Works by Gioachino Rossini. Italian composer Rossini: biography, creativity, life story and best works Getting closer to the creative peak

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

Brief 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, winning the largest opera stages in Italy. From then on, success accompanied him in almost all European countries. In 1815, he signed a contract in Naples with the entrepreneur D. Barbaya, pledging 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 went on tour to Vienna, where he received an enthusiastic reception.

Having stayed briefly in Venice and having written the opera “Semiramide” for the local theater there, Rossini went to London, where he enjoyed enormous success as a composer and conductor, and then to Paris. In Paris, he becomes director of the Italian Opera, but is soon fired from this position. Considering Rossini's merits as the greatest composer of the era, the position of chief intendant of royal music was created for him, and then the chief inspector of singing in France.

Having completed work on William Tell in 1829, Rossini did not write another opera until his death. All his compositional 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.

At times he also conducted, but mostly he enjoyed the fame of an honored musician-composer and worked in the kitchen. A big 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 never left it until the end of his life.

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

IN creative heritage Rossini 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 in the style of late classicism and Italian traditions. She is distinguished by her extraordinary temperament, inexhaustible melodic diversity, lightness, brilliant use of all shades of instruments and performing voices (including a never-before-seen coloratura mezzo-soprano), rich accompaniment, independent interpretation of orchestral parts, and skillful characterization of stage situations. All these merits put Rossini, along with Mozart and Wagner, among the greatest opera composers.

Works

operas:
"Promissory Note for Marriage" (1810)
"Italian in Algiers" (1813)
"The Barber of Seville" (1816)
"Cinderella" (1817)
"Moses in Egypt" (1818)
"William Tell" (1829)
5 string quartets
Stabat Mater (1842)

The Bel Canto Foundation organizes concerts in Moscow featuring the music of Gioachino Rossini. On this page you can see a poster of upcoming concerts in 2019 with the music of Gioachino Rossini and buy a ticket for a date convenient for you.

Rossini Gioacchino (1792 - 1868) - Italian composer, nicknamed the "Swan of Pesara". The son of a trumpeter and an opera singer. As a child, Rossini moved to Bologna, where his studies on the harpsichord began; he also practiced singing. At the age of 15, Rossini entered the Bologna Musical Lyceum, where he studied until 1810; his composition teacher was Abbot Mattei. At the same time, Rossini began conducting opera performances. Rossini's first creative experiments date back to the same time - vocal numbers for a traveling troupe and the one-act comic opera "Bill of Marriage" (1810). The young composer tried to compose several operas for Milan and Venice, but none of them were successful.
Then the composer went to Rome, where he planned to write and stage several operas. The second of these was the opera The Barber of Seville, 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. Rossini's next comic operas, like Donizetti's, did not introduce anything fundamentally new, despite all their individual artistic merits.
Not having time to write the overture, he used the overture from “Elizabeth” in this opera. The music of "The Barber of Seville", temperamental, sparkling with wit and fun, is rooted in the favorite genres of Italian folk dance and song. Characteristics characters(mainly in arias) are distinguished by accuracy and figurative relief.
Later, having lost interest in comic opera, Rossini in subsequent years devoted his work mainly to heroic-patriotic opera. This should be seen as a reflection of the growth of patriotic feelings and national self-awareness during the liberation struggle of the Italian people.
Gioachino Rossini had a rare melodic talent. An endless stream of captivating melodies, sometimes soulfully lyrical, sometimes sparkling, fills the music of his operas, which Pushkin compared to young kisses, the stream and splashes of hissing ai. The orchestra in Rossini's operas is not limited to an accompanying role - it is distinguished by dramatic expressiveness and participates in the characterization of characters and stage situations.
If the composition of Rossini's operas is traditional (musical numbers alternating with recitatives), then in essence his work led to the renewal of the main directions of Italian opera art and determined his future path.

