Rossini, GIOACCHINO ANTONIO, Italian operatic composer, was born at Pesaro, on the Adriatic, February 29, 1792, and was the only child of Giuseppe Rossini, town trumpeter and inspector of slaughter-houses, from whom he inherited his brightness and humour. From the age of seven he studied music and singing at Bologna under various masters, till in 1807, after having appeared as conductor of the local Accademia dei Concordi, he entered the Bologna Liceo, or conservatorium. He soon became known in neighbouring towns as accompanist at the theatres, travelling along with his father, now a horn-player. Numerous operatic works, mostly successful, were written for the theatres at Venice, Bologna, Rome, &c.; at Milan, in 1812, La Pietra di Paragone made a great impression, and gained the composer exemption from the French conscription. Next year Tancrède, at Venice, created the wildest excitement, which soon spread over Italy. After producing several other works, now mostly forgotten, he was engaged as musical director of the San Carlo and Del Fondo theatres at Naples. On February 5, 1816, was brought out at the Argentino theatre in Rome Il Barbiere di Seviglia, founded on Beaumarchais' play, and written in thirteen days. From the predilection of the Romans for the aged Paesiello, who had written an opera on the same play, and from a series of ludicrous accidents, it resulted on the first night in a complete fiasco; but next night, after the first act had been fairly heard, the public in their enthusiasm proceeded to Rossini's house, and conducted him to the theatre in triumph; and its popularity increased with each succeeding representation. Of all his works it has the prospect of most lasting vitality, and in its complete accord with the libretto is the most perfect as a whole. Otello next came out in Naples, and marked an advance in the style of serious opera, but was not at first successful; the tragedy was too sombre. The comic Cencrèntola, in 1817, was favourably received in Rome, and immediately thereafter La Gazza Ladra obtained a triumph at Milan. These were rapidly followed at Naples by Armida and Mosè in Egitto (1818), La Donna del Lago (1819), and Maometto Secondo (1820). In 1821 he married Isabella Colbran, who had sung frequently in his operas, and the two proceeded to Vienna, where his music and his attractive personality carried all before him, in spite of some bitter opposition. After his return to Bologna, Semiramide was written in 1823 for the Fenice Theatre, Venice; but though the greatest, or at least the most advanced, of his Italian works, it had only a lukewarm reception—it was too heavy for the Venetians. Invited to London, he and his wife on their way thither paid their first visit to Paris, where he had so cordial a reception that he resolved to return. In England he was welcomed with the greatest favour by the king and the aristocracy, but produced no new work, though much was said of an opera intended for the King's Theatre.
On his return to Paris he entered on the duties of director of the Théâtre Italien for eighteen months; and, though not exactly the man for such a post, he had the credit of engaging several famous singers, and produced some of his already written operas, as well as Meyerbeer's Crociato. Retained in the service of the king, he went on to adapt several of his works to French taste: Maometto, appearing in its new shape as Le Siège de Corinthe; Moïse; and Le Comte d'Ory, new, but worked up from old material. After an interval of a year, spent in retirement and study, there appeared at the Académie, on August 3, 1829, his greatest work, Guillaume Tell, conceived and written in a style entirely different from and superior to that of his Italian operas, and more nearly conforming to modern dramatic ideas. Its success was immediate and immense, but, chiefly owing to the wretched libretto, not lasting. From this period till his death his pen was scarcely more than once again resumed; except a few trifles, its only product was the Stabat Mater, first given in 1841, highly attractive and always popular, but little in keeping with the majestic sadness of the subject. After the decision, in his favour, of a tedious lawsuit, he retired in 1836 to Bologna, to comfort the last years of his father, and to bestow the utmost care on the Liceo, which he raised to a high position as a school of music. His wife died in 1845, and in 1847, after he had married again, revolutionary disturbances drove him from Bologna to Florence. In 1855 he returned to Paris, and in his villa at Passy became one of the most noted and attractive personalities of the capital. He died there, November 13, 1868. He stands at the head of Italian composers for the stage, though Verdi has now far wider popularity and greater dramatic force and passion, and though only a few of his operas still hold the field—above all, the Barber, Semiramide, and William Tell. His early works would now sound strangely old-fashioned, but he led the way in reform and progress up to modern ideas. While all his improvements had been elsewhere anticipated by Mozart, and some of his devices were very transparent and soon became hackneyed, the taste of the audiences for whom he wrote must not be forgotten in estimating his music. The greatest of his varied gifts was an inexhaustible facility in creating melodies which at once delight the ear—an unacquirable possession, and the first requisite of a great composer; and though he did not use all the means available in his art, the splendid results he obtained are perhaps on that account even the more remarkable.
See the biography by H. S. Edwards (1869), the same author's shorter Life in the 'Great Musicians' series (1881), and the more extensive French work of M. Azevedo (1865). There are also works on Rossini by Montrond, Zanolini (1875), and Sittard (1882).