Biographies, stories, facts, photographs. Italian composer Rossini: biography, creativity, life story and best works Revolution in the art of opera

Literary works 1975 “Twenty days without war” by K. Simonov. 1976 “Lilac” by Yu. Nagibin. “Nikita”, “Light of Life” by A. Platonov. 1977 “Pedagogical Poem” by A. Makarenko (6 parts). 1978 “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”, “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”, “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven

But the blue evening is getting dark,
It's time for us to go to the opera quickly;
There is delightful Rossini,
Europe's darling - Orpheus.
Not heeding harsh criticism,
He is eternally the same; forever new.
He pours sounds - they boil.
They flow, they burn.
Like young kisses
Everything is in bliss, in the flame of love,
Like a hissing ai
Golden stream and splashes...
A. Pushkin

Among Italian composers of the 19th century. Rossini occupies a special place. The beginning of his creative career occurred at a time when the opera art of Italy, which not so long ago dominated in Europe, began to lose its position. Opera buffa was drowning in mindless entertainment, and opera seria degenerated into a stilted and meaningless performance. Rossini not only revived and reformed Italian opera, but also had a huge impact on the development of the entire European operatic art of the last century. “Divine maestro” - this is what G. Heine called the great Italian composer, who saw in Rossini “the sun of Italy, scattering its ringing rays throughout the world.”

Rossini was born into the family of a poor orchestral musician and a provincial opera singer. With the traveling troupe, the parents wandered around various cities of the country, and from childhood the future composer was already familiar with the way of life and customs that prevailed in Italian opera houses. An ardent temperament, a mocking mind, and a sharp tongue coexisted in the nature of little Gioachino with subtle musicality, excellent hearing and an extraordinary memory.

In 1806, after several years of unsystematic music and singing studies, Rossini entered the Bologna Musical Lyceum. There the future composer studied cello, violin and piano. Classes with the famous church composer S. Mattei in theory and composition, intensive self-education, enthusiastic study of the music of I. Haydn and W. A. ​​Mozart - all this allowed Rossini to emerge from the lyceum as a cultured musician who had mastered the skill of composing well.

Already at the very beginning of his career, Rossini showed a particularly pronounced penchant for musical theater. He wrote his first opera, Demetrio and Polibio, at the age of 14. Since 1810, the composer annually composes several operas of different genres, gradually gaining fame in wide opera circles and conquering the stages of the largest Italian theaters: Fenice in Venice, San Carlo in Naples, La Scala in Milan.

1813 was a turning point in the composer’s operatic work; two works staged that year - “An Italian Woman in Algiers” (onepa-buffa) and “Tancred” (heroic opera) - determined the main paths of his further work. The success of the works was caused not only by the excellent music, but also by the content of the libretto, imbued with patriotic sentiments, so consonant with the national liberation movement for the reunification of Italy that unfolded at that time. The public outcry caused by Rossini's operas, the creation of the "Hymn of Independence" at the request of the patriots of Bologna, as well as the participation in demonstrations of Italian freedom fighters - all this led to a long-term secret police surveillance that was established over the composer. He did not at all consider himself a politically minded person and in one of his letters he wrote: “I have never interfered in politics. I was a musician, and it never occurred to me to become anyone else, even if I felt the most active participation in what was happening in the world, and especially in the fate of my homeland.”

After “The Italian in Algiers” and “Tancred,” Rossini’s work quickly went uphill and within 3 years reached one of the peaks. At the beginning of 1816, the premiere of “The Barber of Seville” took place in Rome. Written in just 20 days, this opera was not only the highest achievement of Rossini's comedic and satirical genius, but also the culmination of almost a century of development of the genre of opera-buifa.

With The Barber of Seville, the composer's fame went beyond Italy. The brilliant Rossini style refreshed the art of Europe with ebullient cheerfulness, sparkling wit, foaming passion. “My “The Barber” is becoming more and more successful every day,” Rossini wrote, “and he managed to suck up even to the most inveterate opponents of the new school so much that, against their will, they begin to love this clever guy more and more.” The fanatical, enthusiastic and superficial attitude of the aristocratic public and bourgeois nobility towards Rossini's music contributed to the emergence of many opponents for the composer. However, among the European artistic intelligentsia there were also serious connoisseurs of his work. E. Delacroix, O. Balzac, A. Musset, F. Hegel, L. Beethoven, F. Schubert, M. Glinka were under the spell of Rossini's music. And even K. M. Weber and G. Berlioz, who took a critical position towards Rossini, did not doubt his genius. “After the death of Napoleon, there was another person who was constantly being talked about everywhere: in Moscow and Naples, in London and Vienna, in Paris and Calcutta,” Stendhal wrote about Rossini.

Gradually the composer loses interest in onepe-buffa. “Cinderella,” written soon in this genre, does not show listeners new creative revelations of the composer. Composed in 1817, the opera “The Thieving Magpie” completely goes beyond the comedy genre, becoming an example of musical and everyday realistic drama. From this time on, Rossini began to pay more attention to operas of heroic-dramatic content. Following “Othello”, legendary historical works appear: “Moses”, “Maiden of the Lake”, “Mohammed II”.

