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Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity.
The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy The Barber of Seville (1775). The première of Rossini's opera took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli.
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as prolifically as either and his development of operatic structures, melodic styles and orchestration contributed significantly to the foundations upon which Giuseppe Verdi built his dramatic technique.
Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas. The family was of Tuscan origin, living in Catania when the composer was born. He served as the Florence Conservatory's first director from 1849 through 1862.
William Tell is a French-language opera in four acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and L. F. Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell, which, in turn, drew on the William Tell legend. The opera was Rossini's last, although he lived for nearly 40 more years. Fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for Guillaume Tell to be his last opera even as he composed it. The often-performed overture in four sections features a depiction of a storm and a vivacious finale, the "March of the Swiss Soldiers".
Le siège de Corinthe is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini set to a French libretto by Luigi Balocchi and Alexandre Soumet, which was based on the reworking of some of the music from the composer's 1820 opera for Naples, Maometto II, the libretto of which was written by Cesare della Valle.
The Burning Fiery Furnace is an English music drama with music composed by Benjamin Britten, his Opus 77, to a libretto by William Plomer. One of Britten's three Parables for Church Performances, this work received its premiere at the St Bartholomew's Church, Orford, Suffolk, England, on 9 June 1966 by the English Opera Group.
The William Tell Overture is the overture to the opera William Tell, whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement. The overture is in four parts, each following without pause.
Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello to a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page.
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra is a dramma per musica or opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, from the play Il paggio di Leicester by Carlo Federici, which itself "was derived from a novel The Recess (1785) by Sophia Lee."
Comédie-Italienne or Théâtre-Italien are French names which have been used to refer to Italian-language theatre and opera when performed in France.
Macbeth is an opera in three acts, with music by Ernest Bloch to a libretto by Edmond Fleg, after the eponymous play of William Shakespeare. Bloch composed the opera between 1904 and 1906, but it did not receive its first performance until 30 November 1910 by the Opéra-Comique in Paris with Henri Albers in the title role and conducted by François Ruhlmann. Alex Cohen has written of quarrels within the cast that contributed to the opera's poorly received premiere.
Ivanhoé is an 1826 pastiche opera in three acts with music by Gioachino Rossini to a French-language libretto by Émile Deschamps and Gabriel-Gustave de Wailly, after Walter Scott's 1819 novel of the same name. The music was adapted, with the composer's permission, by the music-publisher Antonio Pacini from Rossini's operas, namely Semiramide, La Cenerentola, La gazza ladra, and Tancredi in order to introduce his music to Paris. An examination of the score shows that Pacini also used music from Bianca e Faliero, Armida, Maometto II, Aureliano in Palmira, Sigismondo, Torvaldo e Dorliska, Mosè in Egitto and an amount of newly composed music including fanfares and the gallop that was later to become famous from its inclusion in Guglielmo Tell. The work was premiered on 15 September 1826, at the Odéon Theatre.
Rossini's Ghost is a 1996 HBO Original Film produced and directed by David Devine, with co-production by Richard Mozer.
Aureliano in Palmira is an operatic dramma serio in two acts written by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto in which the librettist was credited only by the initials "G. F. R." The libretto has generally been attributed to Felice Romani, but sometimes to the otherwise unknown Gian Francesco Romanelli. It has been suggested that the latter name may have resulted from a confusion of Romani with Luigi Romanelli, La Scala's house poet prior to Romani's appointment to the post.
Bianca e Falliero, ossia Il consiglio dei tre is a two-act operatic melodramma by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. The libretto was based on Antoine-Vincent Arnault's 1798 play Les Vénitiens, ou Blanche et Montcassin.
The Théâtre d'Orléans was the most important opera house in New Orleans in the first half of the 19th century. The company performed in French and gave the American premieres of many French operas. It was located on Orleans Street between Royal and Bourbon. The plans for the theatre were drawn up by Louis Tabary, a refugee from the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Construction began in 1806, but the opening was delayed until October 1815. After a fire, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1819, led by another émigré from Saint-Domingue, John Davis. Davis became one of the major figures in French theatre in New Orleans. The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1866, but the ballroom is still used.
Calisto Bassi was an Italian opera librettist.
Westbrook-Rossini is an album by Mike Westbrook, featuring interpretations of works by Gioachino Rossini which was recorded in Switzerland in 1986 and first released on the hat ART label the following year.
References
Notes
- ↑ Loewenberg 1978, columns 719–721.
- 1 2 3 Recordings of William Tell on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk
- ↑ Fregosi, William (1993). "Guglielmo Tell. Gioachino Rossini". The Opera Quarterly. 9 (4): 259–264. doi:10.1093/oq/9.4.259 . Retrieved 2007-10-21.
- ↑ The Italian role names are based on the translation by Calisto Bassi. View at Google Books.
- ↑ Braunstein, Joseph (1952). "Reviews of Records - Rossini: William Tell". The Musical Quarterly. 38 (4): 667–671. doi:10.1093/mq/xxxviii.4.667-b . Retrieved 2007-10-21.
- ↑ Fregosi, William (2000). "Guglielmo Tell. Gioachino Rossini". The Opera Quarterly. 16 (4): 677–680. doi:10.1093/oq/16.4.677 . Retrieved 21 October 2007.
- ↑ Hamilton, David (1991). "Guillaume Tell. Gioachino Rossini". The Opera Quarterly. 8 (1): 117–121. doi:10.1093/oq/8.1.117 . Retrieved 20 October 2007.
Sources
- Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). Annals of Opera 1597–1940 (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-87471-851-5.
