I. Vetlitsyna

Born into a family of musicians: his father was a trumpeter, his mother was a singer. Learns to play various musical instruments, singing. He studies composition at the Bologna School of Music under the direction of Padre Mattei; did not complete the course. From 1812 to 1815 he worked for the theaters of Venice and Milan: the "Italian in Algiers" had a special success. By order of the impresario Barbaia (Rossini marries his girlfriend, the soprano Isabella Colbran), he creates sixteen operas until 1823. He moved to Paris, where he became director of the Théâtre d'Italien, the first composer of the king and general inspector of singing in France. Says goodbye to the activities of the opera composer in 1829 after the production of "William Tell". After parting with Colbrand, he marries Olympia Pelissier, reorganizes the Bologna Music Lyceum, staying in Italy until 1848, when political storms again bring him to Paris: his villa in Passy becomes one of the centers of artistic life.

The one who was called the “last classic” and whom the public applauded as the king of the comic genre, in the very first operas demonstrated the grace and brilliance of melodic inspiration, the naturalness and lightness of the rhythm, which gave singing, in which the traditions of the 18th century were weakened, a more sincere and human character. The composer, pretending to adapt himself to modern theatrical customs, could, however, rebel against them, hindering, for example, the virtuosic arbitrariness of the performers or moderating it.

The most significant innovation for Italy at that time was the important role of the orchestra, which, thanks to Rossini, became alive, mobile and brilliant (we note the magnificent form of the overtures, which really tune in to a certain perception). A cheerful penchant for a kind of orchestral hedonism stems from the fact that each instrument, used in accordance with its technical capabilities, is identified with singing and even speech. At the same time, Rossini can safely assert that the words should serve the music, and not vice versa, without diminishing the meaning of the text, but, on the contrary, using it in a new way, freshly and often shifting to typical rhythmic patterns - while the orchestra freely accompanies speech, creating a clear melodic and symphonic relief and performing expressive or pictorial functions.

Rossini's genius immediately showed itself in the genre of opera seria with the production of Tancredi in 1813, which brought the author his first great success with the public thanks to melodic discoveries with their sublime and gentle lyricism, as well as unconstrained instrumental development, which owes its origin to the comic genre. The links between these two operatic genres are indeed very close in Rossini and even determine the amazing showiness of his serious genre. In the same 1813, he also presented a masterpiece, but in the comic genre, in the spirit of the old Neapolitan comic opera - "Italian in Algiers". This is an opera rich in echoes from Cimarosa, but as if enlivened by the stormy energy of the characters, especially manifested in the final crescendo, the first by Rossini, who will then use it as an aphrodisiac when creating paradoxical or unrestrainedly cheerful situations.

The caustic, earthly mind of the composer finds in fun an outlet for his craving for caricature and his healthy enthusiasm, which does not allow him to fall into either the conservatism of classicism or the extremes of romanticism.

He will achieve a very thorough comic result in The Barber of Seville, and a decade later he will come to the elegance of The Comte Ory. In addition, in the serious genre, Rossini will move with great strides towards an opera of ever greater perfection and depth: from the heterogeneous, but ardent and nostalgic "Lady of the Lake" to the tragedy "Semiramide", which ends the composer's Italian period, full of dizzying vocalizations and mysterious phenomena in the Baroque taste, to the "Siege of Corinth" with its choirs, to the solemn descriptiveness and sacred monumentality of "Moses" and, finally, to "William Tell".

If it is still surprising that Rossini achieved these achievements in the field of opera in a mere twenty years, it is equally striking that the silence that followed such a fruitful period and lasted for forty years, which is considered one of the most incomprehensible cases in the history of culture, - either by an almost demonstrative detachment, worthy, however, of this mysterious mind, or by evidence of his legendary laziness, of course, more fictional than real, given the composer's ability to work in his best years. Few noticed that he was increasingly seized by a neurotic craving for solitude, crowding out a tendency to fun.

Rossini, however, did not stop composing, although he cut off all contact with the general public, addressing himself mainly to a small group of guests, regulars at his home evenings. The inspiration of the latest spiritual and chamber works has gradually emerged in our days, arousing the interest of not only connoisseurs: real masterpieces have been discovered. The most brilliant part of Rossini's legacy is still operas, in which he was the legislator of the future Italian school, creating a huge number of models used by subsequent composers.

In order to better highlight the characteristic features of such a great talent, a new critical edition of his operas was undertaken at the initiative of the Center for the Study of Rossini in Pesaro.

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)

Compositions by Rossini:

operas - Demetrio and Polibio (Demetrio e Polibio, 1806, post. 1812, tr. "Balle", Rome), Promissory note for marriage (La cambiale di matrimonio, 1810, tr. "San Moise", Venice), Strange case (L'equivoco stravagante, 1811, Teatro del Corso, Bologna), Happy Deception (L'inganno felice, 1812, San Moise, Venice), Cyrus in Babylon (Ciro in Babilonia, 1812, t -r "Municipale", Ferrara), Silk Staircase (La scala di seta, 1812, tr "San Moise", Venice), Touchstone (La pietra del parugone, 1812, tr "La Scala", Milan ), Chance Makes a Thief, or Confused Suitcases (L'occasione fa il ladro, ossia Il cambio della valigia, 1812, San Moise, Venice), Signor Bruschino, or Accidental Son (Il signor Bruschino, ossia Il figlio per azzardo, 1813, ibid), Tancredi (Tancredi, 1813, tr Fenice, Venice), Italian in Algeria (L'italiana in Algeri, 1813, tr San Benedetto, Venice), Aurelian in Palmyra (Aureliano in Palmira, 1813, shopping mall La Scala, Milan), Turk in Italy (Il turco in Italia, 1814, ibid.), Sigismondo (Sigismondo, 1814, tr Fenice, Venice), Elizabeth, Queen of England (Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, 1815, tr San Carlo, Naples), Torvaldo and Dorliska (Torvaldo e Dorliska, 1815, tr "Balle", Rome), Almaviva, or Vain Precaution (Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione; known under the name The Barber of Seville - Il barbiere di Siviglia, 1816, tr Argentina, Rome), Newspaper, or Marriage by Competition (La gazzetta, ossia Il matrimonio per concorso, 1816, tr Fiorentini, Naples), Othello, or the Venetian Moor (Otello, ossia Il toro di Venezia, 1816, tr "Del Fondo", Naples), Cinderella, or the Triumph of Virtue (Cenerentola, ossia La bonta in trionfo, 1817, tr "Balle", Rome) , Magpie thief (La gazza ladra, 1817, tr "La Scala", Milan), Armida (Armida, 1817, tr "San Carlo", Naples), Adelaide of Burgundy (Adelaide di Borgogna, 1817, t -r "Argentina", Rome), Moses in Egypt (Mosè in Egitto, 1818, tr "San Carlo", Naples; French ed. - under the title Moses and Pharaoh, or Crossing the Red Sea - Moïse et Pharaon, ou Le passage de la mer rouge, 1827, "Royal Academy of Music and Dance", Paris), Adina, or Caliph of Baghdad (Adina, ossia Il califfo di Bagdad, 1818, post. 1826, tr "San- Carlo, Lisbon), Ricciardo and Zoraida (Ricciardo e Zoraide, 1818, tr San Carlo, Naples), Hermione (Ermione, 1819, ibid), Eduardo and Cristina (Eduardo e Cristina, 1819, tr San Benedetto, Venice), Maiden of the Lake (La donna del lago, 1819, tr San Carlo, Naples), Bianca and Faliero, or the Council of Three (Bianca e Faliero, ossia II consiglio dei tre, 1819, t-r "La Scala", Milan), "Mohammed II" (Maometto II, 1820, t-r "San- Carlo, Naples; French ed. - under the name Siege of Corinth - Le siège de Corinthe, 1826, “King. Academy of Music and Dance, Paris), Matilde di Shabran, or Beauty and the Iron Heart (Matilde di Shabran, ossia Bellezza e cuor di ferro, 1821, t-r "Apollo", Rome), Zelmira (Zelmira, 1822, t- r "San Carlo", Naples), Semiramide (Semiramide, 1823, tr "Fenice", Venice), Journey to Reims, or the Hotel of the Golden Lily (Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro, 1825, Theater Italien, Paris), Count Ory (Le comte Ory, 1828, Royal Academy of Music and Dance, Paris), William Tell (Guillaume Tell, 1829, ibid.); pasticcio(from excerpts from Rossini's operas) - Ivanhoe (Ivanhoe, 1826, tr "Odeon", Paris), Testament (Le testament, 1827, ibid.), Cinderella (1830, tr "Covent Garden", London), Robert Bruce (1846, King's Academy of Music and Dance, Paris), We're Going to Paris (Andremo a Parigi, 1848, Theatre Italien, Paris), Funny