Born on 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, when he entered the Musical Lyceum in Bologna. There he studied cello playing and counterpoint until 1810, when Rossini's first noteworthy work, the one-act farce opera La cambiale di matrimonio, 1810, was staged in Venice. It was followed by a number of operas of the same type, among which two - The Touchstone (La pietra del paragone, 1812) and The Silk Staircase (La scala di seta, 1812) - are still popular.

Finally, in 1813, Rossini composed two operas that immortalized his name: Tancredi according to Tasso and then the two-act opera buffa Italiana in Algiers (L"italiana in Algeri), triumphantly received 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 The Turk in Italy, Il Turco in Italia, 1814, which retained its charm - a kind of “pair” to the opera Italiana in Algeria) was successful. In 1815, Rossini was lucky again, this time in Naples, where he signed a contract with the impresario of the San Carlo Theater. We are talking about the opera Elizabeth, Queen of England (Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra), a virtuoso work written specifically 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 them was the opera The Barbiere 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.

Having returned, in accordance with the terms of the contract, to Naples, Rossini staged there in December 1816 the opera that was perhaps most highly appreciated by his contemporaries - Othello according to Shakespeare: it contains truly beautiful fragments, but the work is spoiled by the libretto, which distorted Shakespeare's tragedy. Rossini composed his next opera again for Rome: his Cenerentola (La cenerentola, 1817) was subsequently favorably received by the public; the premiere did not give any grounds for assumptions about future success. However, Rossini took the failure much more calmly. Also in 1817, he traveled to Milan to stage the opera The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra) - an elegantly orchestrated melodrama, now almost forgotten, except for the magnificent overture. Upon his return to Naples, Rossini staged the opera Armida there at the end of the year, which was warmly received and is still rated much higher than The Thieving Magpie: in the resurrection of Armida in our time there is still a feeling of tenderness, if not sensuality, that this music emits.

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 gave the city two outstanding works. In 1818 he wrote the opera Moses in Egypt (Mos in Egitto), which soon conquered Europe; in fact, this is a kind of oratorio, notable here are the majestic choirs and the famous “Prayer”. In 1819 Rossini presented The Virgin of the Lake (La donna del lago), which was a somewhat more modest success but contained charming romantic music. When the composer eventually left Naples (1820), he took Isabella Colbran with him and married her, but later they family life did not proceed very happily.

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 Vienna Opera. The composer brought his latest work to Vienna - the opera Zelmira, which won the author unprecedented success. True, some musicians, led by K.M. von Weber, sharply criticized Rossini, but others, and among them F. Schubert, gave favorable assessments. As for society, it unconditionally took Rossini’s side. 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, the composer was summoned to Verona by Prince Metternich himself: Rossini was supposed to honor the conclusion of the Holy Alliance with cantatas. In February 1823, he composed a new opera for Venice, Semiramida, of which only the overture now remains in the concert repertoire. Be that as it may, Semiramis can be recognized as the culmination of the Italian period in Rossini's work, if only because it was the last opera he composed for Italy. Moreover, Semiramis performed so brilliantly in other countries that after it, Rossini’s reputation as the greatest opera composer of the era was no longer subject to any doubt. No wonder Stendhal compared Rossini’s triumph in the field of music with Napoleon’s victory in the Battle of Austerlitz.

At the end of 1823, Rossini found himself in London (where he stayed for six months), and before that he spent a month in Paris. The composer was hospitably received by King George VI, with whom he sang duets; Rossini was in great demand secular society as a singer and accompanist. The most important event that time was the receipt of an invitation to Paris as artistic director opera house "Teatro Italien". The significance of this contract, firstly, is that it determined the composer’s place of residence until the end of his days, and secondly, that it 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 the highest honor imaginable for a musician.

Best of the day

Rossini began his new duties on December 1, 1824. Apparently, he managed to improve the management of the Italian Opera, especially in terms of conducting performances. The performances of two previously written operas, which Rossini radically reworked for Paris, were a great success, and most importantly, he composed the charming comic opera Count Ory (Le comte Ory). (It was, predictably, a huge success when it was revived in 1959.) Rossini's next work, in August 1829, was the opera Guillaume Tell, a work generally considered the composer's greatest achievement. Recognized by performers and critics as an absolute masterpiece, this opera nevertheless never aroused such enthusiasm among the public as The Barber of Seville, Semiramis or even Moses: ordinary listeners considered Tell 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. Let us only note that all Rossini’s operas created in France were written to French librettos.

