The Italian melodrama was unequivocally marked by a simply exceptional composer: he is Gioacchino Rossini, already famous at twenty and the greatest user of the crescendo technique, then called precisely Rossini, to engage and excite the public.
Born in Pesaro in February 1792 and raised in a simple and humble family, he showed how we will see a talented prevoce. Not surprisingly, the artist was nicknamed the “Swan of Pesaro”. His mother, Anna Guidarini, was a decent singer, while his father, Giuseppe Rossini, was a trumpeter and a fervent supporter of the French Revolution. These political ideas often led the family to move from one city to another, forcing little Joachim to spend his childhood years or with his grandparents, or traveling.
His early studies were completed in Bologna, becoming a contralto and singer at the Accademia Filarmonica and, at the same time, playing piano and spinet. At the age of 14 he enrolled in the Bolognese Liceo Musicale, becoming passionate about Mozart, Haydn, Palestrina and Cimarosa.
After moving to Naples in the early nineteenth century, she married the soprano Isabella Colbran, with whom she lived for a few years and then divorced. Later, he decided to move to Paris where he met Olympe Pélissier, who became his wife in 1846.
artslife
Career and works
At the age of twenty, Rossini had already performed three of his operas; his debut was in 1820 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice with “La cambiale di matrimonio”. He wrote so many works that he was able to present 4 or 5 of them to the public in the same year, but the Italians were not always kind to him: they passed, in fact, from the incredible success of works such as “La gazza ladra”, “L’italiana in Algeri” and “Semiramide” to the resounding dissent against “The Barber of Seville”, probably caused by envious detractors.
Fortunately, as everyone knows, “The Barber of Seville” met with success shortly after, along with the opera “Otello”; “Semiramide”, instead, was the last opera that Rossini wrote for an Italian theater, since soon after he moved to Paris where he became directeur de la musique et de la scène at the Théâtre de la comédie italienne. Here he staged “Guglielmo Tell”, a masterpiece between classicism and romanticism.
After making the decision to leave the opera house, Rossini went through a period of crisis both personal and creative. The works produced in this period stand the comparison with the previous ones in terms of quality, but not quantity, so much so that his biography is usually divided into two parts: the first characterized by a quick and immediate triumph, and the second slower and more secluded.
Many historians have questioned why the composer so early retired from the theatrical scene; according to some, the reason is attributable to the July Revolution of 1830, which undermined the agreements between Rossini and the Parisian theatres, while according to others there was an unbridgeable incompatibility between the artist and the romantic aesthetic. In fact, many romantic aspects are well present in his “Guglielmo Tell”, but probably Rossini inserted them simply to show everyone that, if he really wanted to continue, he would have dominated and triumphed even with the new style purely romantic.
finarte
Last years and death
Following the withdrawal from the theatres, Rossini decided to return to Bologna and stay there for about ten years. In his various biographies he is described as a hypochondriac man, humoral and angry, tending to depression but, at the same time, jovial and lover of both good food, that of beautiful women.
Despite his secluded life, he continued to compose for his wife Olympe and friends, creating his last works in Paris, where he decided to return permanently and fought a long time against rectal cancer. Unfortunately, despite the two surgeries, Rossini died on 13 November 1868 at his villa in Passy. His remains returned to Italy in 1887 and today they rest in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence.
storiaincucina
Gioacchino Rossini the gourmet
As told by those who knew him, Gioacchino Rossini was a good fork, a lover of good food, a wine expert and an excellent cook. These propensities made him famous, therefore, even at the culinary level, so much so that he was often asked for debates and meetings on food and wine.
In particular, Rossini did not like greedy foods, but those that aimed at strange and caloric combinations but, at the same time, refined. He was able to devour dozens of steaks without ever stopping and loved to surround himself with truffles, olives, butter, meat, eggs, stews, paws and fois gras. In addition to eating, he also enjoyed cooking: he devised seven recipes (the same number of musical notes) ranging from Tournedos to William Tell Cake.
His dishes, just like his compositions, were real homages to the gastronomic culture of the country of origin of every single ingredient; not by chance, he brought specially macaroni from Naples, hams from Seville, cheese from Gorgonzola, panettone from Milan and so on. However, one thing is certain: he loved stuffed pasta so much that he devised a special recipe, that is, Maccheroni alla Rossini!
Copertina: focus