Gioacchino Rossini

Gioacchino Rossini

By Giovanni Rodriguez

• Born February 29, 1792, Pesaro, Italy

• Died November 13, 1868 Paris, France ​

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​A composer of the Classical Era

​Growing up

• Both of Gioacchino Rossini’s parents were musicians; Father played trumpet and his mother an opera singer.

• Gioacchino learned to play the harpsichord and sang in churches as a child.

• He entered a music school in Bologna, Italy, at age fourteen.

• In school he showed great talent, frequently winning awards and prizes.

• Soon Gioacchino had written his first opera.

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Multiple Choice

When and where was Rossini born?

• Paris, France 1792

• Pesaro, Italy 1792

• Vienna, Austria 1792

• Venice, Italy 1792

Multiple Choice

What instrument did he first learn to play in churches as a child?

• Piano

• Harpsichord

• Violin

• Flute

​Early years of work

• 1810 through 1811, he wrote six more operas, one of which was commissioned by the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy.

• opera manager, Domenico Barbaja, was impressed by these operas and offered Rossini an exclusive contract.

• Rossini accepted and agreed to compose two operas a years

• he claimed none of his operas took more than a few weeks to write.

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Multiple Choice

What was the name of the opera manager that was impressed with Rossini's talent to write operas in such a short time?

• Haydn

• Henry Purcell

• Domenico Barbaja

• Mozart

​Opera Buffa

Opera's based on serious matters

With a dramatic style ​

​Opera Seria

Two types of operas

Most Famous opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Barber of Seville

​Operas based on stories

Mostly comedy ​

Multiple Choice

What is opera seria about?

• opera with a dramatic, serious style

• opera that was comical

• opera that sounded like nothing

• opera based on food

Multiple Choice

What is opera buffa?

• serious, dramatic opera

• comical opera

• boring opera

• its just an opera

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• Its opening night, I Rome was a failure, because of several disasters and accidents on stage.

• no ​liked it because there was another opera with the same name

• ​. But today, The Barber of Seville is recognized as one of the greatest Italian comic operas ever written.

• Rossini was just twenty-four years old when he composed it.

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Most Famous opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Barber of Seville

Multiple Choice

How old was Rossini when he composed Barber of Seville

• 8

• 14

• 37

• 24

Rossini's work life

• Rossini wrote sixteen more operas in the next six years.

• For the next several years, he traveled throughout Italy composing operas in important opera houses.

• Worked for opera house called La Scala​

• was hailed as an operatic genius.

• In 1824 (age thirty-two) Rossini moved to Paris.

• Two years later, he entered into a contract which called for him to compose five new operas over the next ten years.​

• The first and only opera Rossini completed under this contract was Guillaume Tell (William Tell), which was a great success when it opened in Paris in 1829.

• It would be Rossini’s last opera.

• wrote only a few pieces of sacred music, including one of his most famous, Stabat Mater

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​Rossini's work life continued

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the opera house that Rossini worked for?

• La Flauta

• La Scala

• El Hueso

• La Hormiga

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the opera Rossini composed in Paris that was really successful?

• William Tell

• Carmen

• Fidelio

• The Magic Flute

Poll

What is the name of the only sacred piece Rossini wrote?

• Miss Songe

• Missa Anglais

• Stabat Mater

• Hokey Pokey

​Why did he quit composing?

• theories why Gioacchino Rossini abandoned composing operas at the height of his creative success.

• He was wealthy, and claimed to be lazy. Yet, laziness is not a character trait of a man who once composed sixteen operas in six years.

• He was involved in legal battles, he was frustrated at fi nding fi rst rate singers to perform his operas, and his health was in decline. And he was concerned with political events in Europe. Yet none of these reasons fully explain why Gioacchino Rossini, one of the greatest of all opera composers, didn’t write an opera during the last forty years of his life.

​His Famous musical works

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​Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) — an opera

​Guillaume Tell (William Tell) — an opera

Otello — an opera

Stabat Mater — for chorus and orchestra