Rossini: His Life and Works

Master Musicians Series

by Richard Osborne

Gioachino Rossini was one of the most influential, as well as one of the most industrious and emotionally complex of the great nineteenth-century composers. Between 1810 and 1829, he wrote 39 operas, a body of work, comic and serious, which transformed Italian opera and radically altered the course of opera in France. His retirement from operatic composition in 1829, at the age of 37, was widely assumed to be the act of a talented but lazy man. In reality, political events and a series of debilitating illnesses were the determining factors. After drafting the Stabat Mater in 1832, Rossini wrote no music of consequence for the best part of twenty-five years, before the clouds lifted and he began composing again in Paris in the late 1850s. During this glorious Indian summer of his career, he wrote 150 songs and solo piano pieces his 'Sins of Old Age' and his final masterpiece, the Petite Messe solennelle. The image of Rossini as a gifted but feckless amateur-the witty, high-spirited bon vivant who dashed off The Barber of Seville in a mere thirteen days-persisted down the years, until the centenary of his death in 1968 inaugurated a process of re-evaluation by scholars, performers, and writers. The original 1985 edition of Richard Osborne's pioneering and widely acclaimed Rossini redefined the life and provided detailed analyses of the complete Rossini oeuvre. Twenty years on, all Rossini's operas have been staged and recorded, a Critical Edition of his works is well advanced, and a scholarly edition of his correspondence, including 250 previously unknown letters from Rossini to his parents, is in progress. Drawing on these past two decades of scholarship and performance, this new edition of Rossini provides the most detailed portrait we have yet had of one of the worlds best-loved and most enigmatic composers.

Genres: Music, Biography, History

886 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 1990

About the author

Pseudonym for Robert Tine

Reviews

[Loesje · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a layman maybe a little to much. But I liked it :)

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Gioachino Rossini was surprisingly entertaining. He achieved huge success in the 19th century Italian and French opera worlds while in his early 20s and retired from opera composing in his late 30s. During his opera-writing years, he produced 39 operas including favorite masterpieces Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cenerentola, and Guillaume Tell. Rossini's life was neither tragic nor cut short, so the purely biographical parts of the book made for pretty cheerful reading.
Osborne did a wonderful job with the chapters describing Rossini's operas and other works. He provided just enough information about the content and features of each opera, with judiciously chosen musical examples, to provide the reader with a real sense of what the piece is like and how it works, without going into a tedious play-by-play description of the work from start to finish. I came away with a better understanding of each opera without feeling overwhelmed or bored by too much detail.

[Sammy]

A somewhat pretentious biography of Rossini which is stronger in its analysis of the music than in its overview of his life. Osborne is clearly writing for the serious opera-lover who already knows about Rossini, his works, and the houses of the time. If you didn't already know that the first two performances of 'Tancredi' had to be prematurely ended due to illness of the lead performer, Osborne won't tell you this directly; he'll tell you in passing as he explains how we know when during the performance it happens, based on what arias the reviews mentioned. He won't explain to you that a particular aria became popular around Europe, instead he'll reference that in passing during another sentence. Essentially, you should already have heard these details over the course of your life; Osborne is merely putting them into sequence for you.

Still, mustn't be churlish. It stands up to reading if you're seeking out particular information or an overview of all the operas that is more substantial than in the New Grove or other focused works on the author.

Make sure you get the 2007 second edition. As Osborne notes in his introduction, it is almost a new book in many ways given the advances of Rossini scholarship in the 25 years since the first edition.

[Alex Stephenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Osborne is not an interesting enough writer to tell Rossini's story, which probably could be very interesting (star opera composer retiring in the very prime of his career). The capsule essays about each of Rossini's operas are fair bits of analysis, but the writing is too bland to warrant a hearty recommendation. Passable, not all that good.

[Massimo Carli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real classic and a must read for anyone who, like me, loves opera and Rossini. In the first half the book describe the life, character and production of the great music master. In the second half Osborn analyze each of Rossini's compositions. Very pleasant in style very well researched, the book is helping me discovering a plentiful of musical treasures both in the well known masterpieces and in a number of less popular compositions.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A standard biography of Rossini, in the Master Musicians series (much better than some of the other series on music I've read lately). The second edition is important; it is almost totally rewritten from the original 1985 book in light of new information and scholarship.

The book consists of a lengthy biography, followed by discussions of each of his operas, and two final chapters on his other works.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a 'cold' biography considering the liveliness of the man in question... Still an interesting read however.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14819947