Message about Gioacchino Rossini. Works by Gioacchino Rossini



Rossini D. A.

(Rossini) Gioacchino Antonio (29 II 1792, Pesaro - 13 XI 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris) - Italian. composer. His father, a man of advanced, republican convictions, was a musician of the mountains. spirit. orchestra, mother - a singer. He studied spinet playing initially with J. Prinetti, later (in Luga) with J. Malerby. Possessing an excellent voice and outstanding muses. abilities, R. from childhood sang in the church. choirs. OK. 1804 the R. family settled in Bologna. R. studied with A. Tezei (singing, playing the cembalo, musical theory), later with M. Babini (singing); also mastered the art of playing the viola and violin. He successfully sang in the churches and churches of Bologna, was a choir conductor and accompanist (accompanied the cembalo) in opera houses, Spanish. viola part in the amateur strings organized by him. quartet. Since 1806 (at the age of 14) member. Bologna Philharmonic. academy. In 1806-10 he studied at the Bologna Museum. lyceum at V. Kavedagni (cello), S. Mattei (counterpoint), as well as in the piano class. Simultaneously wrote a number of works: 2 symphonies, 5 strings. quartets, the cantata "Complaint of Harmony on the death of Orpheus" (written in 1808 under the direction of the author), etc. In 1806 he composed the first opera "Demetrio and Polibio" (post. 1812, Rome) in the traditional opera seria genre. In 1810, his farce "Promissory Note for Marriage" was performed. Already here, a bright and original musical theater appeared. R.'s talent, his melodic. generosity. Mastering the skill, R. wrote several. operas per year (in 1812 - 5 operas, unequal, but testifying to the formation of the author's creative individuality). In comic operas, the composer found original solutions. So, in the farce "Happy Deception" he created a type of opera overture, which became characteristic of most of his operas written for Italy: a contrasting juxtaposition of a melodious, slow introduction and a temperamental, cheerful, impetuous allegro, usually built on cheerful, provocative and lyrical, crafty themes. . Thematic there is no connection between the opera and the overture, but the coloring of the latter corresponds to the general emotional and psychological. the tone of the opera (an example of such an overture is in the farce "The Silk Stairs", 1812). His next buffa opera, The Touchstone (1812, commissioned by comrade La Scala), was distinguished not only by wit and cheerfulness of music, but also by expressiveness and satire. character portrayal accuracy. In the opera series "Tancred" and the opera buffa "Italian in Algiers" (both 1813) reflected patriotic. ideas that inspired the Italian the people in an atmosphere of growing national-liberate. movements of the Carbonari. These operas showed reformist tendencies, although the composer still does not break the boundaries of tradition. genres. In "Tancrede" (based on the historical tragedy of the same name by Voltaire), R. introduced heroic choirs. march character, imbued with the intonations of mass combat songs, developed a drama. recitative scenes, created heroic. arias of a folk-song warehouse (however, according to tradition, the role of the courageous Tancred was intended for a travesty singer). Replete with comedic scenes, the opera-buffa "Italian in Algiers" R. enriched pathetic. and heroic episodes (the aria of the heroine, accompanied by a choir, a militant marching choir of Italians, in which the intonations of the Marseillaise sound, etc.).

Simultaneously R. continued to write traditional. buffa operas (for example, The Turk in Italy, 1814) and seria operas (Aurelian in Palmyra, 1813; Sigismondo, 1814; Elizabeth, Queen of England, 1815, etc.), but also he innovated in them. So, for the first time in the history of the Italian. opera art-va R. wrote out in the score of "Elizabeth" all the virtuoso woks. decorations and passages, which were previously improvised by singers; he introduced strings into the accompaniment of recitatives. instruments of the orchestra, thereby abolishing the secco recitative (that is, against the background of sustained cembalo chords).
In 1815 R., fascinated by the national liberation. ideas, wrote at the request of the patriots of Bologna the "Hymn of Independence" (for the first time in Spanish under his direction). After the participation of R. in the patriotic. australian demonstrations. The police placed him under covert surveillance, which lasted for many years. years.
In 1816, in 19-20 days, R. created his best work, a masterpiece of Italian. buffa operas - "The Barber of Seville" (based on the comedy by Beaumarchais; in order to avoid parallelism with G. Paisiello's opera on the same plot, R.'s opera was called "Almaviva, or Vain Precaution"). Due to lack of time R. used the overture to his opera Aurelian in Palmyra. In "The Barber of Seville" he relied on the music-dramatist. discoveries of W. A. ​​Mozart and the best Italian. buffoon traditions. In this op. united everything innovative and bright, found by R. in his former comic. operas. The characters have received juicy, multifaceted characteristics, the music sensitively follows the unexpected turns of the action. The richness and flexibility of the wok is striking. melodics, sometimes lyrically cantilena, sometimes generalizing intonations of temperamental Italian. speech. Ensembles are numerous and varied - the focus of musical drama. actions. Even in previous Op. R. updated and enriched the art of orchestration. The score of "The Barber of Seville" is evidence of the high achievements of R. in the field of the orchestra: sparkling and melodious, rich in timbre and contrast, loud and transparent. R. brought to perfection the reception of a huge emotional-dynamic technique that he had encountered before. growth, achieved by a gradual increase in the strength of sonority, the connection of new singers. voices and instruments (in particular percussion), general acceleration of the tempo, rhythmic. injection. R. introduced a similar crescendo at the end of certain arias, ensembles, and necessarily at the conclusion of opera finals. "The Barber of Seville" is truly realistic. music comedy with elements of satire. Its heroes are endowed with typical characters snatched from life. The situations, with all the heaps of comedic situations and vivid theatricality, are natural and truthful. At the premiere, due to the intrigues of schemers and envious people, the opera failed, but the very next performance turned out to be a triumph.

