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97-532: Teatro Regio (Italian for 'Royal Theatre') may refer to several opera houses in Italy: Teatro Regio (Parma) Teatro Regio (Turin) Teatro Regio Ducale , Milan, a predecessor of La Scala See also [ edit ] Theatre Royal (disambiguation) Royal Theatre (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

194-419: A "large square upheld by four pairs of imposing mottled marble Ionic columns on an attic base..... The entire room is based on the square and on symmetry". It is decorated with a marble floor. After the 1853 restoration, which overall has been described as neo-Baroque ("[It radiat[es] gold, ivory, and maroon" colours), the ceiling of the auditorium was decorated by Giovan Battista Borghesi with frescoes of

291-675: A Ducal Theatre in Parma since the 17th century, the principal one being the Teatro Farnese constructed in 1618, but it was used only nine times, the last one occurring in October 1732, after which it suffered from years from neglect and further damage by American bombing in World War II. It was rebuilt in 1966. However, the "Nuovo" replaced another existing "small and narrow" Ducal Theatre dating from 1688, which had been located in

388-566: A Reims caused problems for his librettists, who had to adapt their original plot and write French words to fit existing Italian numbers, but the opera was a success, and was seen in London within six months of the Paris premiere, and in New York in 1831. The following year Rossini wrote his long-awaited French grand opera, Guillaume Tell , based on Friedrich Schiller 's 1804 play which drew on

485-705: A certain amount of self-borrowing. During this period he produced his most popular works, including the comic operas L'italiana in Algeri , Il barbiere di Siviglia (known in English as The Barber of Seville ) and La Cenerentola , which brought to a peak the opera buffa tradition he inherited from masters such as Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello . He also composed opera seria works such as Tancredi , Otello and Semiramide . All of these attracted admiration for their innovation in melody, harmonic and instrumental colour, and dramatic form. In 1824 he

582-682: A concert of excerpts from his works and this is coupled with the month-long festival. Along with the Verdi operas presented as part of its regular season since 2003/04, the aim of the Festival Verdi has been to present every one of the composer's operas by the bi-centennial year of 2013. However, while this was not achieved, very few operas remain to be staged (depending upon whether different versions are planned). The Festival has included associated discussions, orchestral concerts, and other relevant presentations. Several writers have commented on

679-450: A halt as the requisite repeats of the da capo aria were undertaken). For example, they could be punctuated by comments from other characters (a convention known as "pertichini" ), or the chorus could intervene between the cantabile and the cabaletta so as to fire up the soloist. If such developments were not necessarily Rossini's own invention, he nevertheless made them his own by his expert handling of them. A landmark in this context

776-809: A hero's welcome; his biographers describe it as "unprecedentedly feverish enthusiasm", "Rossini fever", and "near hysteria". The authoritarian chancellor of the Austrian Empire , Metternich , liked Rossini's music, and thought it free of all potential revolutionary or republican associations. He was therefore happy to permit the San Carlo company to perform the composer's operas. In a three-month season they played six of them, to audiences so enthusiastic that Beethoven 's assistant, Anton Schindler , described it as "an idolatrous orgy". While in Vienna Rossini heard Beethoven's Eroica symphony, and

873-459: A highlight of the celebrations. It included a concert version of act 2 of Aida . Other complete operas given during the month included I masnadieri , Falstaff , and Simon Boccanegra . Festival Verdi In addition to its regular season, from the 1990s the company began to mount a Festival Verdi. Beginning in 2003, the celebration known as Buon Compleanno Maestro Verdi ("Happy Birthday, Maestro Verdi") has been held each 10 October with

970-576: A little over a decade was a considerable success in cities including Trieste and Bologna , before her untrained voice began to fail. In 1802 the family moved to Lugo , near Ravenna , where Rossini received a good basic education in Italian, Latin and arithmetic as well as music. He studied the horn with his father and other music with a priest, Giuseppe Malerbe, whose extensive library contained works by Haydn and Mozart , both little known in Italy at

1067-610: A long time ago." The period after 1835 saw Rossini's formal separation from his wife, who remained at Castenaso (1837), and the death of his father at the age of eighty (1839). In 1845 Colbran became seriously ill, and in September Rossini travelled to visit her; a month later she died. The following year Rossini and Pélissier were married in Bologna. The events of the Year of Revolution in 1848 led Rossini to move away from

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1164-459: A new Rossini opera. But although Othello could at least claim to be genuine, canonic Rossini, the historian Mark Everist notes that detractors argued that Robert was simply "fake goods, and from a bygone era at that"; he cites Théophile Gautier regretting that "the lack of unity could have been masked by a superior performance; unfortunately the tradition of Rossini's music was lost at the Opéra

1261-522: A rush to meet deadlines. Between 1815 and 1822 he composed eighteen more operas: nine for Naples and nine for opera houses in other cities. In 1816, for the Teatro Argentina in Rome, he composed the opera that was to become his best-known: Il barbiere di Siviglia ( The Barber of Seville ). There was already a popular opera of that title by Paisiello , and Rossini's version was originally given

1358-459: A singer and worked in theatres as a répétiteur and keyboard soloist. In 1810 at the request of the popular tenor Domenico Mombelli he wrote his first operatic score, a two-act operatic dramma serio , Demetrio e Polibio , to a libretto by Mombelli's wife. It was publicly staged in 1812, after the composer's first successes. Rossini and his parents concluded that his future lay in composing operas. The main operatic centre in northeastern Italy

1455-648: A singer), Rossini began to compose by the age of twelve and was educated at music school in Bologna . His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. In 1815 he was engaged to write operas and manage theatres in Naples. In the period 1810–1823, he wrote 34 operas for the Italian stage that were performed in Venice, Milan, Ferrara , Naples and elsewhere; this productivity necessitated an almost formulaic approach for some components (such as overtures) and

1552-479: A sizeable annuity from the French government, and having written thirty-nine operas, he simply planned to retire and kept to that plan. In a 1934 study of the composer, the critic Francis Toye coined the phrase "The Great Renunciation", and called Rossini's retirement a "phenomenon unique in the history of music and difficult to parallel in the whole history of art": Is there any other artist who thus deliberately, in

1649-459: A student, including a mass and a cantata, and after two years he was invited to continue his studies. He declined the offer: the strict academic regime of the Liceo had given him a solid compositional technique, but as his biographer Richard Osborne puts it, "his instinct to continue his education in the real world finally asserted itself". While still at the Liceo, Rossini had performed in public as

1746-502: A success directing Haydn's The Seasons , and a failure with his first full-length opera, L'equivoco stravagante . He also worked for opera houses in Ferrara and Rome. In mid-1812 he received a commission from La Scala , Milan, where his two-act comedy La pietra del paragone ran for fifty-three performances, a considerable run for the time, which brought him not only financial benefits, but exemption from military service and

1843-464: A succession of important roles for her in opere serie . By the early 1820s, Rossini was beginning to tire of Naples. The failure of his operatic tragedy Ermione the previous year convinced him that he and the Neapolitan audiences had had enough of each other. An insurrection in Naples against the monarchy, though quickly crushed , unsettled Rossini; when Barbaia signed a contract to take

1940-411: A trumpeter and horn player, and his wife Anna, née Guidarini, a seamstress by trade, daughter of a baker. Giuseppe Rossini was charming but impetuous and feckless; the burden of supporting the family and raising the child fell mainly on Anna, with some help from her mother and mother-in-law. Stendhal , who published a colourful biography of Rossini in 1824, wrote: Rossini's portion from his father,

2037-424: A woodwind solo, whose "catchiness" "etch[es] a distinct profile in the aural memory", and that the richness and inventiveness of his handling of the orchestra, even in these early works, marks the start of "[t]he great nineteenth-century flowering of orchestration ." Rossini's handling of arias (and duets) in cavatina style marked a development from the eighteenth-century commonplace of recitative and aria. In

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2134-519: Is "no exaggeration to say that, in Paris, Rossini returned to life". He recovered his health and joie de vivre . Once settled in Paris he maintained two homes: a flat in the rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin , a smart central area, and a neo-classical villa built for him in Passy , a commune now absorbed into the city, but then semi-rural. He and his wife established a salon that became internationally famous. The first of their Saturday evening gatherings –

2231-404: Is the cavatina "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi , which both Taruskin and Gossett (amongst others) single out as transformative, "the most famous aria Rossini ever wrote", with a "melody that seems to capture the melodic beauty and innocence characteristic of Italian opera." Both writers point out the typical Rossinian touch of avoiding an "expected" cadence in the aria by a sudden shift from

2328-404: Is today known as) the overture to the comedy Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) . He also liberally re-employed arias and other sequences in later works. Spike Hughes notes that of the twenty-six numbers of Eduardo e Cristina , produced in Venice in 1817, nineteen were lifted from previous works. "The audience ... were remarkably good-humoured  ... and asked slyly why

2425-831: The Code Napoléon , the legal system established by the French Emperor. Rossini's overall style may indeed have been influenced more directly by the French: the historian John Rosselli suggests that French rule in Italy at the start of the 19th century meant that "music had taken on new military qualities of attack, noise and speed – to be heard in Rossini." Rossini's approach to opera was inevitably tempered by changing tastes and audience demands. The formal "classicist" libretti of Metastasio which had underpinned late 18th century opera seria were replaced by subjects more to

