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Born: 29 February
1792, Pesaro, Italy
Died: 13 November 1868, Passy, France
Rossini,
Gioachino Antonio
As a son of a trumpet
player and an opera singer, Rossini was young when he became a choir
singer
and an opera
pianist. He made his living as a talented
and famous opera composer, and his "The
Italian Girl in Algiers" ("L'Italiana
in Algeri") and "Tancredi",
two fascinating operas, were extremely successful, and helped him get the
office of managing the Opera of Naples.
There, he wrote the "The Barber
of Seville"
("Il
Barbiere di Siviglia"),
which, although it failed on opening night, later became one of the highlights
of world opera; it was in this opera where he created the comic "song
chatting" formula of the “opera buffa”,
in which the singer sings his words very quickly. Beethoven,
whom Rossini met in his triumphant visit to Vienna,
admired this opera. Many identified Mozart's
influence in this amusing, vibrant music, yet he confessed to Wagner
that "the angel of music is Mozart, and whoever touches him
is a blasphemer".
In his last pieces, Rossini turned to more serious opera
style, as he did in "William Tell"
("Guillaume
Tell"), based on the play
by Schiller and telling the story of the known
Swiss hero.
At
37, he refused to write operas, and till the end of his life, he lived
in Paris
and devoted himself to preparing gourmet food.
He composed some music as well, but did not concentrate on it as before,
and as we said, turned his back on opera.
In nowadays concert halls, apart from his popular operas,
we can hear the overtures
to many of these operas, among which are "The
Thieving Magpie" ("La
Gazza ladra"), and the "William
Tell"
overtures.
He was buried in "Pere La-Cheze" cemetery in
Paris, where Chopin
and Bizet
also found their final rest.
Rossini on the WWW
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Description
He was an opera manager
and a cook
He Lived in the
Romantic period
In
Italy
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