Accident (Un curioso accidente, 1859, ibid.); for soloists, choir and orchestra- Anthem of Independence (Inno dell`Indipendenza, 1815, tr "Contavalli", Bologna), cantatas- Aurora (1815, ed. 1955, Moscow), The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus (Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, 1816, Del Fondo shopping mall, Naples), Sincere tribute (Il vero omaggio, 1822, Verona) , A happy omen (L'augurio felice, 1822, ibid), Bard (Il bardo, 1822), Holy Alliance (La Santa alleanza, 1822), Complaint of the Muses about the death of Lord Byron (Il pianto delie Muse in morte di Lord Byron, 1824, Almack Hall, London), Choir of the Municipal Guard of Bologna (Coro dedicato alla guardia civica di Bologna, instrumented by D. Liverani, 1848, Bologna), Hymn to Napoleon III and his valiant people (Hymne b Napoleon et a son vaillant peuple, 1867, Palace of Industry, Paris), National Anthem (The national hymn, English national anthem, 1867, Birmingham); for orchestra- symphonies (D-dur, 1808; Es-dur, 1809, used as an overture to the farce A promissory note for marriage), Serenade (1829), Military March (Marcia militare, 1853); for instruments and orchestra- Variations for obligate instruments F-dur (Variazioni a piu strumenti obligati, for clarinet, 2 violins, viol, cello, 1809), Variations C-dur (for clarinet, 1810); for brass band- fanfare for 4 trumpets (1827), 3 marches (1837, Fontainebleau), Crown of Italy (La corona d'Italia, fanfare for military orchestra, offering to Victor Emmanuel II, 1868); chamber instrumental ensembles- duets for horns (1805), 12 waltzes for 2 flutes (1827), 6 sonatas for 2 skr., vlc. and k-bass (1804), 5 strings. quartets (1806-08), 6 quartets for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1808-09), Theme and Variations for flute, trumpet, horn and bassoon (1812); for piano- Waltz (1823), Congress of Verona (Il congresso di Verona, 4 hands, 1823), Neptune's Palace (La reggia di Nettuno, 4 hands, 1823), Soul of Purgatory (L'vme du Purgatoire, 1832); for soloists and choir- cantata Complaint of Harmony about the death of Orpheus (Il pianto d'Armonia sulla morte di Orfeo, for tenor, 1808), Death of Dido (La morte di Didone, stage monologue, 1811, Spanish 1818, tr "San Benedetto" , Venice), cantata (for 3 soloists, 1819, tr "San Carlo", Naples), Partenope and Higea (for 3 soloists, 1819, ibid.), Gratitude (La riconoscenza, for 4 soloists, 1821, ibid. same); for voice and orchestra- cantata Shepherd's Offering (Omaggio pastorale, for 3 voices, for the solemn opening of the bust of Antonio Canova, 1823, Treviso), Song of the Titans (Le chant des Titans, for 4 basses in unison, 1859, Spanish 1861, Paris); for voice and piano- Cantatas Elie and Irene (for 2 voices, 1814) and Joan of Arc (1832), Musical Evenings (Soirees musicales, 8 ariettes and 4 duets, 1835); 3 wok quartet (1826-27); Soprano Exercises (Gorgheggi e solfeggi per soprano. Vocalizzi e solfeggi per rendere la voce agile ed apprendere a cantare secondo il gusto moderno, 1827); 14 wok albums. and instr. pieces and ensembles, united under the name. The sins of old age (Péchés de vieillesse: Album of Italian songs - Album per canto italiano, French album - Album francais, Restrained pieces - Morceaux reserves, Four appetizers and four desserts - Quatre hors d'oeuvres et quatre mendiants, for fp., Album for fp ., skr., vlch., harmonium and horn; many others, 1855-68, Paris, not published); spiritual music- Graduate (for 3 male voices, 1808), mass (for male voices, 1808, performed in Ravenna), Laudamus (c. 1808), Qui tollis (c. 1808), Solemn Mass (Messa solenne, joint. with P. Raimondi, 1819, Spanish 1820, Church of San Fernando, Naples), Cantemus Domino (for 8 voices with piano or organ, 1832, Spanish 1873), Ave Maria (for 4 voices, 1832, Spanish 1873 ), Quoniam (for bass and orchestra, 1832),

