Gioachino Rossini – opera composer

The amazing talent of composer Rossini

Étienne Carjat's 1865 photographic portrait
of Gioachino Rossini

One of Italy’s most prolific composers, Gioachino Rossini, was born on this day in 1792 in Pesaro in Le Marche.

He wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, songs and instrumental music. He is perhaps best remembered for, The Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), and Cinderella (La Cerenterola).

Rossini was born into a musical family and during his early years his father played the trumpet in bands and his mother earned her living singing at theatres in the area.

He quickly developed musical talent of his own and made his first appearance on stage as a singer in 1805 before settling down to learn several musical instruments and become an accompanist and then a conductor.

Rossini’s first opera, The Marriage Contract (La Cambiale di Matrimonio), was staged in Venice when he was just 18.

In 1813 his operas, Tancredi and L’Italiana in Algeri, were big successes and he found himself famous at the age of 20.

Listen to the overture from Rossini's opera William Tell, as performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra

The Barber of Seville was first produced in Rome in 1816 and went on to be so successful that it is claimed even Beethoven wrote to congratulate Rossini on it.

The composer became wealthy and in big demand and travelled to Austria , France and England. In 1824 he accepted the post of musical director at a theatre in Paris and wrote Guillaume Tell (William Tell) during his time there.

Rossini came back to live quietly in Italy for about ten years, but returned to France in 1855, where he died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house in Passy.

He was initially buried in Paris but because of his enormous popularity in Italy, his remains were moved to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence at the request of the Italian Government in 1887.

Travel tip:

Pesaro is a beautiful, traditional seaside resort on the Adriatic coast renowned for its sandy beach. Rossini’s birthplace, at Via Rossini 34, is now a museum dedicated to the composer and there is also a theatre named after him. A Rossini opera festival is held in Pesaro every summer.

The Teatro Argentina in Rome, where Rossini's
Barber of Seville premiered in 1816

Travel tip:

The premiere of Rossini’s famous opera, The Barber of Seville, was held at Teatro Argentina in Rome in February 1816. It was jeered by the supporters of a rival composer on the first night but the second performance was a success and the opera quickly became popular in England and America. It has been regularly performed over the last 200 years and remains a favourite with both singers and audiences. Teatro Argentina, in Largo di Torre Argentina in the centre of Rome, was built in 1731 over the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

More reading:

How advice from Gigli prolonged soprano's career

Enrico Caruso: the greatest tenor of all time

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Gioachino Rossini

Italian composer who found the fast route to wealth and popularity

The success of Rossini's early operas made him
wealthy and successful even as a young man 

One of Italy’s most prolific composers, Gioachino Rossini, died on this day in France in 1868.

He wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, songs and instrumental music. He is perhaps best remembered for, The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Cinderella (La Cenerentola).

Rossini was born into a musical family living in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast in 1792. During his early years his mother earned her living singing at theatres in the area and he quickly developed musical talent of his own.

He made his first and only appearance on stage as a singer in 1805 but then settled down to learn the cello.

His first opera, The Marriage Contract (La cambiale di matrimonio), was staged at Teatro La Fenice opera house in Venice when he was just 18.

In 1813 his operas, Tancredi and L’italiana in Algeri, were big successes in Venice and he found himself famous at the age of 20.

The Barber of Seville was first produced in Rome in 1816 and was so successful that even Beethoven wrote to congratulate Rossini on it.

Rossini as an older man, in about 1865

The composer became wealthy and in big demand and travelled to Austria, France and England. In 1824 he accepted the post of musical director at a theatre in Paris and wrote Guillaume Tell (William Tell) during his time there.

Rossini came back to live quietly in Italy for about ten years, but returned to France in 1855, where he died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house in Passy.

He was initially buried in Paris but because of his enormous popularity in Italy, his remains were moved to the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence at the request of the Italian Government in 1887.

The magnificent Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, where
Rossini's remains were transferred from Paris

Travel tip:

Many famous Italians are buried in the magnificent 12th century Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence. Rossini’s remains were transferred here from France in 1887, leaving an empty tomb for people to visit at the cemetery in Paris.



Travel tip:

Pesaro is a beautiful, traditional seaside resort on the Adriatic coast renowned for its sandy beach. Rossini’s birthplace, at Via Rossini 34, is now a museum dedicated to the composer and there is also a theatre named after him. A Rossini opera festival is held in Pesaro every summer.



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First night at Teatro di San Carlo

Oldest opera house in the world opens its doors in Naples

Teatro di San Carlo in Naples was officially opened on this day in 1737, way ahead of Teatra alla Scala in Milan and Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Teatro di San Carlo opened on 4 November 1737 with
a performance of Mestastasio's Achille in Sciro

Built in Via San Carlo, close to Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square in Naples, Teatro di San Carlo quickly became one of the most important opera houses in Europe and renowned for its excellent productions.

Originally known as the Real Teatro di San Carlo, the theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles I, and took just eight months to build.

Medrano was primarily a military architect, but he was advised by Angelo Carasale, the former director of the Teatro San Bartolomeo, which the San Carlo was to replace. 

Incorporating 184 boxes plus a 10-seater royal box, the theatre had a capacity of more than 3,000 people, although modern safety regulations limit today's theatre to 1,386 seats. 

The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of 4 November. There was a performance of Achille in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio with music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra for the music for two ballets.

This was 41 years before La Scala and 55 years before La Fenice opened. San Carlo is now believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, remaining opera houses in the world.

Both Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti served as artistic directors at San Carlo and the world premieres of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Rossini’s Mosè were performed there. 

Teatro di San Carlo is a short walk from the
Piazza del Plebiscito in the heart of Naples

In the magnificent auditorium, the focal point is the royal box surmounted by the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 

It is a lasting demonstration of the power of the Bourbon King Charles I in Naples at the time, which, thankfully, he used to give the city, and the rest of the world, a magnificent opera house.

Since then, San Carlo has suffered partial destruction in a fire in 1816 and was damaged by bombing raids in World War Two, although not too severely. It was open for business again within two months of Naples being liberated by the Allies in October 1943, relaunching on 26 December of that year with a performance of Puccini's La bohème.

Ironically, the great Neapolitan tenor, Enrico Caruso, did not enjoy a good relationship with San Carlo. From 1901 onwards, after being booed by a section of the audience during a performance of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Caruso refused to sing there again.

The Caffè Gambrinus has a long and illustrious
history as a meeting place in the heart of Naples

Travel Tip:

Close to Teatro San Carlo in the centre of Naples, Galleria Umberto I, Caffè Gambrinus, the church of San Francesco di Paola and Palazzo Reale are all well worth visiting.  The Gambrinus is an historic coffee house situated next to the start of Via Chiaia.  It was was founded in 1860 by Vincenzo Apuzzo, whose dream was to make his cafe the most important of the newly unified Italy. The next owner, Mario Vacca, began a refurbishment programme and commissioned numerous contemporary artists to provide decoration. Their artwork still graces the elegant Art Nouveau interiors. Later, the Gambrinus became known as a meeting place for intellectuals and artists, among them Gabriele D'Annunzio and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and Jean Paul Sartre.

President Sergio Matarella leads part of
the ceremony in Rome in 2018

Travel Tip:

National Unity and Armed Forces Day (Giorno dell’Unità Nazionale e Festa delle Forze Armate) is a day of celebration held in Italy on or close to 4 November each year. Originally conceived as a way to to commemorate the victory over Austria-Hungary in 1918, which to many marked the completion of Italian unification, it was somewhat hijacked as a celebration of military strength under Mussolini, who renamed it as the Anniversary of Victory. After World War Two, there was a reassertion of the sense that the celebration was about unity rather than a battlefield triumph. A national holiday until 1976, it became a moveable celebration after that and declined in importance for a while in the 1980s and '90s before being revived by former president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. You may still see parades and celebrations of the day, which was marked with particular ceremony on the centenary of the end of World War One in 2018, with events held in Trieste and Trento, two cities at the forefront of the victory in 1918, as well as in Rome.

More reading:

Pietro Metastasio - from street entertainer to leading librettist

Teatro di San Carlo partially destroyed by fire

Caruso still regarded by some as the greatest tenor of all time

Also on this day:

1448: The birth of Alfonso II of Naples

1575: The birth of painter Guido Reni

1964: The birth of novelist Sandrone Dazieri

1333 and 1966: Florence hit by catastrophic floods

(Picture credits: Teatro di San Carlo by Radomil Binek; Piazza del Plebiscito by Baku; Caffè Gambrinus by Armando Mancini; Sergio Matarella by Quirinale.it; via Wikimedia Commons)

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