The Composer – Gioacchino Rossini

Rossini was born in Pesaro, Italy on February 29, 1792. His parents were both musicians: his mother was a singer and his father a horn player. He was 14 years old when he began his music studies at what is now the Conservatorio in Bologna. His first opera, La Cambiale di matrimonio, was a one-act comedy that was performed in Venice in 1810. He gained fame throughout northern Italy in 1813 with the comedy L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) and his first serious opera, Tancredi. These were followed by Il Turco in Italia (A Turk In Italy) in 1814. Rossini received a commission in 1815 to write an opera for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. The title role this work, Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra (Elizabeth, Queen of England) was sung by Isabella Colbran, who later became Rossini's first wife.

Rossini's next commission, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), premiered in 1816 in Rome and eventually became one of his most popular works. His subsequent operas, created for theaters in Rome and Naples, included Otello (1816), La Cenerentola (Cinderella, 1817), Armida (1817) Mosè in Egitto (Moses in Egypt, 1818), and Semiramide (1823).

Rossini relocated in Paris by 1824, where he reworked several of his
previous operas, including Le siège de Corinthe (The Siege of Corinth, 1826) and Le Comte Ory (1828). After composing 39 operas in 19 years, he ended his operatic career with Guillaume Tell (William Tell, 1829). He returned to Bologna in 1829 and remained in Italy until 1855. His later compositions included vocal music, piano works, and sacred compositions that included the Stabat mater (1833) and Petite messe solennelle (1864). He spent his remaining years in France, primarily in Paris. After suffering numerous years of ill health, he died at Passy on November 13, 1868.

The Play's The Thing

The Barber of Seville is based on a play by the French playwright
Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais (1732-1799). It's one of a trilogy made up of Le Barbiere de Séville (The Barber of Seville), Le Mariage de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) and La Mère Coupable (The Guilty Mother). The three plays revolve around the lives and loves of nobility and their servants in late 18th century Spain. The first two works are the best-known of Beaumarchais' plays. The first was also set as an opera by Paisiello in 1782, and the second by Mozart in 1786.

Beaumarchais - The Real Figaro

The character of the clever and wily Figaro shares more than a few similarities with his creator. Like Figaro, Beaumarchais was a man of many talents, which he employed with energy and great wit. He was originally a watchmaker, but his subsequent occupations included musician, playwright, diplomat, spy, and supporter of the American cause in the Revolutionary War. His fortunes changed with the wind (or the current political climate); he served several court-awarded posts in his earlier years, but he alternated periods of wealth and prosperity with near-bankruptcy and involvement in numerous lawsuits.

A Bad Beginning

In December of 1815 the Duke Francesco Sforza-Cesarini, the owner of Rome's Teatro di Torre Argentina, contracted Rossini to write a new opera for his theater. The libretto was written by Cesare Sterbini and adapted from Le Barbier de Seville by Beaumarchais. However, an opera based on the same play had been written by Giovanni Paisiello in 1782 and had enjoyed great success ever since. Rossini didn't want to offend the older, well-respected composer, and wrote to him about the proposed new opera. Paisiello responded with no objections, so Rossini proceeded with the project. Not wanting to create animosity or invite comparisons to Paisiello's well-respected work, he changed the title to Almaviva, ossia l'Inutile Precauzione (Almaviva, or the Useless Precaution), and made further changes to the libretto. Rossini's opera was completed in less than 5 weeks.

The opera premiered on February 20, 1816, with Rossini conducting from the pianoforte. Unfortunately, Paisiello's admiring fans attended, with the intention of disrupting the performance. If anything could have gone wrong, it did! Rossini wore a Spanish-style suit with gold buttons, and upon his entrance Paisiello's fans erupted in laughter. The tenor singing Almaviva decided to accompany his first aria on the guitar, but he neglected to tune it before the performance and had to do so on stage. Another singer tripped over a trap door and fell as he made his entrance. This resulted in a bloody nose, and he spent most of the scene trying to stop the blood flow. A cat got loose on the stage, and just as the singer playing Figaro managed to chase it off the stage, it re-entered on the other side! The Paisiello fans led the laughter and yelled comments and insults to the stage for the remainder of the evening, so that most of the opera couldn't even be heard. Rossini didn't even attend the performance on the next evening, but the second audience was much more charitable and gave it a resounding ovation. The opera soon gained the popularity it enjoys today.

What In The World . . .?

The Barber of Seville was first performed in 1816. Listed below are other events that took place in the decade of 1810 to 1820.
* indicates events of local interest

World Events, American History & Social Sciences
1811 - The first U.S. Pacific coast colonists arrived at Cape
Disappointment, Washington.
1812 - The United States declared war against Great Britain on June 18, which became known as the War of 1812.
*1813 - On May 9 General William Henry Harrison led troops to rescue Fort Meigs from the British and Canadians.
1814 - British troops burned and looted the Capital building and White House, and destroyed the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by British and Prussian troops at the Battle of Waterloo.
1817 - James Monroe was inaugurated as the 5th U.S. President.
1817 - The New York Stock Exchange was established.
1817 - The University of Michigan was founded.
1818 - Chile gained independence from Spain
1818 - The 49th Parallel was established as the boundary between Canada and the United States.
*1818 - Edward Drummond Libbey established the New England Glass Company in Toledo (later called the Libbey Glass Company).1819 - The first steam-propelled craft successfully crossed the Atlantic from Savannah to Liverpool.
1820 - George IV succeeded his father as king of England
U.S. statehood was granted to: Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), Maine (1820).