After the first Italian revolution (1820-21) and its brutal suppression by Austrian troops, Rossini and the Neapolitan opera troupe went on tour to Vienna. The Viennese triumphs further strengthened the composer's European fame. Returning briefly to Italy for the production of Semiramide (1823), Rossini went to London and then to Paris. He lived there until 1836. In Paris, the composer headed the Italian Opera House, attracting his young compatriots to work there; reworks the operas “Moses” and “Mohammed II” for the Grand Opera (the latter was performed on the Paris stage under the title “The Siege of Corinth”); writes the elegant opera “Count Ory”, commissioned by Opera Comique; and finally, in August 1829, he staged his last masterpiece on the stage of the Grand Opera - the opera “William Tell”, which had a huge influence on the subsequent development of the genre of Italian heroic opera in the works of V. Bellini, G. Donizetti and G. Verdi.

"William Tell" completed Rossini's musical and stage work. The subsequent operatic silence of the brilliant maestro, who had about 40 operas behind him, was called by his contemporaries the mystery of the century, surrounding this circumstance with all sorts of speculation. The composer himself later wrote: “As early as I began composing as a barely mature youth, just as early, before anyone could have foreseen it, I stopped writing. This always happens in life: whoever starts early must, according to the laws of nature, finish early.”

However, even after ceasing to write operas, Rossini continued to remain in the center of attention of the European musical community. All of Paris listened to the composer's apt critical word; his personality attracted musicians, poets, and artists like a magnet. R. Wagner met with him, C. Saint-Saens was proud of his communication with Rossini, Liszt showed his works to the Italian maestro, V. Stasov spoke enthusiastically about his meeting with him.

In the years following William Tell, Rossini created the majestic spiritual work “Stabat mater”, the Little Solemn Mass and the “Song of the Titans”, an original collection of vocal works called “Musical Evenings” and a cycle of piano pieces bearing the humorous title “Sins of Old Age” . From 1836 to 1856 Rossini, surrounded by fame and honors, lived in Italy. There he directed the Bologna Musical Lyceum and was engaged in teaching activities. Returning then to Paris, he remained there until the end of his days.

12 years after the composer’s death, his ashes were transferred to his homeland and buried in the pantheon of the Church of Santa Croce in Florence next to the remains of Michelangelo and Galileo.

Rossini bequeathed his entire fortune to the benefit of the culture and art of his hometown of Pesaro. Nowadays, the Rossini opera festivals are regularly held here, among the participants you can find the names of the largest contemporary musicians.

I. Vetlitsyna

Born into a family of musicians: his father was a trumpeter, his mother a singer. Learns to play various musical instruments and sing. He studies composition at the Bologna Music School under the guidance of Padre Mattei; didn't finish the course. From 1812 to 1815 he worked for the theaters of Venice and Milan: “The Italian in Algiers” was a particular success. Commissioned by impresario Barbaia (Rossini would marry his friend, soprano Isabella Colbran), he created sixteen operas until 1823. Moves to Paris, where he becomes director of the Théâtre Italien, the king's first composer and inspector general of singing in France. He said goodbye to his work as an opera composer in 1829 after the production of William Tell. After parting with Colbran, he married Olympia Pelissier, reorganized the Bologna Musical Lyceum, staying in Italy until 1848, when political storms again brought him to Paris: his villa in Passy became one of the centers of artistic life.

The one who was called “the last classic” and whom the public applauded as the king of the comic genre, in his first operas demonstrated the grace and brilliance of melodic inspiration, the naturalness and ease of rhythm, which gave singing, in which the traditions of the 18th century were weakened, a more sincere and human character. The composer, pretending to adapt to modern theatrical customs, could, however, rebel against them, preventing, for example, the virtuoso arbitrariness of the performers or moderating it.

The most significant innovation for Italy at that time was the important role of the orchestra, which, thanks to Rossini, became lively, agile and brilliant (we note the magnificent form of the overtures, which truly set the tone for a certain perception). The cheerful tendency towards a kind of orchestral hedonism stems from the fact that each instrument, used according to its technical capabilities, is identified with singing and even with speech. At the same time, Rossini can calmly assert that words should serve the music, and not vice versa, without diminishing the meaning of the text, but, on the contrary, using it in a new, fresh way and often shifting it to typical rhythmic patterns - while the orchestra freely accompanies speech, creating a clear melodic and symphonic relief and performing expressive or figurative functions.

Rossini's genius immediately manifested itself in the genre of opera seria with the production of Tancred in 1813, which brought the author his first great success with the public thanks to his melodic discoveries with their sublime and gentle lyricism, as well as the spontaneous instrumental development, which owes its origin to the comic genre. The connections between these two operatic genres are indeed very close in Rossini and even determine the amazing effectiveness of his serious genre. In the same year, 1813, he also presented a masterpiece, but in the comic genre, in the spirit of the old Neapolitan comic opera - “The Italian in Algiers”. This is an opera rich in echoes of Cimarosa, but somehow enlivened by the violent energy of the characters, especially manifested in the final crescendo, the first of Rossini, who would then use it as an arousal to create paradoxical or uncontrollably cheerful situations.

The caustic, earthly mind of the composer finds in fun an outlet for his craving for caricature and his healthy enthusiasm, which does not allow him to fall into either the conservatism of classicism or the extremes of romanticism.

