Rossini

I caught Antonio Pappano’s Opera Italia on the BBC iplayer and enjoyed an introduction to the work of Gioachino Rossini. I’ve dabbled with opera in the past. Borrowed Glydenbourne DVDs from the library, hoping I could find some way into the music. But outside Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, I fell asleep on trying to watch every other composer. Beethoven’s Fidelio was a bit long-winded and Turandot, I thought, was rather noisy.

Pappano’s documentary played sections of The Barber of Seville that seemed reminiscent of WAM’s Figaro (In fact, the character Figaro is the same recurring character, based on two novels by Beaumarche).

So I looked up Gioachino Rossini on Wikipedia and found the following:

Born 1792 (a year after WAM) died – 1868 (100 years before MLK died), in Pesaro, Italy.
Known as ‘the little German’ based on his love of Mozart and Haydn (neither of whom was German as it happens).

Rossini, according to Pappano, was a child prodigy very much in the same vein as WAM.

Rossini is famous for The Barber of Seville and William Tell. (overture may be remembered as theme song to the lone ranger TV show)

Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossini