Gioachino Rossini: Brief Biography
Creator of the Early 19th-Century Italian Romantic Style of Opera
Gioachino Rossini's brief biography - his life, operas and other works. He was famous for The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia).
Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer, who, together with countrymen Donizetti and Bellini, created the Romantic style of Italian opera in the early 19th century. Rossini, nicknamed ‘Signor Crescendo’, was the most successful opera composer of his time, producing 20 operas in the span of 8 years, from 1815.
Family Life and Background
Rossini's parents were both musicians, his father a horn player and his mother a singer. He was born in Pesaro on the 29th of February 1792, a year after Mozart died. He married his mistress of long-standing, the singer Isabella Colbran and re-married to Olympe Pelissier after Isabella’s death.
Rossini's Opera Successes
His first success was the opera Tancredi based on a play by Voltaire. Tancredi was followed by a string of hugely popular works, including L’Italiana in Algeri (An Italian in Algiers), Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra (Elizabeth, Queen of England, 1815), and what is considered to be his masterpiece, ‘opera buffa’ Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) produced in Rome.
His other operas include La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie), Mosé in Egitto, Semiramide, Il viaggio a Reims (The Voyage of Rheims , and Le comte Ory and Guillaume Tell (William Tell).
Retirement and More Works
After his opera William Tell, Rossini gave up writing opera and spent his later years in Bologna and Paris. Among his works during this period were the 'Stabat Mater' and the piano music arranged for ballet by Respighi as La Boutique fantasque (The Fantastic Toyshop.)
Although the first opera of the same title was composed by Paisiello in 1782, Rossini surpassed this with his version and to this day around the world, his The Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere de Siviglia) is extremely famous and widely popular.
Rossini settled in Paris, had a villa built. He died aged 76.
Major Operas Written by Rossini
- La scala di seta (The silken Ladder) 1812
- Tancredi 1813
- Il Signor Bruschino (Son by Chance) 1813
- L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers), comic opera 1813
- Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), comic opera 1816
- La Cenerentola (Cinderella), comic opera 1817
- La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) 1817
- Armida 1817
- Mosé in Egitto (Moses in Egypt) 1818
- Semiramide 1823
- Il viaggio a Reims (The Voyage of Rheims) 1825
- Le Comte Ory (Count Ory) 1828
- Guillaume Tell (William Tell) 1829
Suggested Recordings
- Barber of Seville
- The Thieving Magpie
- William Tell
- Stabat Mater
Sources Consulted
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press (1994)
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)
The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham (2002)