He would achieve a very thorough comic result in The Barber of Seville, and a decade later he would arrive at the grace of Count Ory. In addition, in the serious genre, Rossini will move with huge steps towards an opera of ever greater perfection and depth: from the heterogeneous, but ardent and nostalgic “Virgin of the Lake” to the tragedy “Semiramis”, which ends the composer’s Italian period, full of dizzying vocalises and mysterious phenomena in the Baroque taste, to the “Siege of Corinth” with its choruses, to the solemn descriptiveness and sacred monumentality of “Moses” and, finally, to “William Tell”.

If it is still surprising that Rossini achieved these achievements in the field of opera in just twenty years, equally astonishing is the silence that followed such a fruitful period and lasted for forty years, which is considered one of the most incomprehensible cases in the history of culture. - either an almost demonstrative detachment, worthy, however, of this mysterious mind, or evidence of his legendary laziness, of course, more fictional than real, given the composer’s ability to work in his best years. Few noticed that he was increasingly possessed by a neurasthenic craving for loneliness, displacing his tendency to have fun.

Rossini, however, did not stop composing, although he stopped all contact with the general public, addressing mainly a small group of guests who were regulars at his home evenings. The inspiration of the latest sacred and chamber works has gradually emerged in our days, arousing the interest of not only connoisseurs: real masterpieces have been discovered. The most brilliant part of Rossini's legacy remains the operas in which he became the legislator of the future Italian school, creating a huge number of models used by subsequent composers.

In order to better illuminate the characteristic features of such a great talent, a new critical edition of his operas has been undertaken on the initiative of the Center for the Study of Rossini in Pesaro.

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)

Rossini's works:

operas - Demetrio and Polibio (Demetrio e Polibio, 1806, post. 1812, hotel "Balle", Rome), Promissory note for marriage (La cambiale di matrimonio, 1810, hotel "San Moise", Venice), A strange case (L'equivoco stravagante, 1811, Teatro del Corso, Bologna), Happy Deception (L'inganno felice, 1812, San Moise, Venice), Cyrus in Babylon (Ciro in Babilonia, 1812, t -r “Municipale”, Ferrara), The Silk Staircase (La scala di seta, 1812, hotel “San Moise”, Venice), Touchstone (La pietra del parugone, 1812, hotel “La Scala”, Milan ), Chance makes a thief, or Mixed-up suitcases (L'occasione fa il ladro, ossia Il cambio della valigia, 1812, San Moise Hotel, Venice), Signor Bruschino, or Accidental Son (Il signor Bruschino, ossia Il figlio per azzardo, 1813, ibid.), Tancredi (Tancredi, 1813, Fenice Hotel, Venice), Italian Woman in Algeria (L'italiana in Algeri, 1813, San Benedetto Hotel, Venice), Aurelian in Palmira (Aureliano in Palmira, 1813, La Scala Hotel, Milan), The Turk in Italy (Il turco in Italia, 1814, ibid.), Sigismondo (Sigismondo, 1814, Fenice Hotel, Venice ), Elizabeth, Queen of England (Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, 1815, hotel "San Carlo", Naples), Torvaldo and Dorliska (Torvaldo e Dorliska, 1815, hotel "Balle", Rome), Almaviva, or Futile precaution (Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione; known as The Barber of Seville - Il barbiere di Siviglia, 1816, "Argentina", Rome), Newspaper, or Marriage by Competition (La gazzetta, ossia Il matrimonio per concorso, 1816, "Fiorentini", Naples), Othello, or The Venetian Moor (Otello, ossia Il toro di Venezia, 1816, theater "Del Fondo", Naples), Cinderella, or the Triumph of Virtue (Cenerentola, ossia La bonta in trionfo, 1817, theater "Balle", Rome) , The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra, 1817, La Scala, Milan), Armida (Armida, 1817, San Carlo, Naples), Adelaide of Burgundy (Adelaide di Borgogna, 1817, t -r "Argentina", Rome), Moses in Egypt (Mosè in Egitto, 1818, t-r "San Carlo", Naples; French ed. - under the title Moses and Pharaoh, or Crossing the Red Sea - Moïse et Pharaon, ou Le passage de la mer rouge, 1827, “Royal Academy of Music and Dance”, Paris), Adina, or Caliph of Baghdad (Adina, ossia Il califfo di Bagdad, 1818, post. 1826, t. Carlo", Lisbon), Ricciardo and Zoraide (1818, t-r. "San Carlo", Naples), Ermione (1819, ibid.), Eduardo and Cristina (Eduardo e Cristina, 1819, t- r "San Benedetto", Venice), the Virgin of the Lake (La donna del lago, 1819, t-r "San Carlo", Naples), Bianca and Faliero, or the Council of Three (Bianca e Faliero, ossia II consiglio dei tre, 1819, La Scala Hotel, Milan), “Maometto II” (Maometto II, 1820, San Carlo Hotel, Naples; French ed. - under the name Siege of Corinth - Le siège de Corinthe, 1826, “King. Academy of Music and Dance, Paris), Matilde di Shabran, or Beauty and the Iron Heart (Matilde di Shabran, ossia Bellezza e cuor di ferro, 1821, Apollo Theater, Rome), Zelmira (Zelmira, 1822, t- r "San Carlo", Naples), Semiramide (Semiramide, 1823, t-r "Fenice", Venice), Journey to Reims, or the Hotel of the Golden Lily (Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro, 1825, “Theater Italien”, Paris), Count Ory (Le comte Ory, 1828, “Royal Academy of Music and Dance”, Paris), William Tell (Guillaume Tell, 1829, ibid.); pasticcio(from excerpts from Rossini's operas) - Ivanhoe (Ivanhoe, 1826, Odeon Theater, Paris), Testament (Le testament, 1827, ibid.), Cinderella (1830, Covent Garden Theater, London), Robert Bruce (1846, “Royal Academy of Music and Dance”, Paris), We are going to Paris (Andremo a Parigi, 1848, “Italian Theatre”, Paris), A funny incident (Un curioso accidente, 1859, ibid.); for soloists, choir and orchestra- Hymn of Independence (Inno dell`Indipendenza, 1815, Contavalli, Bologna), cantatas- Aurora (1815, published 1955, Moscow), The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus (Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, 1816, Del Fondo, Naples), Sincere Tribute (Il vero omaggio, 1822, Verona) , Happy Omen (L'augurio felice, 1822, ibid.), The Bard (Il bardo, 1822), The Holy Alliance (La Santa alleanza, 1822), Complaint of the Muses on the Death of Lord Byron (Il pianto delie Muse in morte di Lord Byron, 1824, Almac Hall, London), Choir of the Municipal Guard of Bologna (Coro dedicato alla guardia civica di Bologna, instrumental by D. Liverani, 1848, Bologna), Hymne to Napoleon III and his valiant people (Hymne b Napoleon et a son vaillant peuple, 1867, Palace of Industry, Paris), National Anthem (The national hymn, English national anthem, 1867, Birmingham); for orchestra- symphonies (D-dur, 1808; Es-dur, 1809, used as an overture to the farce The Promissory Note for Marriage), Serenade (1829), Military March (Marcia militare, 1853); for instruments and orchestra- Variations for obligate instruments in F-dur (Variazioni a piu strumenti obligati, for clarinet, 2 violins, viol, cello, 1809), Variations in C-dur (for clarinet, 1810); for brass band- fanfare for 4 trumpets (1827), 3 marches (1837, Fontainebleau), Crown of Italy (La corona d’Italia, fanfare for military orc., offering to Victor Emmanuel II, 1868); chamber instrumental ensembles- duets for horns (1805), 12 waltzes for 2 flutes (1827), 6 sonatas for 2 sk., vlch. and K-bass (1804), 5 strings. quartets (1806-08), 6 quartets for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1808-09), Theme and variations for flute, trumpet, horn and bassoon (1812); for piano- Waltz (1823), Congress of Verona (Il congresso di Verona, 4 hands, 1823), Neptune's Palace (La reggia di Nettuno, 4 hands, 1823), Soul of Purgatory (L'vme du Purgatoire, 1832); for soloists and choir- cantata Complaint of Harmony about the death of Orpheus (Il pianto d'Armonia sulla morte di Orfeo, for tenor, 1808), Death of Dido (La morte di Didone, stage monologue, 1811, Spanish 1818, stage "San Benedetto" , Venice), cantata (for 3 soloists, 1819, San Carlo Theater, Naples), Partenope and Igea (for 3 soloists, 1819, ibid.), Gratitude (La riconoscenza, for 4 soloists, 1821, ibid. same); for voice and orchestra- cantata The Shepherd's Offering (Omaggio pastorale, for 3 voices, for the grand opening of the bust of Antonio Canova, 1823, Treviso), Song of the Titans (Le chant des Titans, for 4 basses in unison, 1859, Spanish 1861, Paris); for voice and piano- cantatas Elier and Irene (for 2 voices, 1814) and Joan of Arc (1832), Musical Evenings (Soirees musicales, 8 ariettes and 4 duets, 1835); 3 woks quartet (1826-27); Exercises for soprano (Gorgheggi e solfeggi per soprano. Vocalizzi e solfeggi per rendere la voce agile ed apprendere a cantare secondo il gusto moderno, 1827); 14 wok albums. and instr. plays and ensembles, united under the name. Sins of old age (Péchés de vieillesse: Album of Italian songs - Album per canto italiano, French album - Album francais, Discreet plays - Morceaux reserves, Four appetizers and four desserts - Quatre hors d'oeuvres et quatre mendiants, for fp., Album for fp ., skr., vlch., harmonium and horn, etc., 1855-68, Paris, uned.); sacred music- Graduate (for 3 male voices, 1808), Mass (for male voices, 1808, Spanish in Ravenna), Laudamus (c. 1808), Qui tollis (c. 1808), Solemn Mass (Messa solenne, joint. with P. Raimondi, 1819, Spanish 1820, Church of San Fernando, Naples), Cantemus Domino (for 8 voices with fp. or organ, 1832, Spanish 1873), Ave Maria (for 4 voices, 1832, Spanish 1873 ), Quoniam (for bass and orchestra, 1832),

ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO(Rossini, Gioacchino) (1792–1868), Italian opera composer, author of the immortal Barber of Seville. Born on February 29, 1792 in Pesaro in the family of a city trumpeter (herald) and a singer. He fell in love with music very early, especially singing, but began to study seriously only at the age of 14, when he entered the Musical Lyceum in Bologna. There he studied cello and counterpoint until 1810, when Rossini's first noteworthy composition was a one-act farce opera. Promissory note for marriage (La cambiale di matrimonio, 1810) – was staged in Venice. It was followed by a number of operas of the same type, including two - Touchstone (La pietra del paragone, 1812) and Silk staircase (La scala di seta, 1812) – are still popular.