G. Rossini. "The Barber of Seville". Cavatina Figaro. Score page. Autograph.
R. looked for new solutions in the opera seria. Appeal to the dramaturgy of W. Shakespeare in the opera "Othello" (1816) meant a break with the legendary and historical. themes typical of the opera seria. In a number of scenes of this opera, R. achieves a dramatic and expressive depiction of situations. New to Italian opera was that the whole orchestra participates in the accompaniment of recitatives (recitative obligato). However, conventions have not yet been completely overcome in Othello, there are miscalculations in the libretto, and there is no music. character sketching.
Having exhausted the possibilities of opera buffa in the Barber of Seville, R. strove for a playwright. and figurative renewal of the genre. He created household music. comedy in lyric. tones, - Cinderella (based on the fairy tale by Ch. Perrault, 1817), the semi-serious opera The Thieving Magpie (1817), in which genre scenes full of lyrics and gentle humor are compared with pathetic. and tragic. episodes. Fundamentally new is thematic. connection between the overture and the opera. The role of the orchestra has been strengthened, rhythm and harmony have become richer and more diverse.
The most important milestone on the path of perestroika, the Italian. Opera-seria into folk-heroic was the opera "Moses in Egypt" (1818), written in the genre of "tragic-sacred action". The biblical legend, which served as the basis for the libretto, was interpreted by the composer as an allusion to the modern. the position of the Italian people suffering under the yoke of foreign invaders. The opera is sustained in the character of majestic oratorio (widely developed ensemble-choir scenes predominate). The music is heroic. and hymn. intonations and rhythms, severe marching. At the same time, she also has a purely Rossini tenderness and lyricism. With great success, she walked in Italy and abroad. Among the composer's successes is the opera The Lady of the Lake (based on a poem by Walter Scott, 1819), marked by pathos, restrained noble heroism; R. first captured in his music a sense of nature, the chivalrous flavor of the Middle Ages. Mass choir. the scenes became even larger and more significant (in the finale of the 1st act, a sextet of soloists and 3 diverse choirs alternate and unite).
The constant need to write several times. opera scores per year often adversely affected the results of the work. The traditionally solved opera series in historical language turned out to be unsuccessful. plot of "Bianca and Faliero" (1819). Meaning at the same time. an achievement was the opera Mohammed II (based on the tragedy of Voltaire, 1820), intended for the San Carlo in Naples, in which the composer's attraction to the heroic-patriotic was affected. themes, detailed scenes, through music. development, drama. characteristic. The composer also asserted new creative principles in the opera seria Zelmira (1822).
In 1820, during the period of the revolution. uprising in Naples, led by carbonari officers, R. joined the ranks of the nat. guards. In 1822, R., together with the Italian. troupe, which performed his operas with great success, was in Vienna. A deep impression was made on him by the opera "Free Shooter" by Weber, performed under control. author. In Vienna, R. visited L. Beethoven, whose creations he admired. In con. In 1822, in Venice, he completed the score of the "tragic melodrama" "Semiramide" (based on the tragedy of Voltaire, post. 1823). This is the last opera he wrote for Italy. It is distinguished by the integrity of the muses. development, active development of bright relief themes that matter through images, colorful harmony, symphony. and timbre enrichment of the orchestra, organic. the interweaving of numerous choirs to drama action, plastic, expressive recitations. recitatives and wok melodies. parties. With the help of these funds, the composer embodied the ostrich drama. and conflict situations, psychologically intense episodes of music. tragedy. However, some traditions of the old opera seria have been preserved here: solo woks. the parties are excessively virtuoso, the party of the young commander Arzache is entrusted with the contralto. The problem of the Muses has not yet been resolved. character in the opera seria.
For creativity R. typical interpenetration of genres (he did not consider opera seria and opera buffa as something isolated, mutually exclusive). In comic operas meet dramas. and even tragic. situations, in the opera-seria - genre-everyday episodes; lyrical-psychological intensifies. the beginning, the drama is aggravated, the features of the heroic appear. oratorio. R. strove for an operatic reform similar to that carried out in Vienna by Mozart. However, the well-known conservatism of the arts. Italian tastes. the public was hampered by his creativity. evolution.
In 1823 R. with a group of Italian. singers was invited to London for Spanish. his operas. He conducted performances, performed as a singer and composer in concerts. From 1824 he was the head of the "Italien Theatre", from 1826 the king. composer and general inspector of singing in Paris. Revolutionary city. traditions, intellectual and arts. the center of Europe, the center of the leading figures of art and culture - Paris in the 20s. became the most fertile ground for the full realization of R.'s innovative aspirations. R.'s Parisian debut (1825) turned out to be unsuccessful (the opera-cantata Journey to Reims, or the Hotel of the Golden Lily, written by order for the coronation of Charles X in Reims). Having studied French operatic art, features of his muses. dramaturgy and style, French. language and its prosody, R. reworked for the Parisian scene one of his heroic-tragic. opera ital. period "Mohammed II" (written in a new libre, which acquired a topical patriotic focus, R. deepened the expressiveness of vocal parts). Premiere of the opera "The Siege of Corinth" (1826, "The King's Academy of Music and Dance") evoked the approval of the audience and the Parisian press. In 1827, R. created the French. ed. opera "Moses in Egypt", which was also met with enthusiasm. In 1828, the opera The Comte Ori appeared (libre by E. Scribe and III. Delestre-Poirson; the best pages of the music of Journey to Reims were used), in which R. proved himself a master in the new genre of French. comic operas.
R. took a lot from the operatic culture of France, but at the same time had an impact on it. In France, R. had not only adherents and admirers, but also opponents (“anti-Rossinists”), however, they also recognized the high skill of Italian. composer. R.'s music influenced the work of A. Boildieu, F. Herold, D. F. Aubert, and also in the definition. measure on J. Meyerbeer.
In 1829, in the setting of societies. rise on the eve of the July Revolution of 1830, the opera William Tell was composed (librated according to an old Swiss legend, which also served as the basis for F. Schiller's tragedy), which became an outstanding result of all the composer's previous searches in the folk-heroic. genre. The overture is interpreted in a new way - a free software symphony. a poem in which lyric-epic, pastoral-picturesque, genre-effective episodes alternate. The opera is full of choirs depicting people who live, rejoice, dream, mourn, resist, fight and win. According to A. N. Serov, R. showed the "ebullency of the masses" (monumental choral scene of the finale of the 2nd act; soloists and 3 choirs participate). In "William Tell" the problem of creating individually delineated muses was solved. characteristics of the characters in the heroic. opera. Each character is endowed with a certain a system of rhythm intonations; Tell is most clearly outlined. R. has achieved the preservation of the individual appearance of each of the participants in numerous. ensembles, growing into large stages, full of continuous music. development and drama. contrasts. Distinguish. features of "William Tell" - the solidity of the acts, the development of musical stage. action with a big stroke. The role of dramatic-expressive recitatives is great, holding the department together. scenes into an indivisible whole. notice. a feature of the timbre-colorful score is a subtle transfer of local color. Opera is characterized by a new type of music. dramaturgy, a new interpretation of heroics. R. created realistic. Nar.-heroic. and patriotic. opera, in which great deeds are performed by ordinary people endowed with living characters, and their muses. the language is based on widespread song and speech intonations. Soon after "William Tell" the glory of the revolution was strengthened. operas. In the monarchy countries, it was censored. For post. I had to change the name, the text (for a long time in Russia the opera was called "Karl the Bold").
The discreet welcome given to "William Tell" by the bourgeois-aristocratic. the public of Paris, as well as new trends in opera art (the establishment of a romantic direction, alien to the worldview of R., an adherent of the aesthetics of the Viennese classics), overwork caused by intense creativity - all this prompted the composer to abandon further writing operas. In later years, he created many woks. and fp. miniatures: collections "Musical evenings" (1835), "Sins of old age" (not published); a number of hymns and 2 major wok.-symphon. prod. - Stabat mater (1842) and "Little Solemn Mass" (1863). Despite the orthodox Catholic texts, expressive and emotional music of these Op. perceived as truly secular.
In 1836-65 R. lived in Italy (Bologna, Florence), was engaged in teaching. work, supervised the Bologna muses. lyceum. He spent the last 13 years of his life in Paris, where his house became one of the most popular muses. salons.
Creativity R. had a decisive impact on the subsequent development of Italian. operas (V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, G. Verdi) and a great influence on the evolution of European opera in the 19th century. "Positively, the whole great movement of the musical drama of our time, with all its broad horizons opening before us, is closely connected with the victories of the author of "William Tell"" (A.N. Serov). Inexhaustible melodic. richness, lightness, sparkle, lyric-drama. the expressiveness of the music and the vivid stage presence made R.'s operas popular all over the world.
Key dates of life and activity
1792. - 29 II. In Pesaro in the family of a mountain musician. orchestra (horn player and trumpeter), slaughterhouse inspector Giuseppe R. (born in Lugo) and his wife Anna - singer, daughter of a Pesar baker (nee Gidarini) b. son of Gioacchino.
1800. - Moving with parents to Bologna. - The first lessons of playing the spinet from J. Prinetti. Learning to play the violin.
1801. - Work in the theater. orchestra, where his father was a horn player (performs the violin part).
1802. - Moving with parents to the city of Lugo. - Continued music. classes with Canon J. Malerby, who introduced R. to the work. J. Haydn, W. A. ​​Mozart.
1804-05. - Return to Bologna. Lessons with Padre A. Tezei (singing, playing the cembalo, original musical-theoretical information). op. R. - Performances as a chorister in churches. - Invitation to the t-ry of Bologna and nearby cities to conduct the choir, accompany recitatives on cembalo, Spanish. solo woks. parties.- Classes with tenor M Babini - Creation of R. amateur strings. quartet (performs viola).
1806. - IV. Acceptance of R. in. member Bologna Philharmonic. Academy. - Summer. Admission to the Bologna Muses. lyceum (cello class of V. Kavedagni and piano class).
1807. - Classes in the class of counterpoint with Padre S. Mattei. - Independent. study of scores by D. Cimarosa, Haydn, Mozart.
1808. - 11 VIII. Use under ex. R. his cantata "Complaint of Harmony on the death of Orpheus" in the concert of the Bologna Muses. lyceum.- Use. in a concert of one of the academies of Bologna symphony D-dur P.
1810. - The middle of the year. Termination of classes at the Bologna Museum. lyceum.- 3 XI. Premiere of the farce opera "Promissory Note for Marriage" (the overture was later used by R. in the opera "Adelaide of Burgundy"). - Performance as a conductor in a concert of the Concordi Academy in Bologna (the oratorio "Creation of the World" by Haydn was performed).
1812. - 8 I. Post. opera-farce "Happy Deception" (overture used in the opera "Cyrus in Babylon"). - 26 IX. Fast. opera buffa "The Touchstone" (the overture was used in "Tancred") and other operas.
1813. - Post. a number of operas, including the opera-seria Aurelian in Palmyra.
1815. - April. Use under ex. R. his "Hymn of Independence" in the tre "Kantavali" (Bologna). - Autumn. Invitation of R. impresario D. Barbaei to the post of permanent composer of the San Carlo t-ra in Naples. - Acquaintance with the singer Isabella Colbran. - Presentation of R. to the widow of Field Marshal M. I. Kutuzov - E. I. Kutuzov cantata "Aurora" , in which the melody of Rus is used. dance song "Ah, why would the garden fence" (subsequently introduced into the final of the 2nd d. "The Barber of Seville").
1816. - First post. operas R. outside of Italy.
1818. - Honoring R. in Pesaro in connection with the opening of a new opera house and post. "Thieving magpies".
1820. - Revolutionary. uprising in Naples led by Carbonari officers. The adoption of the Constitution, the temporary coming to power of the bourgeois-liberal government - The entry of R. into the ranks of the nat. guards.
1821. - Post. in Rome, the opera "Matilda di Shabran", the first three performances of which were conducted by H. Paganini. - March. The defeat of the Austrian revolutionary army. uprisings in Naples, the restoration of absolutism. - April. Use in Naples, under R. Haydn's oratorio "The Creation of the World".
1822. - Post. in the "San Carlo" (Naples) opera-series "Zelmira" (the last opera written for this t-ra). - Marriage to I. Colbran. - 23 III. Arrival of R. with his wife to Vienna. - 27 III. Presence at the Vienna premiere of the opera "Free Shooter" by Weber. - Attending a concert where Spanish. Beethoven's 3rd ("Heroic") Symphony.- Meeting and conversation of R. with L. Beethoven.- End of July. Return to Bologna. Creation of Sat. wok. exercises. - December. A trip at the invitation of K. Metternich to Verona with the aim of composing and using. 4 cantatas during the festivities that accompanied the congress of the members of the Holy Alliance.
1823. - 3 II. Fast. "Semiramide" - the last opera R., created in Italy. - Autumn. A trip with his wife to Paris, then, at the invitation of the impresario of Covent Garden, to London.
1824. - 26 VII. Departure from London. - August. Occupation of the post of muses. director of the Théâtre Italienne in Paris.
1825. - 19 VI. Fast. the opera-cantata Journey to Reims, commissioned for the coronation of Charles X in Reims.
1826. - The appointment of R. to the post of king. composer and general inspector of singing - 11 VI. Fast. in Lisbon, the farce "Adina, or the Caliph of Baghdad".
1827. - Obtaining an honorary position in the king. retinue, approval by a member of the Council of Management of the king. music schools and a member of the committee of the t-ra "King Academy of Music and Dance".
1829. - 3 VIII. Fast. "William Tell".- Rewarding R. Legion of Honor.- Departure with his wife to Bologna.
1830. - September. Return to Paris.
1831. - Visit to Spain. Receiving an order from the archdeacon of Seville, don M. P. Varela, to write Stabat mater - Return to Paris. - Severe nervous disease.
1832. - Acquaintance with Olympia Pelissier (later the second wife of R.).
1836. - Receipt from the French. government of a lifetime pension.- Return to Bologna.
1837. - Break with I. Colbrand-Rossini.
1839. - Deterioration of health. - Obtaining the title of honorary president of the commission for the reform of the Bologna Muses. lyceum (becomes its permanent consultant).
1842. - Spanish. Stabat mater in Paris (7th I) and in Bologna (13th III, under G. Donizetti).
1845. - 7 X. Death of I. Kolbran. - Appointment of R. to the post. Director of the Bologna Music lyceum.
1846. - 21 VIII. Marriage to O. Pelissier.
1848. - Moving with his wife to Florence.
1855. - Departure from Italy with his wife. Life in Paris.
1864. - 14 III. Use "Little Solemn Mass" in the palace of Count Pilet-Ville.
1867. - Autumn. Deterioration in health.
1868. - 13 XI. Death of R. in Passy, ​​near Paris.- 15 XI. Burial in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.
1887. - 2 V. Transfer of the ashes of R. to Florence, to the church of Santa Croce.
Compositions : operas - Demetrio and 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, t-r "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), The case makes a thief, or Messed up suitcases (L "occasione fa il ladro, ossia Il cambio délia valigia, 1812, tr "San Moise", Venice), Signor Bruschino, or Random Son (Il signor Bruschino, ossia Ilfiglio per azzardo , 1813, ibid), Tancred (1813, tr Fenice, Venice), Italian in Algeria (L "italiana in Algeri, 1813, tr San Benedetto, Venice), Aurelian in Palmyra (Aureliano in Palmira, 1813, tr "La Scala", Milan), Turk in Italy (Il turco in Italia, 1814, ibid), Sigismondo (1814, tr "Fenice", Venice), Elizabeth, Queen of England ( Elisabetta, regina d "Inghilterra, 1815, tr "San Carlo", Naples), Torvaldo and Dorlisca (1815, tr "Balle", Rome), Almaviva, or Vain Precaution (Almaviva, ossia L "inutile precauzione ; known under the name 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 (1817, tr "San Carlo", Naples), Adelaide of Burgundy (Adelaide di Borgogna, 1817, tr "Argentina", Rome), Moses in Egypt (Mose in Egitto, 1818, tr "San Carlo", Naples; French ed. - under the title Moses and Pharaoh, or Crossing the Red Sea - Mopse et pharaon, ou Le passage de la mer Rouge, 1827, "Royal Academy of Music and Dance", Paris), Adina, or Caliph of Bagdad (Adina o Il califfo di Bagdado, 1818, post. 1826, tr. "San Carlo", Lisbon), Ricciardo and Zoraida (1818, San Carlo shopping mall, Naples), Hermione (1819, ibid.), Eduarde and Christina (1819, San Benedetto shopping mall, Venice), Lake Maiden ( 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, tr "La Scala", Milan), "Mohammed II" (1820, shopping mall "San Carlo", Naples; French ed. - under the name Siege of Corinth - Le siige 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, tr "Apollo ", Rome), Zelmira (1822, tr "San Carlo", Naples), Semiramide (1823, tr "Fenice", Venice), Journey to Reims, or Hotel Golden Lily (Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L "albergo del giglio d" oro, 1825, "Italien Theatre", Paris), Count Ory (Le comte Ory, 1828, "King Academy of Music and Dance", Paris), William Tell (1829, ibid.); pasticcio (from excerpts from R.'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. - Hymn 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, t -r "Del Fondo", Naples), Sincere tribute (Il vero omaggio, 1822, Verona), Happy omen (L "augurio felice, 1822, ibid.), Bard (Il bardo, 1822), Holy Union (La Santa alleanza, 1822), Complaint of the Muses about the death of Lord Byron (Il pianto délie 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 hymn (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 with orchestra - Variations for obligate instruments F- dur (Variazioni a piu strumenti obligati, for clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello, 1809), Variations C-dur (for clarinet, 1810); for spirit. orc. - 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 violin, treble and k-bass (1804), 5 string 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 Harmony's Complaint 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, t-r "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.); for voice with orc. - 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 with fp. - Cantatas Elie and Irene (for 2 voices, 1814) and Joan of Arc (1832), Musical Evenings (Soires musicales, 8 ariettes and 4 duets, 1835); 3 vocal quartets (1826-27); Exercises for soprano ( Gorgheggi e solfeggi per soprano Vocalizzi e solfeggi per rendere la voce agile ed apprendere a cantare secondo il gusto moderno, 1827); 14 albums of vocal and instrumental pieces and ensembles united under the title Sins of old age (Püchés de vieillesse: Album of Italian songs - Album per canto italiano, French album - Album français, Restrained pieces - Morceaux réservés, Four appetizers and four desserts - Quatre hors d "oeuvres et quatre mendiants, for fp., Album for fp., skr., vlch., harmonium and French horns, many others, 1855-68, Paris, not published); sacred 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, 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), Stabat mater (for 4 voices, choir and orchestra, 1831-32, 2nd ed. 1841-42, edited 1842, Ventadour Hall, Paris), 3 choirs - Faith, Hope, Mercy (La foi, L "espérance, La charité, for women's choir and piano, 1844), Tantum ergo (for 2 tenors and bass), 1847, Church of San Francesco dei Minori Conventuali, Bologna), About Salutaris Hostia (for 4 voices 1857), Little Solemn Mass (Petite messe solennelle, for 4 voices, choir, harmonium and piano, 1863, Spanish 1864, in the house of Count Pilet-Ville, Paris), the same (for soloists, choir and orc., 1864, Spanish 1869, "Italien Theatre", Paris), Requiem Melody (Chant de Requiem, for contralto and piano. , 1864); music for drama performances. t-ra - Oedipus in Colon (to the tragedy of Sophocles, 14 numbers for soloists, choir and orchestra, 1815-16?). Letters: Lettere inedite, Siena, 1892; Lettere inedite, Imola, 1892; Lettere, Firenze, 1902. Literature : Serov A.N., "Count Ori", Rossini's opera, "Musical and Theater Bulletin", 1856, No. 50, 51, the same in his book: Selected Articles, vol. 2, M., 1957; his own, Rossini. (Coup d "oeil critique), "Journal de St.-Petersbourg", 1868, No 18-19, the same in his book: Selected Articles, vol. 1, M., 1950; Khokhlovkina A., "The Barber of Seville "G. Rossini, M., 1950, 1958; Sinyaver L., Gioacchino Rossini, M., 1964; Bronfin E., Gioacchino Rossini. 1792-1868. Brief essay on life and work, M.-L., 1966; el Gioacchino Rossini, Life and Work in Materials and Documents, M., 1973; Gioacchino Rossini, Selected Letters, Sayings, Memoirs, ed. 1968; Stendhal, Vie de Rossini, P., 1824; Carpani G., Le Rossiniane, Padua, 1824; Ortigue J. d", De la guerre des dilettanti, ou de la révolution opérée par M. Rossini dans l "opéra français, P., 1829; Berlioz G., Guillaume Tell, "Gazette musicale de Paris", 1834, 12, 19 , 26 octobre, 2 novembre (Russian translation - Berlioz G., "William Tell", in his book: Selected Articles, M., 1956); Escudier M. et L., Rossini, P., 1854; Mirecourt E. de, Rossini, P., 1855; Hiller, P., Aus dem Tonleben unserer Zeit, Bd 2, Lpz., 1868; Edwards H., Rossini, L., 1869; his, Rossini and his school, L., 1881, 1895; Rougin A., Rossini, P., 1870; Wagner R., Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen, Bd 8, Lpz., 1873; Hanslick E., Die moderne Oper. Kritiken und Studien, B., 1875, 1892; Naumann E., Italienische Tondichter von Palestrina bis auf die Gegenwart, B., 1876; Daurias L., Rossini, P., 1905; Sandberger A., ​​Rossiniana, "ZIMG", 1907/08, Bd 9; Istel E., Rossiniana, "Die Musik", 1910/11, Bd 10; Saint-Salns C., Ecole buissonnière, P., 1913, p. 261-67; Para G., Gioacchino Rossini, Torino, 1915; Сurzon H. de, Rossini, P., 1920; Radiciotti G., Gioacchino Rossini, vita documentata, opera ed influenza su l "arte, t. 1-3, Tivoli, 1927-29; his own, Anedotti authenticici, Roma, 1929; Rrod "homme J.-G., Rossini and his works in France, "MQ", 1931, v. 17; Toue F., Rossini, L.-N. Y., 1934, 1955; Faller H., Die Gesangskoloratur in Rossinis Opern..., V., 1935 (Diss.); Praccarolli A., Rossini, Verona, 1941, Mil., 1944; Vaschelli R., Gioacchino Rossini, Torino, 1941, Mil., 1954; his own, Rossini o esperienze rossiniane, Mil., 1959; Rfister K., Das Leben Rossinis, W., 1948; Franzén N. O., Rossini, Stockh., 1951; Kuin J. P. W., Goacchino Rossini, Tilburg, 1952; Gozzano U. , Rossini, Torino, 1955; Rognoni L., Rossini, (Parma), 1956; Weinstock H., Rossini. A biography, N. Y., 1968; "Nuova Rivista musicale italiana", 1968, Anno 2, No 5, sett./oct. (number dedicated to R.); Harding J., Rossini, L., 1971, id., N. Y., 1972. E.P. Bronfin.

Musical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysha. 1973-1982 .

Gioachino Rossini is an Italian composer of brass and chamber music, the so-called "last classic". As the author of 39 operas, Gioachino Rossini is known as one of the most productive composers with a unique approach to creativity: in addition to studying the musical culture of the country, he also works with the language, rhythm and sound of the libretto. Rossini was noted by Beethoven for the opera buff "The Barber of Seville". The works "William Tell", "Cinderella" and "Moses in Egypt" have become world opera classics.

Rossini was born in 1792 in the city of Pesaro into a family of musicians. After his father was arrested for supporting the French Revolution, the future composer had to live wandering around Italy with his mother. At the same time, the young talent tried to master musical instruments and was engaged in singing: Gioacchino had a strong baritone.

The works of Mozart and Haydn, which Rossini learned while studying in the city of Lugo since 1802, had a great influence on Rossini's work. There he made his debut as an opera performer in the play "Gemini". In 1806, having moved to Bologna, the composer entered the Music Lyceum, where he studied solfeggio, cello and piano.

The composer's debut took place in 1810 at the San Moise Theater in Venice, where an opera buff based on the libretto "The Marriage Promissory Note" was staged. Inspired by the success, Rossini wrote the opera series Cyrus in Babylon, or the Fall of Belshazzar, and in 1812 the opera The Touchstone, which brought Gioacchino the recognition of the La Scala theater. The following works "The Italian in Algeria" and "Tancred" bring Rossini the glory of the maestro of buffoonery, and Rossini received the nickname "Italian Mozart" for his penchant for melodious and melodic harmonies.

Moving to Naples in 1816, the composer wrote the best work of Italian buffoonery - the opera The Barber of Seville, which overshadowed the opera of the same name by Giovanni Paisiello, which was considered a classic. After a resounding success, the composer turned to operatic drama, writing The Thieving Magpie and Othello, operas in which the author worked not only the scores, but also the text, setting strict requirements for solo performers.

After successful work in Vienna and London, the composer conquers Paris with the opera The Siege of Corinth in 1826. Rossini skillfully adapted his operas for the French audience, studying the nuances of the language, its sound, as well as the peculiarities of national music.

The active creative career of the musician ended in 1829, when classicism was replaced by romanticism. Further, Rossini teaches music and is fond of gourmet cuisine: the latter led to a stomach ailment that caused the musician's death in 1868 in Paris. The musician's property was sold according to the will, and with the proceeds, the Teaching Conservatory was founded in the city of Pesaro, which trains musicians today.

The famous Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini was born on February 29, 1792 in the small town of Pesaro, located on the coast of the Gulf of Venice.

Since childhood, he has been involved in music. His father, Giuseppe Rossini, nicknamed Veselchak for his playful disposition, was a city trumpeter, and his mother, a woman of rare beauty, had a beautiful voice. There were always songs and music in the house.

Being a supporter of the French Revolution, Giuseppe Rossini joyfully welcomed the entry of revolutionary units into Italy in 1796. The restoration of the power of the Pope was marked by the arrest of the head of the Rossini family.

Having lost his job, Giuseppe and his wife were forced to become itinerant musicians. Rossini's father was a horn player in orchestras that performed in fair performances, and his mother performed opera arias. The beautiful soprano Gioacchino, who sang in church choirs, also brought income to the family. The boy's voice was highly appreciated by the choirmasters of Lugo and Bologna. In the last of these cities, famous for its musical traditions, the Rossini family found shelter.

In 1804, at the age of 12, Gioacchino began to study music professionally. His teacher was the church composer Angelo Tesei, under whose guidance the boy quickly mastered the rules of counterpoint, as well as the art of accompaniment and singing. A year later, young Rossini set off on a journey through the cities of Romagna as a bandmaster.

Realizing the incompleteness of his musical education, Gioacchino decided to continue it at the Bologna Music Lyceum, where he was enrolled as a cello student. Classes in counterpoint and composition were supplemented by independent study of scores and manuscripts from the rich Lyceum library.

Passion for the work of such famous musical figures as Cimarosa, Haydn and Mozart, had a special influence on the development of Rossini as a musician and composer. While still a student of the Lyceum, he became a member of the Bologna Academy, and after graduation, in recognition of his talent, he received an invitation to conduct a performance of Haydn's oratorio The Four Seasons.

Gioacchino Rossini early discovered an amazing capacity for work, he quickly coped with any creative task, showing the wonders of amazing compositional technique. During the years of his studies, he wrote a large number of musical works, including sacred works, symphonies, instrumental music and vocal works, as well as excerpts from the opera Demetrio and Polibio, Rossini's first work in this genre.

The year of graduating from the Lyceum was marked by the beginning of Rossini's simultaneous activities as a singer, bandmaster and opera composer.

The period from 1810 to 1815 was marked in the life of the famous composer as "wandering", at this time Rossini wandered from one city to another, not staying anywhere for more than two or three months.

The fact is that in Italy of the 18th - 19th centuries, permanent opera houses existed only in large cities - such as Milan, Venice and Naples, small settlements had to be content with the art of itinerant theater troupes, usually consisting of a prima donna, tenor, bass and several singers. in secondary roles. The orchestra was recruited from local music lovers, military and traveling musicians.

The maestro (composer), hired by the troupe impresario, wrote music to the provided libretto, and the performance was staged, while the maestro had to conduct the opera himself. With a successful production, the work was performed for 20-30 days, after which the troupe disintegrated, and the artists scattered around the cities.

For five long years, Gioacchino Rossini wrote operas for traveling theaters and artists. Close cooperation with the performers contributed to the development of great composer flexibility, it was necessary to take into account the vocal abilities of each singer, the tessitura and timbre of his voice, artistic temperament, and much more.

The delight of the public and penny fees - that's what Rossini received as a reward for his composing work. In his early works, some haste and carelessness were noted, which caused severe criticism. Thus, the composer Paisiello, who saw a formidable rival in Gioacchino Rossini, spoke of him as "a dissolute composer, little versed in the rules of art and devoid of good taste."

Criticism did not bother the young composer, since he was well aware of the shortcomings of his works, in some scores he even noted the so-called grammatical errors with the words "to satisfy the pedants".

In the first years of independent creative activity, Rossini worked on writing mainly comic operas, which had strong roots in the musical culture of Italy. In his later work, the genre of serious opera occupied an important place.

Unprecedented success came to Rossini in 1813, after the performances in Venice of the works "Tankred" (opera seria) and "Italian in Algiers" (opera buffa). The doors of the best theaters in Milan, Venice and Rome opened before him, arias from his compositions were sung in carnivals, city squares and streets.

Gioacchino Rossini became one of the most popular composers in Italy. Memorable melodies, filled with uncontrollable temperament, fun, heroic pathos and love lyrics, made an unforgettable impression on the entire Italian society, whether it be aristocratic circles or a society of artisans.

The composer's patriotic ideas, sounding in many of his works of a later period, also found a response. So, in the typical buffoonish plot of "Italian in Algeria" with fights, scenes with disguises and lovers who get into a mess, patriotic themes are unexpectedly wedged.

The main heroine of the opera, Isabella, addresses her beloved Lindor, who is languishing in captivity at the Algerian Bey Mustafa, with the words: “Think about your homeland, be fearless and do your duty. Look: throughout Italy, sublime examples of valor and dignity are being revived. This aria reflects the patriotic feelings of the era.

In 1815, Rossini moved to Naples, where he was offered a position as a composer at the San Carlo Opera House, which promised a number of profitable prospects, such as high fees and work with famous performers. Moving to Naples was marked for the young Gioacchino by the end of the period of "vagrancy".

From 1815 to 1822, Rossini worked in one of the best theaters in Italy, at the same time he traveled around the country and completed orders for other cities. On the stage of the Neapolitan theater, the young composer made his debut with the opera seria "Elizabeth, Queen of England", which was a new word in traditional Italian opera.

Since ancient times, the aria as a form of solo singing has been the musical core of such works, the composer was faced with the task of outlining only the musical lines of the opera and highlighting the main melodic contour in the vocal parts.

The success of the work in this case depended only on the improvisational talent and taste of the virtuoso performer. Rossini departed from a long tradition: violating the rights of the singer, he wrote out in the score all the coloratura, virtuoso passages and decorations of the aria. Soon this innovation entered the work of other Italian composers.

The Neapolitan period contributed to the improvement of Rossini's musical genius and the composer's transition from the light comedy genre to more serious music.

The situation of the growing social upsurge, which was resolved by the uprising of the Carbonari in 1820-1821, required more significant and heroic images than the frivolous characters of comedic works. Thus, in the opera seria there were more opportunities to express new trends that Gioacchino Rossini was sensitive to.

For a number of years, the main object of the outstanding composer's work was a serious opera. Rossini strove to change the musical and plot standards of the traditional seria opera, which had already been defined at the beginning of the 18th century. He tried to introduce significant content and drama into this style, to expand connections with real life and the ideas of his time, in addition, the composer gave a serious opera the activity and dynamics borrowed from the buffa opera.

The time of work in the Neapolitan theater turned out to be very significant in terms of its achievements and results. During this period, such works were written as Tancred, Othello (1816), which reflected Rossini's tendency to high drama, as well as monumental heroic works Moses in Egypt (1818) and Mohammed II (1820) .

Romantic tendencies developing in Italian music demanded new artistic images and means of musical expression. Rossini's opera The Woman from the Lake (1819) reflects such features of the romantic style in music as picturesque descriptions and the transfer of lyrical experiences.

The best works of Gioachino Rossini are considered to be The Barber of Seville, created in 1816 for staging in Rome during the carnival holidays and the result of the composer's many years of work on a comic opera, and the heroic-romantic work William Tell.

In The Barber of Seville, all the most vital and vivid from the buffa opera was preserved: the democratic traditions of the genre and national elements were enriched in this work, permeated through and through with smart, biting irony, sincere fun and optimism, a realistic depiction of the surrounding reality.

The first production of The Barber of Seville, written in just 19 or 20 days, was unsuccessful, but already at the second show the audience enthusiastically welcomed the famous composer, there was even a torchlight procession in honor of Rossini.

The opera libretto, consisting of two acts and four scenes, is based on the plot of the work of the same name by the famous French playwright Beaumarchais. The place of events unfolding on the stage is the Spanish Seville, the main characters are Count Almaviva, his beloved Rosina, the barber, physician and musician Figaro, Dr. Bartolo, Rosina's guardian and the monk Don Basilio, Bartolo's secret attorney.

In the first picture of the first act, Count Almaviva, in love, wanders near the house of Dr. Bartolo, where his beloved lives. His lyrical aria is heard by Rosina's cunning guardian, who himself has views of his ward. Figaro, the master of all sorts, comes to the aid of the lovers, inspired by the count's promises.

The action of the second picture takes place in the house of Bartolo, in the room of Rosina, who dreams of sending a letter to her admirer Lindor (Count Almaviva is hidden under this name). At this time, Figaro appears and offers his services, but the unexpected arrival of a guardian forces him to hide. Figaro learns about the insidious plans of Bartolo and Don Basilio and hurries to warn Rosina about this.

Soon Almaviva bursts into the house under the guise of a drunken soldier, Bartolo tries to put him out the door. In this turmoil, the count manages to quietly pass a note to his beloved and inform that Lindor is he. Figaro is also here, together with Bartolo's servants, he is trying to separate the owner of the house and Almaviva.

Everyone falls silent only with the arrival of a team of soldiers. The officer gives the order to arrest the count, but the paper filed with a majestic gesture instantly changes his behavior. The representative of the authorities bows respectfully to the disguised Almaviva, causing bewilderment among all those present.

The second action takes place in Bartolo's room, where the amorous count, disguised as a monk, arrives, posing as Don Alonzo's singing teacher. To gain Dr. Bartolo's trust, Almaviva gives him Rosina's note. The girl, recognizing her Lindor in the monk, willingly starts her studies, but the presence of Bartolo interferes with the lovers.

At this time, Figaro arrives and offers the old man a shave. By cunning, the barber manages to get hold of the key to Rosina's balcony. The arrival of Don Basilio threatens to ruin the well-played performance, but he is “removed” from the stage just in time. The lesson resumes, Figaro continues the shaving procedure, trying to block the lovers from Bartolo, but the deception is revealed. Almaviva and the barber are forced to flee.

Bartolo, using a note from Rosina, carelessly given to him by the count, persuades the disappointed girl to sign the marriage contract. Rosina reveals to her guardian the secret of the impending escape, and he goes to fetch the guards.

At this time, Almaviva and Figaro enter the girl's room. The count asks Rosina to become his wife and receives consent. The lovers want to leave the house as soon as possible, but an unexpected obstacle arises in the form of the lack of stairs near the balcony and the arrival of Don Basilio with a notary.

The appearance of Figaro, who announced Rosina as his niece and Count Almaviva as her fiancé, saves the day. Dr. Bartolo, who came with the guards, finds the marriage of the ward already accomplished. In impotent rage, he attacks the "traitor" Basilio and the "scoundrel" Figaro, but Almaviva's generosity bribes him, and he joins the general welcoming chorus.

The libretto of The Barber of Seville differs significantly from the original source: here the social sharpness and satirical orientation of Beaumarchais's comedy turned out to be greatly softened. For Rossini, Count Almaviva is a lyrical character, not an empty rake-aristocrat. His sincere feelings and desire for happiness triumph over the mercenary plans of Bartolo's guardian.

