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Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)

Gioachino Rossini

Italian composer (b. 29 February 1792 in Pesaro; d. 13 November 1868 in Paris), born Gioachino Antonio Rossini.

As Tchaikovsky recalls in his brief "Autobiography" of 1889 (TH 317), at the age of 17, under the influence of his Italian singing-master, Luigi Piccioli, he had become "a fervent admirer of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti". Even if his passion for Italian bel canto operas had subsequently abated—even to the extent that in 1871 he could speak of the "stereotypically banal episodes" which Rossini's works were full of (TH 260)—he does emphasize in this "Autobiography" that "to this day I feel a certain satisfaction when I hear the richly ornamented arias, cavatinas, and duets of Rossini, with all their roulades". It is interesting that, as noted by Herman Laroche in the Foreword to his 1898 edition of the composer's feuilleton articles [1], Tchaikovsky during his years at the Conservatory preferred Rossini's serious operas—Tancredi (1813), Mosè in Egitto (1818), Semiramide (1823), and Guillaume Tell (1829)—and was sceptical towards Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816). In this respect, as in his other musical tastes (for example, his indifference to Gounod's Faust or to Wagner's Lohengrin at the time), the young Tchaikovsky was very much swimming against the tide, for Il barbiere was incredibly popular in Russia, especially among those who still remembered the 1843–44 Italian Opera season in Saint Petersburg, when Pauline Viardot-García as Rosina, Antonio Tamburini (1800–1876) as Figaro, and Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794–1854) as Count Almaviva had delighted Russian audiences in this masterpiece of comic opera.

Laroche points out that it took Tchaikovsky many years before he began to appreciate the beauties of Il barbiere. Whist at the Conservatory, however, Tchaikovsky, who had a pleasant baritone voice and liked Italian coloratura, would sing mainly arias and duets from Rossini's serious operas: Semiramide and Otello [2]. Nevertheless by the early 1870s Tchaikovsky in his music review articles was referring to Il barbiere di Siviglia as "a priceless pearl of Italian music" and an "inimitable opera" (see more details in the list below). It is likely that a significant part in this re-evaluation of Rossini's masterpiece was played by Adelina Patti's performances as Rosina, which became one of her signature roles during her tours to Russia.

In view of Tchaikovsky's critical remarks in an 1873 article about Guillaume Tell (1829) as an opera in which Rossini had been unfaithful to his Italian genius by aspiring to seriousness and profundity (see the references below), it seems a bit strange that Laroche should suggest (again in his 1898 Foreword) that the music of Tell had influenced Tchaikovsky when writing some parts of The Voevoda (1867–68), The Oprichnik (1870–72), and even later in The Maid of Orleans (1878–79). Perhaps Laroche had in mind Rossini's successful evocation of picturesque, historical colour in his last stage work.

General reflections on Gioachino Rossini:

In Tchaikovsky's music review articles:

• TH 274 — Tchaikovsky describes Rossini's musical personality as "superficial, cold, but extraordinarily gifted" and argues that he had been untrue to himself in Guillaume Tell, where he had tried to present himself as a "serious and profound" composer; praises Il barbiere di Siviglia as "an unsurpassable paragon" of comic opera, with its "wholehearted and irresistibly gripping cheerfulness" and criticizes his attempts at opera seria; nevertheless, even in Tell there were parts which revealed Rossini's genius.
• TH 284 — asserts that Moïse et Pharaon displays "all the finest qualities of a composer who to this day still enjoys great popularity, as well as receiving respectful attention from the critics".
• TH 294 — praises Rossini as "a great master in the realm of comic opera", but criticizes the "childish naivety" of his sacred music in Stabat Mater, even though this work, too, offered "beautiful melodies and stylistic brilliance".
• TH 296 — emphasizes again that Rossini's sphere was the "light comic genre", in which he had no rivals, and calls Il barbiere di Siviglia a "priceless pearl of Italian music"; enthusiastically describes the qualities of Rossini's music, including his mastery of harmony and instrumentation.

On specific works by Gioachino Rossini:

• Guillaume Tell, opera (1829) — TH 274
• Il barbiere di Siviglia, opera (1816) — TH 274, TH 296
• Moïse et Pharaon, opera (1827) — TH 260, TH 284
• Otello, opera (1816) — TH 274
• Semiramide, opera (1823) — TH 274
• Stabat Mater, setting of liturgical text (1832–41) — TH 294
• Tancredi, opera (1813) — TH 274

Notes:

1. Herman Laroche, «Предисловие» in Музыкальные фельетоны и заметки Петра Ильича Чайковского (1868-1876) (1898) [back]
2. Quoted in David Brown, Tchaikovsky Remembered (1993), p. 19 [back]