Finally, in 1813, Rossini composed two operas that immortalized his name: Tancred (Tancredi) by Tasso and then a two-act opera buffa Italian in Algeria (L'italiana in Algeri), triumphantly accepted in Venice, and then throughout Northern Italy.

The young composer tried to compose several operas for Milan and Venice, but none of them (even the opera that retained its charm Turk in Italy, Il Turkey in Italy, 1814) – a kind of “pair” to the opera Italian in Algeria) was not successful. In 1815, Rossini was lucky again, this time in Naples, where he signed a contract with the impresario of the San Carlo Theater. It's about opera Elizabeth, Queen of England (Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra), a virtuoso composition written specifically for Isabella Colbran, a Spanish prima donna (soprano) who enjoyed the favor of the Neapolitan court and mistress of the impresario (a few years later, Isabella became Rossini's wife). Then the composer went to Rome, where he planned to write and stage several operas. The second of them was opera Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), first staged on February 20, 1816. The failure of the opera at the premiere turned out to be as loud as its triumph in the future.

Having returned, in accordance with the terms of the contract, to Naples, Rossini staged an opera there in December 1816, which was perhaps most highly appreciated by his contemporaries - Othello according to Shakespeare: there are truly beautiful passages in it, but the work is spoiled by the libretto, which distorts Shakespeare's tragedy. Rossini composed the next opera again for Rome: his Cinderella (La cenerentola, 1817) was subsequently favorably received by the public; the premiere did not give any grounds for assumptions about future success. However, Rossini took the failure much more calmly. Also in 1817, he traveled to Milan to stage an opera. Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra) - an elegantly orchestrated melodrama, now almost forgotten, except for the magnificent overture. Upon his return to Naples, Rossini staged an opera there at the end of the year Armida (Armida), which was warmly received and is still rated much higher than Thieving Magpie: upon resurrection Armids In our time, we can still feel the tenderness, if not the sensuality, that this music radiates.

Over the next four years, Rossini managed to compose a dozen more operas, mostly not particularly interesting. However, before the termination of the contract with Naples, he presented the city with two outstanding works. In 1818 he wrote an opera Moses in Egypt (Mosé in Egitto), which soon conquered Europe; in fact, this is a kind of oratorio, notable here are the majestic choirs and the famous “Prayer”. In 1819 Rossini presented Maiden of the Lake (La donna del lago), which had a somewhat more modest success, but contained charming romantic music. When the composer eventually left Naples (1820), he took Isabella Colbran with him and married her, but their subsequent family life was not very happy.

In 1822, Rossini, accompanied by his wife, left Italy for the first time: he entered into an agreement with his old friend, the impresario of the San Carlo Theater, who now became the director of the Vienna Opera. The composer brought his latest work to Vienna - an opera Zelmira (Zelmira), which won the author unprecedented success. True, some musicians, led by K.M. von Weber, sharply criticized Rossini, but others, and among them F. Schubert, gave favorable assessments. As for society, it unconditionally took Rossini’s side. The most remarkable event of Rossini's trip to Vienna was his meeting with Beethoven, which he later recalled in a conversation with R. Wagner.

In the autumn of the same year, the composer was summoned to Verona by Prince Metternich himself: Rossini was supposed to honor the conclusion of the Holy Alliance with cantatas. In February 1823 he composed a new opera for Venice - Semiramis (Semiramida), from which only the overture now remains in the concert repertoire. As it were, Semiramis can be considered the culmination of the Italian period in Rossini's work, if only because it was the last opera he composed for Italy. Moreover, Semiramis passed with such brilliance in other countries that after it Rossini’s reputation as the greatest opera composer of the era was no longer subject to any doubt. No wonder Stendhal compared Rossini’s triumph in the field of music with Napoleon’s victory in the Battle of Austerlitz.

At the end of 1823, Rossini found himself in London (where he stayed for six months), and before that he spent a month in Paris. The composer was hospitably received by King George VI, with whom he sang duets; Rossini was in great demand in secular society as a singer and accompanist. The most important event of that time was receiving an invitation to Paris as artistic director of the Teatro Italien opera house. The significance of this contract, firstly, is that it determined the composer’s place of residence until the end of his days, and secondly, that it confirmed the absolute superiority of Rossini as an opera composer. It must be remembered that Paris was then the center of the musical universe; an invitation to Paris was the highest honor imaginable for a musician.

Rossini began his new duties on December 1, 1824. Apparently, he managed to improve the management of the Italian Opera, especially in terms of conducting performances. The performances of two previously written operas, which Rossini radically reworked for Paris, were a great success, and most importantly, he composed a charming comic opera Count Ory (Le comte Ory). (It was, as one might have expected, a huge success when it was revived in 1959.) Rossini's next work, appearing in August 1829, was the opera William Tell (Guillaume Tell), a work generally considered the composer's greatest achievement. Recognized by performers and critics as an absolute masterpiece, this opera has never aroused such enthusiasm among the public as Barber of Seville, Semiramis or even Moses: ordinary listeners thought Tellya the opera is too long and cold. However, it cannot be denied that the second act contains the most beautiful music, and fortunately, this opera has not completely disappeared from the modern world repertoire and the listener of our days has the opportunity to make his own judgment about it. Let us only note that all Rossini’s operas created in France were written to French librettos.

After William Tell Rossini wrote no more operas, and in the next four decades he created only two significant compositions in other genres. Needless to say, such a cessation of composer activity at the very zenith of skill and fame is a unique phenomenon in the history of world musical culture. Many different explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed, but, of course, no one knows the full truth. Some said that Rossini's departure was caused by his rejection of the new Parisian opera idol - J. Meyerbeer; others pointed to the insult caused to Rossini by the actions of the French government, which tried to terminate the contract with the composer after the revolution in 1830. Mention was also made of the deterioration of the musician’s well-being and even his allegedly incredible laziness. Perhaps all the factors mentioned above played a role, except the last one. Please note that when leaving Paris after William Tell, Rossini had the firm intention of starting a new opera ( Faust). He is also known to have pursued and won a six-year lawsuit against the French government over his pension. As for his state of health, having experienced the shock of the death of his beloved mother in 1827, Rossini actually felt unwell, at first not very strong, but later progressing with alarming speed. Everything else is more or less plausible speculation.

During the next Tellem For decades, Rossini, although he kept his apartment in Paris, lived mainly in Bologna, where he hoped to find the peace necessary after the nervous tension of the previous years. True, in 1831 he went to Madrid, where the now widely known Stabat Mater(in the first edition), and in 1836 - to Frankfurt, where he met F. Mendelssohn and thanks to him discovered the work of J. S. Bach. But still, it was Bologna (not counting regular trips to Paris in connection with the litigation) that remained the composer’s permanent residence. It can be assumed that it was not only court cases that called him to Paris. In 1832 Rossini met Olympia Pelissier. Rossini's relationship with his wife had long left much to be desired; In the end, the couple decided to separate, and Rossini married Olympia, who became a good wife for the sick Rossini. Finally, in 1855, after a scandal in Bologna and disappointment from Florence, Olympia convinced her husband to hire a carriage (he did not recognize trains) and go to Paris. Very slowly his physical and mental condition began to improve; a share of, if not gaiety, then wit returned to him; music, which had been a taboo subject for many years, began to come to his mind again. April 15, 1857 - Olympia's name day - became a kind of turning point: on this day Rossini dedicated a cycle of romances to his wife, which he composed in secret from everyone. He was followed by a number of small plays - Rossini called them The sins of my old age; the quality of this music requires no comment for fans Magic shop (La boutique fantasque) - a ballet for which the plays served as the basis. Finally, in 1863, the last - and truly significant - work of Rossini appeared: Little Solemn Mass (Petite messe solennelle). This mass is not very solemn and not at all small, but beautiful in music and imbued with deep sincerity, which attracted the attention of the musicians to the composition.

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 and was buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise cemetery. After 19 years, at the request of the Italian government, the coffin with the composer’s body was transported to Florence and buried in the Church of Santa Croce next to the ashes of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and other great Italians.

(29 II 1792, Pesaro - 13 November 1868, Passy, ​​near Paris)

Gioachino Rossini Rossini opened the brilliant 19th century in the music of Italy, followed by a whole galaxy of opera creators: Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, as if passing the baton of the world glory of Italian opera to each other. The author of 37 operas, Rossini raised the genre of opera buffa to unattainable heights. His “The Barber of Seville,” written almost a century after the birth of the genre, became the pinnacle and symbol of opera buffa in general. On the other hand, it was Rossini who completed the almost one and a half century history of the most famous opera genre - opera seria, which conquered all of Europe, and opened the way for the development of a new heroic-patriotic opera of the era of romanticism that replaced it. The main strength of the composer, heir to Italian national traditions, is the inexhaustible inventiveness of melodies, fascinating, brilliant, virtuoso.

A singer, conductor, and pianist, Rossini was distinguished by his rare friendliness and sociability. Without any envy, he spoke with admiration about the successes of his young Italian contemporaries, ready to help, advise, and support. His admiration for Beethoven, whom Rossini met in Vienna in the last years of his life, is known. In one of his letters, he wrote about this in his usual humorous manner: “I study Beethoven twice a week, Haydn four, and Mozart every day... Beethoven is a colossus who often gives you a good punch in the side, whereas Mozart always amazing." Rossini called Weber, with whom they competed, “a great genius, and also a genuine one, for he created originality and did not imitate anyone.” He also liked Mendelssohn, especially his Songs without Words. When they met, Rossini asked Mendelssohn to play him Bach, “a lot of Bach”: “His genius is simply overwhelming. If Beethoven is a miracle among men, then Bach is a miracle among gods. I have subscribed to his complete works." Rossini treated even Wagner, whose work was very far from his operatic ideals, with respect and was interested in the principles of his reform, as evidenced by their meeting in Paris in 1860.

Wit was characteristic of Rossini not only in his work, but also in life. He claimed that this was foreshadowed by the very date of his birth - February 29, 1792. The composer's homeland is the seaside town of Pesaro. His father played the trumpet and horn, his mother, although she did not know notes, was a singer and sang by ear (according to Rossini, “out of a hundred Italian singers, eighty are in the same position”). Both were members of a traveling troupe. Gioachino, who showed an early talent for music, at the age of 7, along with writing, arithmetic and Latin, studied the harpsichord, solfeggio and singing at a boarding school in Bologna. At the age of 8, he was already performing in churches, where he was entrusted with the most difficult soprano roles, and once was assigned a child's role in a popular opera. Admiring listeners predicted that Rossini would become a famous singer. He accompanied himself from sight, read orchestral scores fluently, and worked as an accompanist and choir director in the theaters of Bologna. In 1804, he began systematically studying the viola and violin; in the spring of 1806, he entered the Bologna Musical Lyceum, and within a few months the famous Bologna Academy of Music unanimously elected him as a member. Then the future glory of Italy was only 14 years old. And at 15 he wrote his first opera. Stendhal, who heard it several years later, admired its melodies - “the first colors created by Rossini’s imagination; they had all the freshness of the morning of his life.”

He studied at the Lyceum Rossini (including playing the cello) for about 4 years. His counterpoint teacher was the famous Padre Mattei. Subsequently, Rossini regretted that he could not take a full composition course - he had to earn a living and help his parents. During his years of study, he independently became acquainted with the music of Haydn and Mozart, organized a string quartet, where he performed the viola part; At his insistence, the ensemble replayed many of Haydn's works. He borrowed the scores of Haydn's oratorios and Mozart's operas from a music lover and rewrote them: first, only the vocal part, for which he composed his own accompaniment, and then compared it with the author's. However, Rossini dreamed of a much more prestigious career as a singer: “when the composer received fifty ducats, the singer received a thousand.” According to him, he fell on the path of composing almost by accident - a mutation of his voice began. At the Lyceum, he tried his hand at different genres: he wrote 2 symphonies, 5 string quartets, variations for solo instruments with orchestra, and a cantata. One of the symphonies and a cantata were performed at lyceum concerts.

After completing his studies, the 18-year-old composer saw his opera for the first time on November 3, 1810, on the stage of the Venetian theater. The following autumn season, Rossini was engaged by the theater in Bologna to write a two-act opera buffa. During 1812, he composed and staged 6 operas, including one zepa. “I had ideas quickly and all I needed was time to write them down. I've never been one of those people who sweat when composing music." The opera buffa “Touchstone” was staged at the largest theater in Italy, La Scala in Milan, where it was performed 50 times in a row; to listen to her, according to Stendhal, “crowds of people came to Milan from Parma, Piacenza, Bergamo and Brescia and from all the cities within twenty miles in the area. Rossini became the first man of his region; everyone wanted to see him at all costs.” And the opera brought the 20-year-old author exemption from military service: the general commanding in Milan liked “Touchstone” so much that he turned to the viceroy, and the army was missing one soldier.

The turning point in Rossini’s work was the year 1813, when, within three and a half months, two operas popular to this day (Tancred and Italian in Algiers) saw the light of day in the theaters of Venice, and the third, which failed at the premiere and is now forgotten, brought an immortal overture - Rossini used it twice more, and now everyone knows it as the overture to The Barber of Seville. After 4 years, the impresario of one of the best theaters in Italy and the largest in Europe, the Neapolitan San Carlo, the enterprising and successful Domenico Barbaia, nicknamed the Viceroy of Naples, signed a long-term contract with Rossini for 6 years. The prima donna of the troupe was the beautiful Spaniard Isabella Colbran, who had a luxurious voice and dramatic talent. She had known the composer for a long time - in the same year, 14-year-old Rossini and Colbran, 7 years older than him, were elected members of the Bologna Academy. Now she was a friend of Barbaya and at the same time enjoyed the patronage of the king. Colbran soon became Rossini's lover, and in 1822, his wife.

Over the course of 6 years (1816-1822), the composer wrote 10 seria operas for Naples, based on Colbran, and 9 for other theaters, mainly buffa, since Colbran did not perform comic roles. Among them are “The Barber of Seville” and “Cinderella”. At the same time, a new romantic genre was born, which would later supplant opera seria: folk-heroic opera, dedicated to the theme of the struggle for liberation, with the depiction of large masses of people, the widespread use of choral scenes, occupying no less a place than arias (“Moses”, “ Mohammed II").

The year 1822 opens a new page in the life of Rossini. In the spring, he and the Neapolitan troupe go to Vienna, where his operas have been successfully staged for 6 years. For 4 months, Rossini basked in the rays of fame, he was recognized on the streets, crowds gathered under the windows of his house to see the composer, and sometimes listen to him sing. In Vienna, he meets Beethoven - sick, lonely, huddled in a squalid apartment, whom Rossini tries in vain to help. The Vienna tour was followed by a London tour that was even longer and more successful. For 7 months, until the end of July 1824, he conducted his operas in London, performed as an accompanist and singer in public and private concerts, including in the royal palace: the English king is one of his most loyal fans. The cantata “The Complaint of the Muses on the Death of Lord Byron” was also written here, at the premiere of which the composer sang the part of the solo tenor. At the end of the tour, Rossini took out a fortune from England - 175 thousand francs, which made him remember the fee for his first opera - 200 lire. And not even 15 years have passed since then...

