The life of Gioachino Rossini: A summary

In this section learn more about Rossini’s life, background, successful career and key accomplishments. 

Early life and education

Gioachino Rossini was born in Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast of Italy in 1792. He was an only child to parents Giuseppe Rossino – a trumpeter and horn player, and Anna Guidarini, a seamstress by trade but later becoming a singer. 

Giuseppe a feckless father, was imprisoned at least twice, leaving much of Gioachino’s upbringing to his mother Anna, it was when he was six that Anna embarked on a professional singing career in comic opera with some considerable success. 

As a result of this, Rossini spent his entire childhood in and around the theatre with singing and playing coming naturally to him. 

When the family moved to Lugo in 1802, Rossini began studying music with a local priest and was inspired by his collection of Mozart and Haydn. A quick learner, by the age of 12 Rossini had composed six sonatas and two years later he joined Bologna’s Philharmonic School and composed his first opera – Demetrio e Polibio (1806). Initially Rossini studied singing, violin, horn and harpsichord and often sung in public to earn money. However, once his voice broke Rossini gave up singing to focus on conducting and composition, supported by his parents Rossini moved to Venice which was the main operatic centre in northeastern Italy. 

Career highlights

Rossini staged his first opera in 1810 to great success and financial reward and this was quickly followed by three more operas in addition to directing Haydn’s The Seasons in Bologna. In 1812, his two-act comedy La pietra del paragone ran for 53 performances at La Scala in Milan bringing him more financial benefits. 

A year later, his opera seria Tancredi (1813) which was based on Voltaire’s play Tancrede performed well in Venice and following Rossini’s re-write – to give the opera a tragic ending, it went on to give him international fame in London and New York, followed in the same year by another box office success L’italiana in Algeri. 

In 1815, Rossini moved to Naples, once the operatic capital of Europe, to become director of music for the royal theatres. He quickly won audiences favour and re-used a lot of his earlier work which was unfamiliar in the city. 

Due to his success in Naples, Rossini was able to write more regularly, and it was during this time that he wrote some of his most famous works including; Il barbiere di siviglia – The Barber of Seville (1816) which was subsequently revived in Bologna and Otello (1816). 

1817 saw him write The Thieving Magpie and Cinderella for La Scala and Rome respectively with The Thieving Magpie becoming famous for its overture and use of snare drums. 

Anti-monarchy sentiment in Naples unsettled Rossini and in 1822 he travelled to Vienna with his new wife, Isabella Colbran where he was received with such enthusiasm that biographers have termed it “Rossini fever”. 

London followed with a welcome from King George IV, however despite being lucrative Rossini soon returned to Paris after signing a contract with the French Embassy. 

His Parisian seasons between 1823 and 1829 consolidated his achievements at home with spectacularly grand works such as Le Comte Ory (1828) and William Tell (1829). 

Although Rossini’s last, William Tell is often performed and most well-known for its overture which has been used in several TV shows and films including The Lone Ranger and A Clockwork Orange. 

Later life

After 39 operas in 19 years, Rossini felt with Tell he had reached not only the culmination of his career but also a natural resting point, and therefore retired from operatic composition. He did not stop composing altogether – one of the delights of his retirement years is his Petite messe solenelle, an ironic title for a sacred work that is neither small nor solemn. 

Rossini’s health complications were also a factor in his choice to retire at the age of 37 as he suffered from both urethritis and arthritis as well as bouts of depression and possibly bipolar disorder. 

Rossini was also profoundly affected by the death of his mother Anna, followed by the death of his father and wife, Colbran and by the 1850s his mental and physical health had significantly deteriorated. 

In 1855, Rossini returned to Paris for medical care and for a time recovered well and began composing. As a man of significant wealth and fame and known for his humour he established an internally renowned salon (gathering of people by a host) and for these salons he wrote more than 150 compositions, referring to them as the ‘sins of old age’. 

At the age of 76, in November 1868 Rossini died following an unsuccessful operation for colorectal cancer. His funeral service was a grand affair with more than 4000 people in attendance. 

Rossini’s legacy is predominantly dominated by The Barber of Seville and William Tell, however during his lifetime he was able challenge and change the dramatic structures for serious opera as well as provide the link from opera buffa (comic opera) leading to the development of opera comique (French opera with both speech and arias). 

Most recently Rossini’s music was featured in the successful animated children’s TV series, Little Einsteins, which follows the adventures of a group of children who go on missions around the world, demonstrating the enduring legacy of one of opera’s most prolific composers. 

Rossini’s musical style and influence

Celebrated for his comic operas such as The Barber of Seville, which are full of music that is sensuous, brilliant and rhythmically vital, a typical example of Rossini at his best can be found in the barber Figaro’s ‘Largo al factotum’. But Rossini’s opera seria (serious operas) are equally important (though less frequently performed) and were a formative influence on Verdi in the second half of the 19th century and figures as diverse as Meyerbeer, Offenbach and even Wagner. Rossini undoubtedly transformed the form and content of Italian opera, establishing a new set of musical procedures that would invigorate and develop the genre long after he stopped composing.

Though most of Rossini’s stage works (especially the opera seria) fell out of the repertoire after his death, they were re-established in the twentieth century and occupy a key position today. Even the status of his opera seria has now been widely accepted, and performances of William Tell or The Lady of the Lake are no longer the rarities they once were.