Figaro appears as a cheerful, dexterous and enterprising person, in whose party there is not even a hint of moralizing and philosophizing. Figaro's life credo is laughter and jokes. These two characters are contrasted with negative characters - the stingy old man Bartolo and the hypocritical hypocrite Don Basilio.

Cheerful, sincere, contagious laughter is the main tool of Gioacchino Rossini, who in his musical comedies and farces relies on the traditional images of the buffa opera - the amorous guardian, the dexterous servant, the pretty pupil and the cunning rogue monk.

Reviving these masks with features of realism, the composer gives them the appearance of people, as if snatched from reality. It happened that the action depicted on the stage or the character was associated by the public with a certain event, incident or a specific person.

Thus, The Barber of Seville is a realistic comedy, the realism of which is manifested not only in the plot and dramatic situations, but also in generalized human characters, in the composer's ability to typify the phenomena of contemporary life.

The overture that precedes the events of the opera sets the tone for the entire work. She plunges into the atmosphere of fun and easy jokes. In the future, the mood created by the overture is concretized in a certain fragment of the comedy.

Despite the fact that this musical introduction was repeatedly used by Rossini in other works, it is perceived as an integral part of the Barber of Seville. Each theme of the overture is based on a new melodic basis, and the connecting parts create a continuity of transitions and give the overture an organic integrity.

The fascination of the operatic action of The Barber of Seville depends on the variety of compositional techniques used by Rossini: introduction, the effect of which is the result of a combination of stage and musical action; alternation of recitatives and dialogues with solo arias characterizing this or that character, and duets; ensemble scenes with a through line of development, designed to mix the various threads of the plot and maintain intense interest in the further development of events; orchestral parts that support the rapid pace of the opera.

The source of the melody and rhythm of "The Barber of Seville" by Gioacchino Rossini is bright temperamental Italian music. In the score of this work, everyday song and dance turns and rhythms are heard, which form the basis of this musical comedy.

Created after The Barber of Seville, the works Cinderella and Magpie the Thief are far from the usual comedy genre. The composer pays more attention to lyrical characteristics and dramatic situations. However, with all the striving for a new Rossini, he could not finally overcome the conventions of a serious opera.

In 1822, together with a troupe of Italian artists, the famous composer went on a two-year tour of the capitals of European states. Glory walked ahead of the famous maestro, everywhere he was expected by a luxurious reception, huge fees and the best theaters and performers in the world.

In 1824, Rossini became the head of the Italian opera house in Paris and did much in this post to promote Italian opera music. In addition, the famous maestro patronized young Italian composers and musicians.

During the Parisian period, Rossini wrote a number of works for the French opera, many old works were reworked. So, the opera "Mohammed II" in the French edition was called "The Siege of Coronth" and was a success on the Parisian stage. The composer managed to make his works more realistic and dramatic, to achieve simplicity and naturalness of musical speech.

The influence of the French operatic tradition was manifested in a more rigorous interpretation of the operatic plot, a shift in emphasis from lyrical to heroic scenes, a simplification of the vocal style, giving more importance to crowd scenes, choir and ensemble, as well as an attentive attitude to the opera orchestra.

All the works of the Parisian period were a preparatory stage towards the creation of the heroic-romantic opera William Tell, in which the solo arias of traditional Italian operas were replaced by mass choral scenes.

The libretto of this work, which tells about the national liberation war of the Swiss cantons against the Austrians, fully met the patriotic moods of Gioacchino Rossini and the demands of the progressive public on the eve of the revolutionary events of 1830.

The composer worked on "William Tell" for several months. The premiere, which took place in the autumn of 1829, caused rave reviews from the public, but this opera did not receive much recognition and popularity. Outside of France, the production of William Tell was taboo.

Pictures of the folk life and traditions of the Swiss served only as a background for depicting the anger and indignation of the oppressed people, the finale of the work - the uprising of the masses against foreign enslavers - reflected the feelings of the era.

The most famous fragment of the opera "William Tell" was the overture, remarkable for its brilliance and skill - an expression of the multifaceted composition of the entire musical work.

The artistic principles used by Rossini in William Tell found application in the works of many figures of French and Italian opera of the 19th century. And in Switzerland they even wanted to erect a monument to the famous composer, whose work contributed to the intensification of the national liberation struggle of the Swiss people.

The opera "William Tell" was the last work of Gioacchino Rossini, who at the age of 40 suddenly stopped writing opera music and began arranging concerts and performances. In 1836, the celebrated composer returned to Italy, where he lived until the mid-1850s. Rossini provided all possible assistance to the Italian rebels and even wrote the national anthem in 1848.

However, a severe nervous illness forced Rossini to move to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life. His house became one of the centers of the artistic life of the French capital; many world-famous Italian and French singers, composers and pianists came here.

Retirement from opera did not weaken the fame of Rossini, which came to him in his youth and did not leave even after his death. Of the works created in the second half of his life, the collections of romances and duets “Musical Evenings”, as well as sacred music “Stabat mater”, deserve special attention.

Gioacchino Rossini died in Paris in 1868 at the age of 76. A few years later, his ashes were sent to Florence and buried in the pantheon of the Church of Santa Croce, a kind of tomb of the best representatives of Italian culture.

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

Gioacchino Rossini Rossini opened 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 nearly 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 a few months later 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 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 Algeria"), 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 in the future will supplant the opera-seria: a folk-heroic opera dedicated to the theme of the struggle for liberation, depicting large masses of 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 loyal 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 refined conversation and exquisite cuisine, of which the composer was known 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 was 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 Algiers", where the features of the composer's mature style are already quite visible, especially in the wonderful finale of the first d. His success was also the buffa opera "The Turk in Italy" ( 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-series, 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 works, 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.

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 eternally 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
Golden jet and spray...
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 caused not only by excellent music, but also by 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 comedic-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 stage of the Grand Opera - 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, the 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 to 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 detracting from 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 Italian period of the composer, 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 just 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, tr "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, t-r "San Carlo", Naples), Hermione (Ermione, 1819, ibid), Eduardo and Christina (Eduardo e Cristina, 1819, t- r San Benedetto, Venice), the Lady 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, tr "La Scala", Milan), "Mohammed II" (Maometto II, 1820, tr "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. Sins of old age (Pйchйs 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),