(29 II 1792, Pesaro - 13 XI 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris)

Gioacchino Rossini Rossini discovered the brilliant 19th century in the music of Italy, followed by a whole galaxy of opera creators: Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, as if passing the baton of world-famous Italian opera to each other. The author of 37 operas, Rossini raised the opera-buffa genre to an unattainable height. His "The Barber of Seville", written almost a century after the birth of the genre, became the pinnacle and symbol of opera buffa in general. On the other hand, it was Rossini who completed the almost one and a half century history of the most famous operatic genre - opera seria, which conquered all of Europe, and opened the way for the development of a new heroic-patriotic opera of the era of romanticism that came to replace it. The main strength of the composer, the heir to Italian national traditions, is in the inexhaustible ingenuity of melodies, captivating, brilliant, virtuoso.

Singer, conductor, pianist, Rossini was distinguished by rare benevolence and sociability. Without any envy, he spoke with admiration about the successes of his young Italian contemporaries, ready to help, suggest, support. His admiration for Beethoven is known, with whom Rossini met in Vienna in the last years of his life. In one of his letters, he wrote about this in his usual joking manner: “I study Beethoven twice a week, Hayd four, and Mozart daily ... Beethoven is a colossus who often gives you a good cuff in the side, while Mozart always amazing." Weber, with whom they competed, Rossini called "a great genius, and also genuine, because he created original and did not imitate anyone." He also liked Mendelssohn, especially his Songs without Words. At the meeting, Rossini asked Mendelssohn to play Bach for him, “a lot of Bach”: “His genius is simply overwhelming. If Beethoven is a miracle among men, then Bach is a miracle among gods. I subscribed to the complete collection of his works. Even to Wagner, whose work was very far from his operatic ideals, Rossini was respectful, interested in the principles of his reform, as evidenced by their meeting in Paris in 1860.

Wit was characteristic of Rossini not only in creativity, but also in life. He claimed that this was foreshadowed by the very date of his birth - February 29, 1792. The composer's birthplace is the seaside town of Pesaro. His father played the trumpet and horn, his mother, although she did not know the notes, was a singer and sang by ear (according to Rossini, "out of a hundred Italian singers, eighty are in the same position"). Both were members of a traveling troupe. Gioacchino, who showed early talent for music, at the age of 7, along with writing, arithmetic and Latin, studied harpsichord, solfeggio and singing at a boarding school in Bologna. At the age of 8, he already performed in churches, where he was entrusted with the most complex soprano parts, and once he was assigned a children's role in a popular opera. Delighted listeners predicted that Rossini would become a famous singer. He accompanied himself from sight, read orchestral scores fluently, and worked as an accompanist and choir director in the theaters of Bologna. Since 1804, his systematic studies of playing the viola and violin began, in the spring of 1806 he entered the Bologna Music Lyceum, and after a few months the famous Bologna Academy of Music unanimously elected him as its member. Then the future glory of Italy was only 14 years old. And at 15 he wrote his first opera. Hearing her a few years later, Stendhal admired her melodies - “the first flowers created by the imagination of Rossini; they had all the freshness of the morning of his life.”

He studied at the Lyceum Rossini (including playing the cello) for about 4 years. His counterpoint teacher was the famous Padre Mattei. Subsequently, Rossini regretted that he could not take a full course in composition - he had to earn a living and help his parents. During the years of study, he independently got acquainted with the music of Haydn and Mozart, organized a string quartet, where he played the viola part; at his insistence, the ensemble played many of Haydn's compositions. From a music lover, he took for a while the scores of Haydn's oratorios and Mozart's operas and rewrote them: at first, only the vocal part, to which he composed his own accompaniment, and then compared it with the author's. However, Rossini dreamed of a singer's career, much more prestigious: "when the composer received fifty ducats, the singer got a thousand." According to him, he almost accidentally got on the composer's path - a voice mutation began. At the Lyceum, he tried his hand at various genres: he wrote 2 symphonies, 5 string quartets, variations for solo instruments with orchestra, and a cantata. One of the symphonies and a cantata were performed in lyceum concerts.

Upon graduation, the 18-year-old composer on November 3, 1810 saw his opera for the first time on the stage of the Venetian theater. The next autumn season, Rossini was engaged by the theater in Bologna to write a two-act opera buffa. During 1812 he composed and staged 6 operas, including one zepa. “I had ideas quickly and only lacked the time to write them down. I never belonged to those who sweat when composing music. Opera buffa "The Touchstone" was staged at the largest theater in Italy, Milan's La Scala, where it was held 50 times in a row; to listen to her, according to Stendhal, “crowds of people came to Milan from Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo and Brescia and from all the cities for twenty miles in the vicinity. Rossini became the first man of his region; Everyone wanted to see him no matter what." And the opera brought exemption from military service to the 20-year-old author: the general who commanded in Milan liked The Touchstone so much that he turned to the viceroy, and the army was missing one soldier.

The turning point in Rossini's work was 1813, when, within three and a half months, two operas, popular to this day ("Tankred" and "Italian in Algiers"), saw the light of the stage in the theaters of Venice, and the third, which failed at the premiere and is now forgotten, brought an immortal overture - Rossini used it twice more, and now everyone knows it as the overture to the Barber of Seville. After 4 years, the impresario of one of the best theaters in Italy and the largest in Europe, the Neapolitan San Carlo, enterprising and successful Domenico Barbaia, nicknamed the Viceroy of Naples, signed a long contract with Rossini, for 6 years. The prima donna of the troupe was the beautiful Spaniard Isabella Colbran, who had a magnificent voice and dramatic talent. She had known the composer for a long time - in the same year, 14-year-old Rossini and Colbrand, 7 years older than him, were elected members of the Bologna Academy. Now she was a friend of Barbaia and at the same time enjoyed the patronage of the king. Colbrand soon became Rossini's lover, and in 1822, his wife.

For 6 years (1816-1822), the composer wrote 10 opera seria for Naples, counting on Colbran, and 9 for other theaters, mainly buffa, since Colbran did not play comic roles. Among them are The Barber of Seville and Cinderella. At the same time, a new romantic genre was born, which would later supplant the opera-seria: a folk-heroic opera dedicated to the theme of the struggle for liberation, depicting large masses of the people, extensive use of choral scenes that occupy no less space than arias (“Moses”, “ Mahomet II).

1822 opens a new page in the life of Rossini. In the spring, together with the Neapolitan troupe, he goes to Vienna, where his operas have been successfully staged for 6 years. For 4 months, Rossini is bathed in glory, he is recognized on the streets, crowds gather under the windows of his house to see the composer, and sometimes listen to him sing. In Vienna, he meets Beethoven - sick, lonely, huddled in a squalid apartment, whom Rossini tries in vain to help. The Vienna tour was followed by the London tour, which was even longer and more successful. For 7 months, until the end of July 1824, he conducts his operas in London, acts as an accompanist and singer in public and private concerts, including in the royal palace: the English king is one of his most faithful admirers. The cantata "The Complaint of the Muses about the Death of Lord Byron" was also written here, at the premiere of which the composer sang the part of the solo tenor. At the end of the tour, Rossini took out of England a fortune - 175 thousand francs, which made him remember the fee for the first opera - 200 lire. And it hasn't even been 15 years since then...

After London, Rossini was waiting for Paris and a well-paid position as head of the Italian Opera. However, Rossini stayed in this post for only 2 years, although he made a dizzying career: “composer of His Majesty the King and inspector of singing of all musical institutions” (the highest musical position in France), member of the Council for the Management of Royal Musical Schools, member of the committee of the Grand Opera Theatre. Here Rossini created his innovative score - the folk-heroic opera "William Tell". Born on the eve of the revolution of 1830, it was perceived by contemporaries as a direct call to insurrection. And on this peak, at the age of 37, Rossini stopped his operatic activity. However, he did not stop writing. 3 years before his death, he said to one of his guests: “Do you see this bookcase full of musical manuscripts? All this was written after William Tell. But I don't post anything; I write because I can't do otherwise.

The largest works of Rossini of this period belong to the genre of spiritual oratorio (Stabat Mater, Little Solemn Mass). A lot of chamber vocal music was also created. The most famous ariettas and duets were "Musical Evenings", others were included in the "Album of Italian Songs", "Mixture of Vocal Music". Rossini also wrote instrumental pieces, often providing them with ironic titles: "Restrained Pieces", "Four Appetizers and Four Desserts", "Pain Relieving Music", etc.