After London, Rossini waited for Paris and a well-paid position as head of the Italian Opera. However, Rossini remained in this post for only 2 years, although he made a dizzying career: “composer of His Majesty the King and inspector of singing of all musical institutions” (the highest musical position in France), member of the Council for the Management of the Royal Music Schools, member of the committee of the Grand Opera Theater. Here Rossini created his innovative score - the folk-heroic opera William Tell. Born on the eve of the revolution of 1830, it was perceived by contemporaries as a direct call for uprising. And at this peak, at the age of 37, Rossini stopped his operatic activities. However, he did not stop composing. 3 years before his death, he said to one of his guests: “Do you see this bookcase full of musical manuscripts? All this was written after William Tell. But I don't publish anything; I write because I cannot do otherwise.”

Rossini's largest works of this period belong to the genre of spiritual oratorio (Stabat Mater, Little Solemn Mass). A lot of chamber vocal music was also created. The most famous ariettas and duets were included in “Musical Evenings”, others were included in the “Album of Italian Songs”, “Mixture of Vocal Music”. Rossini also wrote instrumental pieces, often providing them with ironic titles: “Restrained Pieces”, “Four Appetizers and Four Desserts”, “Painkiller Music”, etc.

From 1836, Rossini returned to Italy for almost 20 years. He devotes himself to teaching work, supporting the newly founded Experimental Musical Gymnasium in Florence, and the Bologna Musical Lyceum, which he himself once graduated from. For the last 13 years, Rossini has been living in France again, both in Paris itself and in a villa on the outskirts of Passy, ​​surrounded by honor and glory. After the death of Colbran (1845), from whom he separated about 10 years earlier, Rossini married the Frenchwoman Olympia Pelissier. Contemporaries describe her as an unremarkable woman, but endowed with a sympathetic and kind heart, but Rossini's Italian friends consider her stingy and inhospitable. The composer regularly organizes receptions that are famous throughout Paris. These “Rossini Saturdays” gather the most brilliant society, attracted by both sophisticated conversation and exquisite cuisine, of which the composer was reputed to be an expert and was even the inventor of some culinary recipes. The sumptuous dinner was followed by a concert, the owner often sang and accompanied the singers. The last such evening took place on September 20, 1868, when the composer was 77 years old; he performed the recently composed elegy “Farewell to Life.”

Rossini died on November 13, 1868 at his villa in Passy near Paris. In his will, he allocated two and a half million francs for the creation of a music school in his native Pesaro, where 4 years earlier a monument was erected to him, as well as a large sum for the establishment in Passy of a home for elderly singers - French and Italian, who had made a career in France. About 4 thousand people attended the funeral mass. The funeral procession was accompanied by two battalions of infantry and bands of two legions of the National Guard, who performed excerpts from operas and spiritual works by Rossini.

The composer was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris next to Bellini, Cherubini and Chopin. Upon learning of Rossini's death, Verdi wrote: “A great name has died out in the world! It was the most popular name of our era, the widest fame - and this was the glory of Italy!” He invited Italian composers to honor the memory of Rossini by writing a collective Requiem, which was to be solemnly performed in Bologna on the first anniversary of his death. In 1887, Rossini's embalmed body was transported to Florence and buried in the Cathedral of Santa Croce, in the pantheon of the great men of Italy, next to the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo.

A. Koenigsberg

Italian composer. One of the outstanding representatives of the opera genre in the 19th century. His work is at the same time the completion of the development of music of the 18th century. and opens the way to the artistic achievements of romanticism. His first opera, Demetrio and Polibio (1806), was written quite in line with the traditional opera seria. Rossini turned to this genre more than once. Among the best works are "Tancred" (1813), "Othello" (1816), "Moses in Egypt" (1818), "Zelmira" (1822, Naples, libretto by A. Tottola), "Semiramis" (1823).

Rossini made a huge contribution to the development of opera buffa. The first experiments in this genre were “Promissory Note for Marriage” (1810, Venice, libretto by G. Rossi), “Signor Bruschino” (1813) and a number of other works. It was in opera buffa that Rossini created his own type of overture, based on the contrast of a slow introduction followed by a rapid allegro. We see one of the earliest classical examples of such an overture in his opera The Silk Staircase (1812). Finally, in 1813, Rossini created his first masterpiece in the buffo genre: “An Italian Woman in Algiers,” where the features of the composer’s mature style are already clearly visible, especially in the remarkable finale of the first act. His success was also the opera buffa “The Turk in Italy” ( 1814). Two years later, the composer wrote his best opera, “The Barber of Seville,” which rightfully occupies an outstanding place in the history of the genre.

Created in 1817, Cinderella demonstrates Rossini's desire to expand the palette of artistic media. Purely buffoonish elements are replaced by a combination of comic and lyrical principles; in the same year, “The Thieving Magpie” appears, written in the genre of opera-semiseria, in which lyrical-comedy elements coexist with tragic ones (how can one not recall Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”). In 1819, Rossini created one of his most romantic works - “The Virgin of the Lake” (based on the novel by W. Scott).

Among his later works, “The Siege of Corinth” (1826, Paris, is a French edition of his earlier opera series “Mahomet II”), “Count Ory” (1828), written in the style of French comic opera (in which the composer used a number of the most successful those from the opera "Journey to Reims", created three years earlier on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles X in Reims), and, finally, Rossini's last masterpiece - "William Tell" (1829). This opera, with its drama, individually defined characters, large cross-cutting scenes, already belongs to another musical era - the age of romanticism. This composition concludes Rossini's career as an opera composer. Over the next 30 years, he created a number of vocal and instrumental works (among them “Stabat Mater”, etc.), vocal and piano miniatures.