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The Worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan

Gioacchino  Antonio Rossini was born in Pesaro, Italy in 1792, and died in Paris, France in 1868. He was the son of a slaughter-house inspector, who was also a town band trumpeter and a singer. Both parents were involved in the theatre, his mother as a singer and father as a horn player. As a child Gioacchino was apprenticed to a blacksmith, but also received musical tuition and sang in churches and played harpsichord in theatres. He formally trained in composition at Bologna.

Aged thirteen he was good enough to join his parents and assist in earning the family living. From 1810 his operas were played regularly and his fame grew. In 1814 he was appointed Director of both Neapolitan opera houses. When he was thirty he married the opera singer, Isabella Colbran. He was soon in demand throughout Europe and visited London via Vienna (where he met Beethoven), and Paris in 1823. During the next six years he continued to write a total of some forty comic operas, culminating with the serious opera William Tell¹. After this he wrote no more operas and very little other music for reasons which still remain a mystery, although poor and declining health seemed to play a vital part.

In 1845, following Isabella's death he married again and lived in Paris. His reputation rests very largely on his two most famous operas: The Barber of Seville, and William Tell. And equally on their respective overtures, which became concert pieces in their own right. These and the operas still retain and enhance their places in the operatic and concert repertoires.

How about the famous: The Barber of Seville . . .first?

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