Literature, Drama & Non-Fiction
1811-1818 - British author Jane Austin published all 6 of her novels (one was posthumous).
1812 - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their first collection of Kinder und Hausmärchen (Folk Tales for Children and the Home).
1818 - Frankenstein (Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley)
1819 - Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott)
1819 - Washington Irving published a collection of short stories and essays that included "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Other notable authors and poets: Americans - William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and James Fennimore Cooper; English - Lord Byron, John Keats, and Percy Shelley; German - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Visual Art
Notable artists: French - Jacques Louis David and Eugene Delacroix;
Americans - Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull; Spanish - Francisco Goya
1820 - The statue of the Venus de Milo was found on the Greek island of Melos. It now resides in the Louvre.

Music
1813 - Two noted opera composers were born: Richard Wagner on May 22 and Giuseppe Verdi on October 9 or 10 (exact date is unknown).
1813 - The London Philharmonic Society was founded.
1814 - Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "The Defense of Fort McHenry," which later became the text of our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
1816 - J. N. Maelzel patented the metronome in Vienna.
1818 - Franz Gruber set music to a poem by Joseph Mohr to create the carol "Silent Night, Holy Night."
1818 - Charles Gounod was born (composer of the operas Faust and Romeo et Juliette).

Physical Sciences & Inventions
1810 - Tin can developed (Peter Durand, British merchant)
1813 - Rubber was patented
1814 - First steam locomotive invented (George Stephenson, British)
1814 - First photograph taken, using a "camera obscura" (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, French)
1814 - The first plastic surgery was performed in England.
1815 - Miner's safety lamp (Sir Humphry Davy, British chemist)
1815 - The first natural gas well in the United States was discovered.
1816 - Stethoscope invented (Rene Laennec, French doctor)
1817 - A street in Baltimore was the first to be lit by gas.
1819 - Patent issued for the first soda fountain (Samuel Fahnestock,
American)
1819 - Caffeine was isolated by Friedrich Ferdinand Runge (German chemist)

Miscellaneous
1817 - The first U.S. school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Connecticut.
1818 - England was the first country to use padded gloves for boxing.
1819 - The Savannah was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.
1819 - The first bicycle was patented in the U.S. by W.K. Clarkson, Jr.
1819 - The first parachute jump was made from a balloon in New York City.

Resource Books

Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de. The Figaro Trilogy. Translated with an introduction and notes by David Coward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de. The Figaro Plays. Translated by John Wells; edited by John Leigh. London: J.M. Dent, 1997.

Boyden, Matthew. Opera: The Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides Ltd., 1997.

Cox, Cynthia. The Real Figaro: The Extraordinary Career of Caron de
Beaumarchais. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962.

Forman, Sir Denis. A Night At The Opera: An Irreverent Guide to the Plots, the Singers, the Composers, the Recordings. New York: Random House, Inc., 1995.

Harding, James. Rossini. From "The Great Composers" Series. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1972. Note: This is for older elementary and middle school students.

Kendall, Alan. Gioacchino Rossini: The Reluctant Hero. London: Victor
Gollancz Ltd, 1992.

The New Grove Book of Operas. Edited by Stanley Sadie. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Edited by Stanley Sadie. London:
Macmillan Reference Limited, 1997. Volumes 1 and 4.

The New Kobbe's Complete Opera Book. Edited by the Earl of Harewood and Anthony Peattie. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1997 (11th edition).

Plotkin, Fred. Opera 101: A Complete Guide To Learning And Loving Opera. New York: Hyperion, 1994.

Pogue, David and Speck, Scott. Opera For Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1997.

Servadio, Gaia. Rossini. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003.

Till, Nicholas. Rossini: His Life and Times. New York: Hippocrene Books
Inc., 1983.

Recordings of The Barber of Seville

Audio (compact disc)
Released in 1998 by Deutsche Grammophon (original recording 1972). Cast includes Hermann Prey, Teresa Berganza, Luigi Alva and Enzo Dara. Conducted by Claudio Abbado with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Released in 1996 by Elektra/Asylum. Cast includes Hakan Hagegård, Jennifer Larmore, Raul Gimenez, Allessandro Corbelli and Samuel Ramey. Conducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos with the Orchestra de Chambre de Lausanne.

Released in 1988 by Sony Classical. Cast includes Leo Nucci, Marilyn Horne, Paolo Barbacini, Enzo Dara and Samuel Ramey. Conducted by Riccardo Chailly with the La Scala Orchestra and Chorus.

Released in 1989 by Polygram Records.Cast includes Neo Nucci, Cecilia Bartoli, William Matteuzzi and Enrico Fissore. Conducted by Giuseppe Patane with the Orchestra Del Teatro Communale di Bologna.

Video/DVD
Released on VHS and DVD in 2003 by ARTHAUS Musik (original recording 1988). Cast includes Gino Quilico, Cecilia Bartoli, David Kuebler and Carlos Feller. Conducted by Gabriele Ferro with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Cologne City Opera Choir. Recorded at the 1998 Schwetzingen Festival.

Released on VHS in 1999 by Kultur Video (on DVD by ARTHAUS Musik). Cast includes David Malis, Jennifer Larmore, Richard Croft and Renato Capecchi. Conducted by Alberto Zedda with the Netherland Chamber Orchestra and Chorus of the Netherlands Opera.

Released on DVD in 2001 by Deutsche Grammaphon (original film released in 1972). Cast includes Hermann Prey, Teresa Berganza, Luigi Alva and Enzo Dara. Conducted by Claudio Abbado. Directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.