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Rossini, the Man and His Music

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Exhausted by his fame as the composer of such masterpieces as "The Barber of Seville", "William Tell", "L'Italiana in Algieri", "La Cenerentola", "Semiramide", and "La Gazza Ladra", Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) retired from the operatic stage at the age of 37. His renowned, exuberant wit and personal charm served only to mask a much darker persona, that of a neurotic, highly sensitive and depressed genius who, at the height of his acclaim and popularity, renounced an active musical career and retreated into a life of rest and privacy.

Noted English author and music critic Francis Toye has provided a highly readable and unusually balanced account of the tragic comedy which was Rossini's life and personality. This compassionate but objective biography presents a clear, fair- minded evaluation of every aspect of the composer's life: his background and childhood, his career, his marriages, and the nature of his musical genius. The book goes into painstaking detail concerning the reasons behind Rossini's Great Renunciation, and the years of physical and mental illness that followed.

Long considered the definitive biography in English, this book takes great pains to dispel old misconceptions about the enigmatic composer, whose natural facility may have rivaled that of Mozart and Bach, and whose music sparkles with a wit, spontaneity and brilliance found in the work of few others. Toye's volume is a genuine pleasure to read, and may serve to greatly stimulate the reader's interest in the composer and his music.