"The glory of Italy"- Rossini

When Rossini died in 1868, Verdi wrote, “A great name has been lost to the world! He had the widest reputation, the most popular of our time, and he was the glory of Italy!”

And so he was, and to some still is - his statue impresses at the foyer of La Scala. Rossini was pioneering the style of singing and orchestration that became known as bel canto, beautiful singing. For the first half of the nineteenth century, his work dominated the world of opera, way beyond Italy. Rossini composed almost 40 operas that premiered between 1810 and 1829, almost singlehandedly starting the golden age of Italian opera.

His childhood was comfortable and easy, but he was composing by the age of 12 and his first opera premiered in Venice when he was 18. He went on to produce a series of comedies. The pace is amazing, even for a composer known to recycle music from earlier works, and the innovations were staggering. He's quoted as saying, "Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music." For Rome, in 1816, he produced (in less than three weeks!) Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). The same year, for Naples, he offered Otello . For Rome again, his version of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola (1817). More about Cenerentola below.

"Rossini had already broken the traditional form of opera buffa: he embellished his melodies (he was the true creator of bel canto, a florid style of singing), animated his ensembles and finales, used unusual rhythms, restored to the orchestra its rightful place, and put the singer at the service of the music.

Thus to opera seria. His first serious opera, Tancredi (1813), challenged the formula-ridden, serious operas of the 18th century with an authentically dramatic score. "This work, spirited and melodious, was an instant success. His librettist Gaetano Rossi declared, "Rossini rose to glory". Then followed yearly more dramatic opera seria , a flood of comedies and fame for his amazing flow of works. His serious opera however always moved fast. Among the quotes from Rossini that survive today is: “Monsieur Wagner has good moments, but awful quarters of an hour!”

By this time he'd established a reputation for a fine life. “Eating, loving, singing and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life,” he once said, “and they pass like bubbles of a bottle of champagne. Whoever lets them break without having enjoyed them is a complete fool.” More here. For the prima donna Isabella Colbran , his mistress and then wife, he wrote appropriately florid music.

Popular depictions of the time portrayed Rossini as complex and confident - as in the cartoon by Hippolyte Mailly in 1867.

Ten years after Tancredi came Semiramide (1823). It premiered in Venice, but was not popular. "The old-fashioned Venetians, however, did not understand the astonishing work, his longest and most ambitious, and so he resolved not to write another note for his countrymen. " More here. He headed to Paris to escape Italian opposition to innovation - but via Vienna to meet Beethoven. He was aged 31.

There are many versions of the meeting but this translation is from Rossini's own account.

Raising his head, he said to me abruptly, in a sufficiently comprehensible Italian: "Ah! Rossini, you are the author of The Barber of Seville? I offer my compliments; it is an excellent opera buffa. I have read it with pleasure and I enjoyed myself. So long as there is an Italian opera, it will be performed. Never try to do anything other than comic operas; to want to succeed in another style would force your nature.

Carpani who accompanied me suddenly interrupted him, naturally scribbling in German and translated word for word for me; this was the only way in which one could hold a conversation with Beethoven; he wrote: "But master Rossini has already composed a great number of opera seria, Tancredi, Otello, Mosè; the same have I sent, recommending that you examine them." Beethoven answered: "In fact I have glanced at them, but you see, the opera seria is not for the Italians. For treating the true drama they do not have enough musical knowledge; and how could they acquire it in Italy?" I communicated to him all my admiration for his genius, all my gratitude to have been allowed to express it to him. He answered me with a deep sigh and with these little words: "Oh! An unfortunate!"

After a pause he asked me for some details on the Italian theatres, on the famous singers, wanting to know if the operas of Mozart were performed frequently, if I were satisfied with the Italian opera company in Vienna. Then wishing me a good performance and success for Zelmira, he stood and accompanied us to the door, repeating "Above all you must make more Barbers."

Rossini's final opera, Guillaume Tell (William Tell), was seria: on the noble themes of nationalism and liberty. The Parisian public gave him an ovation. Then he decided, at age 37, not to write again for the theatre. Religious and concert works followed, but no more operas - and he died in Paris at 76.

La Cenerentola or Goodness Triumphant

The subtitle warns that Rossini will use the Cinderella story ironically, and so he did. Like the Barber of Seville (merely a year earlier) this opera excels in light hearted critique of social status seeking as well as amazingly modern consideration of women's vulnerability but also their potential power.

And several examples of the power of a patter song to convey confusion!

It's pretty much the story we know - except most things! Definitely ugly sisters control Cinderella but there's no wicked stepmother, just a weak and comic stepfather (Don Magnifico) and no Fairy Godmother (instead Alidoro, tutor to the Prince), no pumpkin carriage but some great horse and carriage music, no glass slipper even, instead a silver bracelet. And absolutely no magic - this is human story with a message set to brilliant music for solo and group voices.

Rossini at 25 years old completed this opera in three weeks.

Our production

We are going to a film production that is very traditional. As this critic writes,

"Rossini’s work and career are often belittled by those who claim he was frivolous and his gifts facile and superficial. The composer’s comedies suffer nowadays because they are so often staged in overemphatic, unfunny productions directed by people who have no intimacy with Rossinian music, language, style or his innate verve. "

We're watching a 1981 La Scala production conducted by Claudio Abbado. Frederica von Stade is Cenerentola, and Don Magnifico is played and sung by Claudio Desderi . And it's on YouTube here.

Reviews? Music Web is here.

And Opera Ramblings is here. An interesting comment: "It’s also very good indeed.  I don’t expect much emotional depth from Rossini.  Exquisite craftsmanship, tunes and utter professionalism, yes.  Genuine depth of emotion not so much!  This production though is genuinely affecting."

Lyn, 6/5/26