After William Tell, Rossini wrote no more operas, 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 skill and fame is a unique phenomenon in the history of the 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 insult caused to Rossini by the actions of the French government, which tried to terminate the contract with the composer after the revolution in 1830. Mention was also made of the deterioration of the musician’s well-being and even his allegedly incredible laziness. Perhaps all the factors mentioned above played a role, except the last one. It should be taken into account that, leaving Paris after William Tell, Rossini had the firm intention of starting a new opera (Faust). He is also known to have pursued and won a six-year lawsuit against the French government over his pension. As for his state of health, having experienced the shock of the death of his beloved mother in 1827, Rossini actually felt unwell, at first not very strong, but later progressing with alarming speed. Everything else is more or less plausible speculation.

During the decade that followed Tell, Rossini, although keeping an apartment in Paris, lived mainly in Bologna, where he hoped to find the peace 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) appeared, and in 1836 to Frankfurt, where he met 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 the litigation) that remained the composer’s permanent residence. It can be assumed that it was not only court cases that called him to Paris. In 1832 Rossini met Olympia Pelissier. Rossini's relationship with his wife had long left much to be desired; In the end, the couple decided to separate, and Rossini married Olympia, who became a good wife for the sick Rossini. Finally, in 1855, after a scandal in Bologna and disappointment from Florence, Olympia convinced her husband to hire a carriage (he did not recognize trains) and go to Paris. Very slowly his physical and state of mind started to improve; a share of, if not gaiety, then wit returned to him; music, which had been a taboo subject for many years, began to come to his mind again. April 15, 1857 - Olympia's name day - 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 The Sins of My Old Age; The quality of this music requires no comment for fans of La boutique fantasque, the ballet for which the plays served as the basis. Finally, in 1863, Rossini's last - and truly significant - work appeared: 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 coffin with the composer’s body was transported to Florence and buried in the Church of Santa Croce next to the ashes of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and other great Italians.

Italy is an amazing country. Either the nature there is special, or the people living there 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 the name of the great Italian composer Rossini was, and you will immediately receive the correct answer.

Talented bel canto singer

It seems that the gene of musicality is inherent in every resident by nature itself. It is no coincidence that all those used in writing scores originate from the Latin language.

It is impossible to imagine an Italian who does not know how to sing beautifully. Beautiful singing, in Latin bel canto, is a truly Italian style of performance musical works. The composer Rossini became famous throughout the world for his delightful compositions created in this very manner.

In Europe, the fashion for bel canto began at the end of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We can say that the outstanding Italian composer Rossini was born at the most suitable time and in the most suitable place. Was he the 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 them down.

The composer's childhood

The full name of the composer Rossini is Gioachino Antonio Rossini. He was born on February 29, 1792 in the city of Pesaro. The baby was incredibly adorable. “Little Adonis” was the name of the Italian composer Rossini in early childhood. Local artist Mancinelli, who was painting the walls of the Church of St. Ubaldo at that time, asked Gioacchino’s parents for permission to depict the baby in one of the frescoes. He captured him in the form of a child, to whom an angel shows the way to heaven.

His parents, although they did not have a special vocational education, were musicians. Mother, Anna Guidarini-Rossini had a very beautiful soprano and sang in musical performances local theater, and his father, Giuseppe Antonio Rossini, 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 had the opportunity to pick up musical instruments. The fourteen-year-old boy's scores look quite convincing. They clearly show the tendencies of operatic construction of musical plots - frequent rhythmic rearrangements are emphasized, in which characteristic, song-like melodies predominate.

There are six scores of sonatas for quartet in the United States. They are dated 1806.

“The Barber of Seville”: the history of the composition

Throughout the world, the composer Rossini is known primarily as the author of the buffa opera “The Barber of Seville,” but few can say what the story of its appearance was. Original title opera - “Almaviva, or Vain Precaution”. The fact is that by that time one “Barber of Seville” already existed. The first opera based on Beaumarchais' funny play was written by the venerable Giovanni Paisiello. His work was performed with great success 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 own opera based on Beaumarchais's play. He didn't mind. Rossini composed the famous “The Barber of Seville” in 13 days.

Two premieres with different results

The premiere was a resounding failure. In general, many mystical incidents are associated with this opera. In particular, the disappearance of the score with the overture. It was a medley of several funny folk songs. The composer Rossini had to quickly come up with a replacement for the lost pages. His papers preserved the notes for the opera “A Strange Case,” written seven years ago and long forgotten. Making minor changes, he included lively and light melodies own composition to the new opera. The second performance turned out to be a triumph. It became the first step on the path to world fame for the composer, and his melodious recitatives still delight the public.

He had no more serious worries about the productions.

The composer's fame quickly reached continental Europe. Information has been preserved about what the composer Rossini was called 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 their homeland, Rossini and Isabella Colbran set off to conquer Vienna. Here he was already well known and recognized as outstanding composer modernity. Schumann applauded him, and Beethoven, completely blind by this time, expressed admiration and advised him not to abandon the path of composing opera buffes.

Paris and London greeted the composer with no less enthusiasm. Rossini stayed in France for a long time.

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

Rossini would return to France at the end of his life to be treated for stomach ailments. The composer will die in Paris. This will happen 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, long-invented motifs. Each new opera rarely took him more than a month. In total, the composer wrote 39 of them.

He devoted six months to William Tell. I wrote all the parts anew, without using 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 their enslavers, the composer, on the contrary, wrote diverse, melodic, rhythm-rich parts. He used folk songs Alpine and Tyrolean shepherds, adding Italian flexibility and poetry to them.

The opera premiered in August 1829. King Charles X of France was delighted and awarded Rossini the Order of the Legion of Honor. The public 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 shortened the performance. Rossini was outraged and offended to the core.

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

Revolution in opera

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

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

End of writing activity

Art critics and historians have still not come to a consensus on what 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, he would certainly continue to write music and stage his performances on opera stages.

Last theater work The composer's opera series was "William Tell". He was 37 years old. Later, 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 exquisite foods. Leaving public musical life, he did not become an ascetic. His house was always full of guests, the feasts were replete with exotic dishes that the maestro personally invented. One might think that composing operas gave him the opportunity to earn enough money so that in his declining years he could devote himself wholeheartedly to his most beloved hobby.

Two marriages

Gioachino Rossini was married twice. His first wife, Isabella Colbran, possessor 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 singer’s biography is silent about this, but 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 his life. They led a peaceful existence and were quite happy together. Rossini wrote no more music, with the exception of two oratorio works - the Catholic mass "The Sorrowful Mother Stood" (1842) and "Little Solemn Mass" (1863).

Three Italian cities most significant for the composer

Residents of three Italian cities proudly claim that the composer Rossini is their fellow countryman. The first is Gioacchino's birthplace, 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, Gioachino Antonio, has been described by his contemporaries and friends in several books of fiction, as well as in numerous art historical studies. He was in his thirties when the first biography of the composer, described by Frederic Stendhal, was published. It's called "The Life of Rossini".

Another friend of the composer, a literary novelist, described him in a short story “Lunch at Rossini, or Two Students from Bologna.” The lively and sociable disposition of the great Italian is captured in numerous stories and anecdotes kept by his friends and acquaintances.

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

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

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: PISCES

NATIONALITY: ITALIAN

MUSICAL STYLE: CLASSICISM

ICONIC WORK: WILLIAM TELL (1829)

WHERE HAVE YOU HEARD THIS MUSIC: AS THE LEITMOTHIO OF THE LONE RANGER, OF COURSE.

WISE WORDS: “NOTHING IS LIKE INSPIRATION. HOW STRONG DEADLINES. AND IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER YOU HAVE A COPYER STANDING OVER YOUR SOUL, COMING UP TO PICK UP YOUR FINISHED WORK, OR YOU ARE HORRIZED BY AN IMPRESARIO AND RIPPING YOUR HAIR OUT OF IMPATIENCE. IN MY TIME, ALL IMPRESSARIOS IN ITALY WENT BALD BY THE YEARS OF THIRTY.”

The fame that befell Gioachino Rossini when he was not yet twenty-five years old fascinated Europe. In Italy he enjoyed such adoration as in present century falls only to the share of pop idols of teenage audiences and soloists of “boy” groups. (Imagine a young Justin Timberlake, mastering the secrets of counterpoint and standing at the conductor's stand.)

Everyone went to his operas, everyone memorized his songs. Any Venetian gondolier, Bolognese merchant or Roman pimp could easily break out into Figaro's aria from The Barber of Seville. On the street, Rossini was invariably surrounded by a crowd, and the most ardent admirers strove to cut off a lock of his hair as a souvenir.

And then he disappeared. Left everything behind and retired. Nothing like this has ever happened before in the world of music. A man who was paid £30,000 for a single tour in London suddenly puts an end to his career - it seemed unthinkable. Even more unthinkable was the man Rossini turned into ten years later: a recluse who barely got out of bed, paralyzed by depression and tormented by insomnia. He became fat and bald.

"Brilliant" of the Italian opera turned into a wreck with shattered nerves. What is the reason for such a change? In short, a changed time that Rossini could not - or did not want - to understand.

IF YOU FAIL TO COMPOSE, YOU WILL NOT EXIT

The composer's father, Giuseppe Rossini, was a traveling musician, and when he got tired of moving from place to place, he settled in Pesaro, a city on the Adriatic, where he became friends with the singer (soprano) and part-time seamstress Anna Guidarini - it was rumored, however, that Anna was together I worked on the panel with my sister from time to time. Be that as it may, in 1791, the young people got married when Anna was five months pregnant. Soon she gave birth to a son.

Gioacchino's childhood was relatively prosperous until Napoleon invaded Northern Italy. Giuseppe Rossini was seized by revolutionary fever, and in the future his sorrows and joys depended entirely on the fortune of the French general - in other words, he was in and out of prison. Anna developed her son’s obvious musical gift as best she could. And although Gioacchino was mentored by far from musical luminaries, in 1804 the twelve-year-old boy was already singing on stage. The public enjoyed his high, clear voice, and, like Joseph Haydn, Gioacchino thought about joining the ranks of castrati. His father wholeheartedly supported the idea of castrating his son, but Anna resolutely opposed the implementation of this plan.

Real fame came to Rossini when, at the age of eighteen, having moved to Venice, he wrote his first opera, The Marriage Bill. This musical comedy became an immediate hit. And suddenly Rossini was in demand by everyone opera houses Italy. He was respected for the speed with which he wrote scores: he could compose an opera in a month, a few weeks, and even (according to him) in eleven days. The work was made easier by the fact that Rossini did not hesitate to transfer melodies from one opera to another. Usually he did not begin to fulfill the order immediately, and these delays drove the impresario to fury. Rossini later said that when he was very late with the score of The Thieving Magpie, the stage manager put him in custody, contracting four muscular stage workers for this purpose, and did not let him out until the composer had completed the score.

HOW MANY BARBERS DO YOU NEED FOR ONE OPERA?

In 1815, in Rome, Rossini worked on his most famous opera, The Barber of Seville. He later claimed that he completed the score in just thirteen days. Probably, in a sense, this was so, considering that Rossini adapted the overture, already used three times, into The Barber, only slightly reshaping it.

The libretto was written based on the famous play by Pierre de Beaumarchais, the first part of the trilogy about the magnificent Figaro. Unfortunately, the famous Roman composer Giovanni Paisiello had already written an opera on the same plot in 1782. In 1815, Paisiello was a very old man, but still had devoted fans who plotted to disrupt the premiere of Rossini's opera. The “oppositionists” booed and ridiculed every act, and at the exits the prima donnas uttered such a loud “boo-oo” that the orchestra could not be heard. In addition, they threw a cat onto the stage, and when the baritone tried to shoo the animal away, the audience meowed mockingly.

