Biography
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), born in Pesaro, was the dominant operatic composer of the early nineteenth century and the last great representative of the classical Italian tradition before Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi transformed the genre. Rossini composed thirty-nine operas in nineteen years, including The Barber of Seville (1816), La Cenerentola (1817), La Gazza Ladra (1817), Semiramide (1823), and—his final opera—William Tell (1829). He then stopped composing opera at the age of thirty-seven, living another four decades as a wealthy gourmand and salon host in Paris. His late-life compositions—the Stabat Mater and the private piano and vocal pieces collected as Sins of Old Age—rank among his finest works. Rossini died in Passy outside Paris in 1868; Giuseppe Verdi organised a commemorative Requiem with thirteen composers each contributing a movement, the project that would eventually lead to Verdi's own Requiem.
On Stagelog
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