7 Pieces by Gioacchino Rossini YOU should listen to this Week

Hello everyone! Today (technically February 29th) is Gioacchino Rossini's birthday. Last year I wrote a post, so here is this year's post:

7. William Tell Overture

This is one of Rossini's most well known works because of the use of its finale in the Lone Ranger. However, the original piece is 12 minutes long and consists of much more material than what you are probably familiar with. Here is the William Tell Overture performed by the London Philharmonic, conducted by Alfred Scholz:

6. Assisa a piè di un salce from "Otello"

I noticed on the list of Rossini's opera's the opera Otello. Othello is probably one of Shakespeare's most famous play's, but Rossini would not have been familiar with Shakespeare's adaptation, but still made an opera themed on the story. This piece is sung by Othello's wife Desdemona in the final act. Here is Assisa a piè di un salce performed by Olga Peretyatko at the Teatro alla Scala opera house:

5. The Thieving Magpie (Overture)

One funny story I read about this is that before the first performance, the conductor locked Rossini in a room until he finished the overture. As he wrote it, he would throw the pages out the window to copyists to copy for the performance. This shows that Rossini was definitely a procrastinator. Here is The Thieving Magpie (Overture) performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham:

4. La Cenerentola (Overture)

This opera was apparently composed in 3 weeks. It amazes me that a young 25 year old composer was able to compose a serious opera that is still performed today within 3 weeks. One of the other pages said that Rossini was a fast composer, but I did not realize that he was that fast. To be fair, it says that he collaborated with someone who wrote three of the numbers. Here is the overture to La Cerentola performed by Zagreb Festival Orchestra:

3. Semiramide (Overture)

This opera was Rossini's final Italian opera. Rossini composed it using the same more baroque style that he would have learned in his youth. Rossini's interest in serious Opera was first sparked by his relationship with dramatic soprano Isabella Colbran, who became his wife. Here is the overture to Semiramide performed by New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein:

2. Stabat Mater

Rossini began work on this piece in 1831, but did not complete it until a decade later. It was one of his later works, and it appears that he stole the work of one of his friends who composed six of the movements. Rossini, however, took the credit. Here is a translation of the text. Here is the piece:

1. The Barber of Seville (Overture)

This is another one of Rossini's most famous pieces. I read recently a story that Beethoven came met Rossini and congratulated him on the success of this opera. He then added that Rossini should stick to comedic operas, and someone reminded him that Rossini had written several serious operas, and Beethoven remarked that Italian's don't write serious opera properly. This piece is probably most famous for its use in the Looney tunes special The Rabbit of Seville. Here is the overture to Barber of Seville performed by St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yuri Temirkanov:

Sources
No. 6, Otello, Wikipedia
No. 5, The Thieving Magpie, Wikipedia
No. 4, La Cenerentola, Wikipedia
No. 3, Semiramide Overture, Wikipedia
No. 2, Stabat Mater, Wikipedia
No.1, The Barber of Seville, Wikipedia

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Thanks for reading this! I am not going to be posting Confucian Analects this week because there are 2 composer birthday's (Rossini and Chopin). See you tomorrow!

Also remember to check for: My weekly 7 post, As well as my composer birthday posts (Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments.