Gioacchino Rossini
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Gioachino Rossini, a towering Italian composer of the Romantic era
His work included 36 operas such as The Barber of Seville (1816), La Cenerentola (1817), Semiramis (1823) and William Tell (1829). He also wrote sacred music (such as his Stabat Mater oratorio of 1842) and chamber music.
Rossini's music is noted for its great melodies, its humor, its brilliant bravura pieces, and its feeling for the theater.
Duet "Dunque io son tu non m'inganni?" from Rossini's opera, The Barber of Seville
With Fiorenza Cossotto as Rosina and Sesto Bruscantini as Figaro.
How I Judge Music
"Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind."
-- Gioachino Rossini
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini
Rossini
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The son of a singer and a ne'er-do-well, Rossini (1792-1868) became rich and respected as the composer of one opera buffa smash after another. A playboy who contracted gonorrhea and suffered severe depression, he married, but eventually separated from, a Spanish soprano. He spent his last years, dogged by paranoia and gonorrhea-related inflammations, under the courtesan Olympe's care, which included maintaining an artist's salon in their Paris home so that the composer could spend his final months among friends. No less a figure than Stendhal wrote the first Rossini biography. Servadio places Rossini within the political environment of his period, making his biography an engaging tale of the rise of Republicanism and the shifts between Austria and Napoleon for the domination of Europe--and this despite dwelling excessively on Rossini's state of mind during the long denouement between Guillaume Tell (1829), his final opera, and his death. In Servadio's hands, Rossini's music is hardly important; the plot in which he was a player reigns supreme.
Rossini Music on CD
The Rabbit of Seville (Bugs Bunny as The Barber of Seville!)
Hilarious Looney Tunes cartoon based on Rossini's opera
Some Quotes from The Rabbit of Seville (1950)
How about a nice, close shave?
Teach your whiskers to behave
Lots of lather, lots of soap
Please hold still, don't be a dope
Now we're ready for the scraping
There's no use to try escaping
Yell and scream and rant and rave
It's no use, you need a shave!
[singing to Elmer Fudd outside the barbershop]
Bugs Bunny:
How do?
Welcome to my shop
Let me cut your mop
Let me shave your crop
Daintily, daintily...
Hey, you!
Don't look so perplexed
Why must you be vexed?
Can't you see you're next?
Yes, you're next, you're so next!
Caricature of Rossini (in Le Hanneton, 1867)
On Wagner
"One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time."
-- Gioachino Rossini
"Questo è un nodo avviluppato" from Rossini's opera, Cenerentola
Grave of Rossini in Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Aria "Bel raggio lusinghier" (Bright ray of hope) from Rossini's opera, Semiramis
Singer: June Anderson
Latest News on Gioacchino Rossini
On Mozart
"He roused my admiration when I was young; he caused me to despair when I reached maturity; he is now the comfort of my old age."
-- Gioachino Rossini
Rossini on the Web
- Gioacchino Antonio Rossini : The Lied and Art Song Texts Page
- Listing at the Lied and Art Songs Text Page with Italian lyrics to vocal works, many in English translation.
"Cujus Animam" from Rossini's Stabat Mater
Singer: Juan Diego Florez
Rossini collectibles on eBay
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