Since 1836, Rossini returned to Italy for almost 20 years. He devotes himself to pedagogical work, supports the newly founded Experimental Musical Gymnasium in Florence, the Bologna Musical Lyceum, which he once graduated from himself. For the last 13 years, Rossini has been living in France again, both in Paris itself and in a villa in the suburbs of Passy, ​​surrounded by honor and glory. After the death of Colbrand (1845), with whom he broke up about 10 years ago, Rossini marries a Frenchwoman, Olympia Pelissier. Contemporaries characterize her as an unremarkable woman, but endowed with a sympathetic and kind heart, but Rossini's Italian friends consider her mean and inhospitable. The composer regularly arranges receptions that are famous throughout Paris. These “Rossini Saturdays” bring together the most brilliant company, attracted both by exquisite conversation and exquisite cuisine, of which the composer was known to be an expert and even was the inventor of some culinary recipes. A sumptuous dinner was followed by a concert, and the host often sang and accompanied the singers. The last such evening took place on September 20, 1868, when the composer was in his 77th year; he performed the recently composed elegy "Farewell to Life".

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 at his villa in Passy near Paris. In his will, he allocated two and a half million francs for the creation of a music school in his native Pesaro, where a monument had been erected to him 4 years before, as well as a large amount for the establishment of a nursing home in Passy for French and Italian singers who made a career in France. About 4,000 people attended the funeral mass. The funeral procession was accompanied by two battalions of infantry and the bands of two legions of the National Guard, who performed excerpts from Rossini's operas and sacred works.

The composer was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris next to Bellini, Cherubini and Chopin. Upon learning of the death of Rossini, Verdi wrote: “A great name has died out in the world! It was the most popular name of our era, the widest fame - and this was the glory of Italy! He invited Italian composers to honor the memory of Rossini by writing a collective Requiem, which was to be solemnly performed in Bologna on the first anniversary of his death. In 1887, the embalmed body of Rossini was transported to Florence and buried in the Cathedral of Santa Croce, in the pantheon of the great men of Italy, next to the graves of Michelangelo and Galileo.

A. Koenigsberg

Italian composer. One of the outstanding representatives of the opera genre in the 19th century. His work is at the same time the completion of the development of music in the 18th century. and opens the way to the artistic conquests of romanticism. His first opera, Demetrio and Polibio (1806), was still written quite in line with the traditional opera seria. Rossini turned to this genre repeatedly. Among the best works are Tancred (1813), Othello (1816), Moses in Egypt (1818), Zelmira (1822, Naples, libretto by A. Tottola), Semiramis (1823).

Rossini made a huge contribution to the development of opera buffa. The first experiments in this genre were "Promissory note for marriage" (1810, Venice, libretto by G. Rossi), "Signor Bruschino" (1813) and a number of other works. It was in the buffa opera that Rossini created his own type of overture, based on the contrast of a slow introduction, followed by a swift allegro. One of the earliest classical examples of such an overture is seen in his opera The Silk Stairs (1812). Finally, in 1813, Rossini created his first masterpiece in the buffon genre: "Italian in Algeria", where the features of the composer's mature style are already clearly visible, especially in the wonderful finale of d. The opera buffa "The Turk in Italy" was also his success ( 1814). Two years later, the composer writes his best opera, The Barber of Seville, which rightfully occupies an outstanding place in the history of the genre.

Created in 1817, "Cinderella" testifies to Rossini's desire to expand the palette of artistic means. Purely buffoonish elements are replaced by a combination of comic and lyrical beginnings, in the same year the Thieving Magpie appears, written in the genre of an opera semi-serial, in which lyric-comedy elements coexist with tragic ones (how can one not recall Mozart's Don Giovanni). In 1819, Rossini created one of his most romantic works - "Lady of the Lake" (based on the novel by W. Scott).

Among his later compositions, the Siege of Corinth (1826, Paris, is a French edition of his earlier opera-series Mohammed II), The Comte Ory (1828), written in the style of a French comic opera (in which the composer used a number of the most successful themes from the opera "Journey to Reims", created three years earlier on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X in Reims), and, finally, Rossini's last masterpiece - "William Tell" (1829). This opera, with its drama, individually delineated characters, large through scenes, already belongs to another musical era - the age of romanticism. This work completes Rossini's career as an opera composer. In the next 30 years, he created a number of vocal and instrumental works (among them "Stabat Mater", etc.), vocal and piano miniatures.