Austin Symphonic Band. November 14, 2021 concert at the Weiss HS Performing Arts Center in Pflugerville, TX. ASB performing Barber of Seville Overture by Gioachino Rossini (arr. Mayhew L. Lake). Guest Music Director Dr. Kyle R. Glaser conducting. Concert title: "Stage and Screen".

Video and Sound Production: Eddie Jennings

From the program notes :

Barber of Seville Overture (1816)
Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)
Arranged by Mayhew L. Lake (1879–1955)

Born in Pesaro (on Italy’s Adriatic coast) to parents who were both musicians—his father a trumpeter, his mother a singer—Rossini began to compose by the age of 12 and was educated at the music conservatory in Bologna. His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. After moving to Naples in 1815, Rossini became director of music for the royal theatres. He wrote regularly for a resident com-pany of first-rate singers and a fine orchestra, with adequate rehearsals and schedules that made it unnecessary to compose in a rush to meet deadlines. Between 1815 and 1822 he composed eighteen more operas: nine in Naples and nine for opera houses in other cities. Legend suggests that Rossini wrote The Barber of Seville in 12 days. In this headlong rush, Rossini actually recycled themes from a different opera to be used in Barber’s overture.

Upon moving to Vienna in the early 1820s, Rossini heard Beethoven’s Eroica sym-phony, and was so moved that he became determined to meet the reclusive composer. He finally managed to and later described the encounter to many people, including Eduard Hanslick and Richard Wagner. He recalled that although conversation was hampered by Beethoven’s deafness and Rossini’s ignorance of German, Beethoven made it plain that he thought Rossini’s talents were not for serious opera, and that “above all” he should “do more Barbiere.”

In 1832, Rossini made the move from light to grand opera with the well-received Guillaume Tell (William Tell) and shortly thereafter retired from the opera scene. The poet Heine compared Rossini’s retirement with Shakespeare’s withdrawal from writ-ing: two geniuses recognizing when they had accomplished the unsurpassable and not seeking to follow it. Others, then and later, suggested that Rossini had retired because of jealousy of the successes of Giacomo Meyerbeer and Fromental Halévy in the genre of grand opera. Modern Rossini scholarship has generally discounted such theories, maintaining that Rossini had no intention of renouncing operatic composition, and that circumstances rather than personal choice made Guillaume Tell his last opera. Gossett and Richard Osborne suggest that illness may have been a major factor in Rossini’s retirement.

By the early 1850s, Rossini’s mental and physical health had deteriorated to the point where his wife and friends feared for his sanity or his life. By the middle of the decade, it was clear that he needed to return to Paris for the most advanced medical care then available. In April 1855, the Rossinis set off for their final journey from Italy to France. Rossini returned to Paris aged sixty-three and made it his home for the rest of his life.

Listen for:
• Light, sweeping, bel canto melodies, full of vitality and humor.
• The Rossini crescendo or Rossini Rocket - a device in which a short motive is repeated several times, growing in intensity as more instruments are added.
• Themes that were not used in the opera but were utilized in Warner Bros. cartoons, the Seinfeld television series, and Honey-Nut Cheerios commercials.

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