Buon compleanno Gioacchino Rossini! 🎭🍷

Composer: Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)
Work: Giovanna d'Arco (1832)
Performers: Jiřina Mаrkοvá (mezzo-soprano); Orchestre du Philharmonique de Prague; Edoardo Brіzіo (1927-2010, conductor)

Painting: Jozef Van Lerius (1823-1876) - Jeanne d'Arc au siège de Paris
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Painting: Julien Léopold Boilly (1796-1874) - Gioachino Antonio Rossini (c.1828)
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Gioachino (Antonio) Rossini
(Pesaro, 29 February 1792 - Passy, 13 November 1868)

Italian composer. He was an only child to parents Giuseppe Rossino (1758-1839), a trumpeter and horn player, and Anna Guidarini (1771-1827), a seamstress by trade but later becoming a singer. Giuseppe a feckless father, was imprisoned at least twice, leaving much of Gioachino’s upbringing to his mother Anna, it was when he was six that Anna embarked on a professional singing career in comic opera with some considerable success. As a result of this, Rossini spent his entire childhood in and around the theatre with singing and playing coming naturally to him. When the family moved to Lugo in 1802, Rossini began studying music with a local priest and was inspired by his collection of Mozart and Haydn. A quick learner, by the age of 12 he had composed six sonatas and two years later he joined Bologna’s Philharmonic School and composed his first opera, Demetrio e Polibio (1806). Rossini staged his first opera in 1810 to great success and financial reward and this was quickly followed by three more operas in addition to directing Haydn’s The Seasons in Bologna. In 1812, his two-act comedy La pietra del paragone ran for 53 performances at La Scala in Milan bringing him more financial benefits. In 1815, Rossini moved to Naples, once the operatic capital of Europe, to become director of music for the royal theatres. He quickly won audiences favour and re-used a lot of his earlier work which was unfamiliar in the city. Due to his success in Naples, Rossini was able to write more regularly, and it was during this time that he wrote some of his most famous works including; Il barbiere di siviglia (1816) which was subsequently revived in Bologna and Otello (1816).

Anti-monarchy sentiment in Naples unsettled Rossini and in 1822 he travelled to Vienna with his new wife, Isabella Colbran where he was received with such enthusiasm that biographers have termed it “Rossini fever”. London followed with a welcome from King George IV, however despite being lucrative Rossini soon returned to Paris after signing a contract with the French Embassy. His Parisian seasons between 1823 and 1829 consolidated his achievements at home with spectacularly grand works such as Le Comte Ory (1828) and William Tell (1829). After 39 operas in 19 years, Rossini felt with Tell he had reached not only the culmination of his career but also a natural resting point, and therefore retired from operatic composition. He did not stop composing altogether – one of the delights of his retirement years is his Petite messe solenelle, an ironic title for a sacred work that is neither small nor solemn. Rossini’s health complications were also a factor in his choice to retire at the age of 37 as he suffered from both urethritis and arthritis as well as bouts of depression and possibly bipolar disorder. He was also profoundly affected by the death of his mother Anna, followed by the death of his father and wife, Colbran and by the 1850s his mental and physical health had significantly deteriorated. In 1855, he returned to Paris for medical care and for a time recovered well and began composing. As a man of significant wealth and fame and known for his humour he established an internally renowned salon (gathering of people by a host) and for these salons he wrote more than 150 compositions, referring to them as the ‘sins of old age’.

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