Rossini was a man with a passion for life, music and food.
He dedicated himself to music since childhood. At 14 Rossini composed his first opera, at 18 he began his operatic career. He wrote about three dozen operas and is considered to be the last and greatest composer of opera “buffa”, but is probably more important as a composer of opera “seria”.
The secret of the Rossini style lies in its vivacity, melodies as well as the art of orchestration. From his first success, his operas were performed on all the Italian opera stages. In Paris he enjoyed great esteem and obtained French royal commissions.
Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), based on the play by Beaumarchais, is the best known and the most loved of his comic works, admired by Beethoven and Verdi. With its elegant melodies, wit and refinement it is considered to be the greatest of all Italian comic operas.
Guillaume Tell is widely regarded as his monumental masterpiece, his most inspired opera.
Rossini has also composed magnificent church music like the Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater.
But music was evidently not his only passion. As he is said once to have commented, “I know of no more admirable occupation than eating. Appetite is for the stomach what love is for the heart. The stomach is the conductor, who rules the grand orchestra of our passion. The bassoon or the piccolo, grumbling its discontent or shrilling its longing, personify the empty stomach for me. Eating, loving, singing and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life.”