Customer Reviews

Rossini (Master Musicians Series)

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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.

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.