Gioachino Rossini

Donald Macleod presents five takes on the life and music of
Gioachino Rossini.


Donald starts by unpacking the winning formula Rossini hit on
right at the start of his operatic career. Aged 18, Rossini was
thrown in at the deep end, learning on the job at Venice’s Teatro
San Moisè, and the structural groundplan he concocted for his
early farces continued to come in handy later in life. Rossini is
best known as a composer of comic operas, but Donald introduces
us to his serious side, looking at three of his opere serie:
Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, Zelmira and Ermione. Next, a
look at Rossini’s life through the enthusiastic but distorting
lens of the writer Stendahl, the composer’s earliest biographer
and an eyewitness of his most productive period. Donald then
delves into the large collection of music that Rossini didn’t
have to write – his forays into other genres and forms that came
out of his spare time and retirement. Finally, we journey to
Paris, to explore the composer’s on-off relationship with the
city where he wrote so many of his most celebrated works.


Presenter: Donald Macleod Producer: Chris Barstow for BBC Wales


For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details,
and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after
broadcast) head to the series page for Gioachino Rossini:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00013x1


And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve
featured on Composer of the Week here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z