Rossini (Master Musicians Series) [Hardcover]

Richard Osborne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0195181298 | ISBN-13: 978-0195181296 | Edition: 2

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Osborne's Rossini remains indispensable both as a conspectus of, and prolegomenon to, the life and work of this most colourful of operatic composers." Conor Farrington, Times Literary Supplement "The 1985 edition of Richard Osborne's Rossini was already the very best Rossini biography available; the new edition surpasses it in every way. Writing now with access to the published correspondence from throughout the composer's operatic career (through 1830) and with new editions and excellent performances of most of the operas, Osborne provides real insight into the life and works of a composer whose art had been poorly understood since the middle of the nineteenth century. He hones in on the major works and explains their historical significance and aesthetic appeal. Those who love Rossini and bel canto opera are truly in Osborne's debt."-Philip Gossett, Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music, University of Chicago

"Perhaps the best general study of this composer's life and work available in any language."-Alex Liddell

"Richard Osborne's Rossini is an invaluable work of scholarship and passion. Life and Works together, in great detail, give the reader a splendid fund of information and allow a much clearer picture than we have ever had before, of an often misunderstood, and under-rated genius."--Sir Roger Norrington

About the Author

Richard Osborne is one of Britain's best known writers and broadcasters, and a leading authority on Rossini. Widely praised for its scholarship and readability, the original edition of his Master Musicians Rossini was seen as an infuential act of revaluation at a time of renewed interest in the composer's music and personality. Other books by Richard Osborne include Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music (1998) and Till I End My Song. English Music and Musicians 1440-1940: A Perspective from Eton (2002). critic and broadcaster, author of Conversations with Karajan (OUP 1991), Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music (Chatto & Windus 1998), and Till I End My Song. English Music and Musicians 1440-1940: A Perspective from Eton (Cygnet Press 2002).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (September 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195181298
• ISBN-13: 978-0195181296
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Osborne has done it again, December 9, 2009

By 

Filippo Secondo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rossini (Master Musicians Series) (Hardcover)

Though I regret the absence of an English book dealing exclusively with the operas and wish that such a work were written by Osborne, I recommend this 400-page updated edition of his 1985 Master Musicians study without hesitation to all Rossini fans. The format (true to the title) balances, almost ideally, life (17 chapters) and works (23): if only the author's analysis of the latter - especially my beloved operatic rarities - were longer... The appendixes feature a calendar, list of works, personalia, and select bibliography. Wrapped in a glossy dust-jacket showing Rossini at his handsomest, the book contains b/w photos and musical examples. Even if you're simply wondering about Stendhal's fascination with the Italian composer's life and works, Osborne won't let you down you in this respect.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lilt of Life, May 30, 2009

By 

Dr. John W. Rippon "May 19, 1932 and still going" (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rossini (Master Musicians Series) (Hardcover)

There is a characteristic lilt to the music of Rossini and appropriately there is a lilt to the writing of Richard Osborne in his revised edition of the life of Rossini. The biographer presents enough information of interest for the devoted amateur, as I am, to grasp some appreciation of the person and the events behind the deeply loved works of this great master. This is not a data-filled three volume Verdi biography of Budden or a Spitta or Schweitzer on Bach but more akin to the anecdotal Vie de Rossini of Stendhal (but more accurate). It's the story of an extraorinarily talented master composer that fell into one bed of roses after another for most of his life. The tiny Adriatic town of Pesero, a backwater for most of the ages, has come to be a festival site where the Rossini Institute presents his operas from critical editions and promotes ongoing scholarship on Rossini and his era. It was here that the Rossinis were blest with the birth of their only child five months after marriage. This occurred on 29 February 1792. Father Giuseppe was an itinerant horn and trumpet player and mother, Anna, was a soprano accomplished enough to have her name listed on handbills of concert engagements. A very musical family but without status or money. Rossini's love and prowess in music developed early. His father was his first teacher and he accompanied his mother on tour of an itinerant Buffo comedy company and sang with her as well. At age twelve he sarted composing sonatas for strings and other works. He soon was writing overtures and incidental music for the shows he was in. At 18 he wrote his first staged work, a farsa comica, called La Cambiale Matrimonio. It was a great success and is still given regularly in Italy and elsewhere. Success followed success and he wrote fast and furiously. In those days reusing previously composed material in a new setting was considered acceptable. Thus we have the overture to the Barber of Seville being used for three quite different operas. Even incorporating sections from other composers' compositions, called "pastiches", was allowed. But Rossini's final products were all his own and many are masterpieces. He retired from Italian opera at age 32 having written over thirty operas and took up residence in Paris. He will write or rewrite five more operas in French along with numerous other works called "Sins of Old Age"; his last opera Guilliame Tell is a French Grand Opera that was given some 500 times during his lifetime. He lived the "good life" with his second wife Olympe and presided over a grand salon in a fashionable Paris studio. In later life he had serious health problems and died at 76. The book then devotes chapters to anaysis of most of his operas as well as religious and chamber works. Some of his operas were failures at the time first given but have become appreciated in modern productions e.g. Ermione, Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghliterra etc. He said it would take time for some of his children to find favor. Osborne also includes a very useful Calender from age 1 to 76 with events in Rossini's life and Contemporary Events, An excellent list of all the composers works and prima dates makes this a useful reference book. It is a great addition to the music lovers bookshelf.