Ionarts: Happy 56th Birthday, Rossini

Fifty-six is no age for a composer and so it is little wonder that Rossini - or at least his music - is alive and well. Born on February 29th, 1792, Gioachino Antonio Rossini soon discovered a penchant and talent in culinary appreciation as well as note-churning. The latter he put to use for the creation of almost 40 operas, the former to support his stately appearance.

So much has been written about Rossini, that I would not likely contribute anything new on this special Rossini-day - so instead I list below all that has been written about Rossini on Ionarts over the last few years.

Except, before I do that, I still want to rehash some reasonably well known stories about Rossini, just because they are too good to pass up on - and because they endear the composer to me, if not always his music.

There is, of course, the story that when Rossini laid on bed composing and he dropped a sheet of freshly written music, rather than making the effort to climb off the bed and pick it up, he simply wrote the music out, again. Consider this - and that tiny little Rossini's daycare consisted of a pork butchery, where he got to watch the production of sausages - and listen to his music carefully...

The most enduring story about Rossini may well be his admission to having cried only three times in his life: Once after his first opera (La cambiale di matrimonio) had a disastrous premiere. Then again when he heard Paganini play. And finally when he witnessed a truffle-stuffed turkey fall overboard in a picnic boating accident. (Sharp tongues might point out that Rossini would have known all about turkeys, but that's just not a nice thing to say on such a rare birthday.)

Rossini on ionarts:

Ionarts

29.2.24

Happy 56th Birthday, Rossini

Lawrence Brownlee, classical voice

Lawrence Brownlee Returns to Wolf Trap

Rossini's 'Semiramide' in Concert

Dismally Banal 'Tell' at Covent Garden

Second Opinion: 'Cenerentola' at WNO

In Search of the Perfect Mousetrap: WNO's 'La Cenerentola'

Ionarts-at-Large: Rossini in San Francisco

Briefly Noted: More of Pappano's Rossini

Ionarts at Santa Fe: The Lady without a Lake

Operatic Threesome, Damrau Glitters in 'Ory'

Guillaume Tell

Briefly Noted: Julia Lezhneva

Notes from the 2011 Salzburg Festival ( 9 )

8½ Turks in Italy at Wolf Trap Opera

'Cinderella' Not a Dream Come True

'Barber of Seville' as Cartoon, and Not with Bugs Bunny

Wall of Horns (Munich Opera Festival 2008)

Washington Concert Opera: Bianca e Falliero

Opera on DVD: Il Viaggio a Reims

Ionarts in Siena: Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Rossini's Otello, Washington Concert Opera

Flórez's Breakthrough

Two Comedies of Errors

Siege of Baltimore

Frolics and Frippery: A Roll in the Hay with Rossini

Summer Opera 2006: "Barber of Seville" in St. Louis

Il Viaggio a St. Petersburg

Let's Do Silly Things in Algeria

Tancredi: Sounds Good

Summer Opera: La Cenerentola at Wolf Trap

Summer Opera: Barber of Seville in Santa Fe

Even Google celebrates Rossini today:

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