Rossini fell into despair. Locking himself in his hotel room, he flatly refused to attend the second performance, which, despite Paisiello’s admirers, ended in triumph. The impresario rushed to Rossini's hotel, persuading him to get dressed and go to the theater - the audience was eager to greet the composer. “I saw this audience in a coffin!” - Rossini shouted.

MUSIC, WEDDING AND MEETING WITH THE MAESTRO

By the beginning of the 1820s, Rossini became cramped within the framework of comic opera, and at the same time within Italy. Traveling around Italian cities no longer appealed to him, and he was tired of “planing” scores one after another. Rossini finally wanted to be taken as a serious composer. He also dreamed of a settled life. In 1815, Rossini met Isabella Colbran, a talented soprano singer, and fell in love with her; at that time, Colbran was the mistress of a Neapolitan opera impresario, who generously gave up the diva to the composer. In 1822, Rossini and Colbran got married.

The opportunity to show the world a more mature Rossini presented itself in the same year when the composer was invited to Vienna. He jumped at the invitation; he was eager to try out his works on a new, different audience and get to know the famous Beethoven. Rossini discovered with horror that great composer dresses in rags and lives in a smelly apartment, but a long conversation took place between two colleagues. The German master praised The Barber of Seville, but then recommended that Rossini continue to write nothing but comic operas. “You do not have sufficient knowledge of music to cope with real drama,” concluded Beethoven. Rossini tried to laugh it off, but in reality the Italian composer was deeply hurt by the suggestion that he was incapable of composing serious music.

OPPRESSED BY PROGRESS

The following year, Rossini again went on tour abroad to France and England. At first everything went well, but crossing the English Channel on a newfangled steam ship scared the composer almost to death. He fell ill for a week. And none of the honors with which he was showered in Britain - the favor of the king, long standing ovations at the opera, rave reviews in the press - helped him forget about the nightmare he had experienced. Rossini left England, having replenished his wallet considerably, but with the firm intention of never returning there again.

During the same period, the first signs of a devastating depression began to appear. Even though Rossini settled in Paris, he new opera“William Tell” was a success, he only said that it was time for him to take a break from business. He tried to compose less lightweight music and even created the oratorio Stabat Mater (“Standing the Grieving Mother”), but deep down he was convinced that no one would take him, much less his oratorio, seriously

THE PERFORMANCE OF ONE OF ROSSINI'S OPERAS WAS DISTRESSED BY SUPPORTERS OF A RIVAL K0MP03IT0RA - THE PUBLIC RESORTED TO EXTREME MEASURES, THROWSING A CAT ON STAGE.

Family life with Colbran became unbearable. Having lost her voice, Isabella became addicted to cards and drinking. Rossini found comfort in the company of Olympia Pelissier, a beautiful and wealthy Parisian courtesan. He did not get along with her for the sake of sex - gonorrhea made Rossini impotent - no, it was a union of a devoted nurse and a helpless patient. In 1837, Rossini officially announced his separation from Isabella and settled with Olympia in Italy. Soon after Isabella died in 1845, Rossini and Pelissier got married.

Nevertheless, the 1840s were a painful time for the composer. Modern world terrified him. Travel around railway brought Rossini to a state of collapse. The new crop of composers like Wagner were puzzling and depressing. And the reasons for the political unrest that engulfed France and Italy remained an inexplicable mystery. While one Italian city after another rebelled against Austrian rule, Rossini and Olympia wandered around the country in search of a safe haven.

The range of physical ailments that Rossini suffered from is impressive: drowsiness, headaches, diarrhea, chronic urethritis and hemorrhoids. It was difficult to persuade him to get out of bed, and at the same time he constantly complained of insomnia. But the most terrible disease was depression, which devoured the composer. He played the piano occasionally and always in a darkened room so that no one could see him crying over the keys.

BETTER... - AND WORSE

At Olympia's insistence, Rossini returned to Paris in 1855, and the depression eased slightly. He began to receive guests, admire the beauty of the city, and even began writing music again. The composer no longer tried to compose either serious music, which he had once passionately dreamed of, or the witty operas that made him famous - Rossini limited himself to short, elegant works that made up albums of vocal and instrumental pieces and ensembles, to which the composer gave common name"Sins of Old Age". In one of these albums, called “Four Snacks and Four Sweets” and containing eight parts: “Radishes”, “Anchovies”, “Gherkins”, “Butter”, “ Dried figs", "Almonds", "Raisins" and "Nuts", Rossini's music combined with the composer's newfound gourmandism. However, in the late 1860s, Rossini became seriously ill. He developed rectal cancer, and the treatment caused him much more suffering than the disease itself. Once he even begged the doctor to throw him out the window and thereby end his torment. On Friday, November 13, 1868, he died in the arms of his wife.

BROKEN FOR LOVE

Rossini periodically entered into a love affair with opera singers, and one of these novels unexpectedly turned out to be a blessing for him. Mezzo-soprano Maria Marcolini was at one time the mistress of Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother. And when Napoleon announced forced recruitment into the French army, Marcolini, using old connections, obtained exemption from military service for the composer. This timely intervention may have saved Rossini's life - many of the 90,000 Italian conscripts of the French army died during the emperor's abortive invasion of Russia in 1812.

PERSISTENT SMALL

The following joke is told about Rossini: one day friends decided to erect a statue of the composer to commemorate his talent. When they shared this idea with Rossini, he asked how much the monument would cost. “About twenty thousand lire,” they told him. After thinking a little, Rossini declared: “Give me ten thousand lire, and I myself will stand on the pedestal!”

HOW ROSSINI DEALED WITH WAGNER

In 1860 guiding star new German opera Richard Wagner paid a visit to Rossini, the faded star of old Italian opera. Colleagues showered each other with compliments, although Wagner's music seemed sloppy and pretentious to Rossini.

A friend of Rossini once saw the score of Wagner's Tannhäuser on his piano, turned upside down. The friend tried to play the notes correctly, but Rossini stopped him: “I already played like this, and nothing good came of it. Then I tried it from the bottom up - it turned out much better.”

In addition, Rossini is credited with the following words: “Mr. Wagner has wonderful moments, but each is followed by a quarter of an hour of bad music.”

THE NASTY PRINCESS FROM PESARO

In 1818, a guest in hometown Pesaro, Rossini met Caroline of Brunswick, the wife of the Prince of Wales, with whom the heir to the British throne had long separated. The fifty-year-old princess lived openly with a young lover, Bartolomeo Pergami, and infuriated the Pesaro society with arrogance, ignorance and vulgarity (exactly the same, she drove her husband to white heat).

Rossini refused invitations to the princess's salon and did not bow to Her Highness when meeting her in public places - Caroline could not forgive such an insult. A year later, when Rossini came to Pesaro with the opera The Thieving Magpie, Carolina and Pergami put in the auditorium a whole gang of bribed hooligans who whistled, shouted and waved knives and pistols during the performance. The frightened Rossini was secretly taken out of the theater, and that same night he fled the city. He never performed in Pesaro again.

From Rossini's book author Fraccaroli Arnaldo

MAIN DATES IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF GIOACCHINO ROSSINI 1792, February 39 - Birth of Gioachino Rossini in Besaro. 1800 - Moves with parents to Bologna, learns to play the spinet and violin. 1801 - Work in a theater orchestra. 1802 - Moving with parents to Lugo, classes with J.

From the author's book

WORKS OF GIOACHINO ROSSINI 1. “Demetrio and Polibio”, 1806. 2. “Promissory Note for Marriage”, 1810. 3. “Strange Case”, 1811. 4. “Happy Deception”, 1812. 5. “Cyrus in Babylon”, 1812 6. “The Silk Staircase”, 1812. 7. “Touchstone”, 1812. 8. “Chance Makes a Thief, or Tangled Suitcases”, 1812. 9. “Signor”