2522-487: The William Tell legend. Guillaume Tell was well received. The orchestra and singers gathered outside Rossini's house after the premiere and performed the rousing finale to the second act in his honour. The newspaper Le Globe commented that a new era of music had begun. Gaetano Donizetti remarked that the first and last acts of the opera were written by Rossini, but the middle act was written by God. The work

2619-541: The opera semiseria La gazza ladra (1817), and for Rome his version of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola (1817). In 1817 came the first performance of one of his operas ( L'Italiana ) at the Theâtre-Italien in Paris; its success led to others of his operas being staged there, and eventually to his contract in Paris from 1824 to 1830. Rossini kept his personal life as private as possible, but he

2716-456: The samedi soirs – was held in December 1858, and the last, two months before he died in 1868. Rossini began composing again. His music from his final decade was not generally intended for public performance, and he did not usually put dates of composition on the manuscripts. Consequently, musicologists have found it difficult to give definite dates for his late works, but the first, or among

2813-414: The Bologna area, where he felt threatened by insurrection, and to make Florence his base, which it remained until 1855. By the early 1850s Rossini's mental and physical health had deteriorated to the point where his wife and friends feared for his sanity or his life. By the middle of the decade, it was clear that he needed to return to Paris for the most advanced medical care then available. In April 1855

2910-732: The La Scala Orchestra, under Riccardo Chailly , and the Orchestre National de France under Daniele Gatti (which also gave the Requiem ). Providing insights into working with the Teatro and with Verdi's music were singers Carlo Bergonzi , Mirella Freni , and Raina Kabaivanska as well as conductor Bruno Bartoletti . A concert by the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini on 10 October was something of

3007-837: The Lady Macbeth. The theatre's administration explained it as follows: "Teatro Regio realizes that it needs to be the best because the audience are all experts". The dates of their most recent appearances have been noted below. The Teatro Regio was featured in scenes in Bernardo Bertolucci 's 1964 film Before the Revolution , as well as the 1987 Italian horror film Opera , directed by Dario Argento . Notes Sources 44°48′11″N 10°19′38″E  /  44.80306°N 10.32722°E  / 44.80306; 10.32722 Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868)

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3104-460: The Palazzo di Riserva. The 1,200-seat theatre was becoming obsolete due to a variety of factors, including the need to appeal to an increasing middle class desire to experience opera, but also allow for "separate and well articulated private and public spaces". After a performance of Rossini 's Zelmira in 1828, it was closed and then demolished. The newly built "Nuovo Ducale" was located on

3201-506: The Papal village. Giuseppe was imprisoned at least twice: first in 1790 for insubordination to local authorities in a dispute about his employment as town trumpeter; and in 1799 and 1800 for republican activism and support of the troops of Napoleon against the Pope's Austrian backers. In 1798, when Rossini was aged six, his mother began a career as a professional singer in comic opera, and for

3298-481: The Parma audiences. Initially Rossini had been invited to compose a work for the inauguration of the house, but he was too busy and so the task fell to Bellini. However, that inaugural season saw three Rossini operas staged, including Moïse et Pharaon , Semiramide , and Il barbiere di Siviglia . Today, the company stages about four operas each season from mid January to April and, since 2003, it has presented an annual Verdi Festival each October. There had been

3395-476: The Regio has staged every one of his operas, including adaptations of original versions such as I Lombardi of 1843, which became Jérusalem for Paris in 1847 or the 1847 Macbeth which was revised in 1865. The seasons surrounding the centennial of his birth in 1813 and the 50th anniversary of his death in 1951 were devoted solely to his operas, and between 1829 and 1979, Verdi, Donizetti , and Bellini were

3492-564: The Rossinis set off for their final journey from Italy to France. Rossini returned to Paris aged sixty-three and made it his home for the rest of his life. I offer these modest songs to my dear wife Olympe as a simple testimony of gratitude for the affectionate, intelligent care which she lavished on me during my overlong and terrible illness. Dedication of Musique anodine , 1857 Gossett observes that although an account of Rossini's life between 1830 and 1855 makes depressing reading, it

3589-619: The San Moisè as an ideal theatre for a young composer learning his craft – "everything tended to facilitate the début of a novice composer": it had no chorus, and a small company of principals; its main repertoire consisted of one-act comic operas ( farse ), staged with modest scenery and minimal rehearsal. Rossini followed the success of his first piece with three more farse for the house: L'inganno felice (1812), La scala di seta (1812), and Il signor Bruschino (1813). Rossini maintained his links with Bologna, where in 1811 he had

3686-552: The Théâtre-Italien. He was also to help run the latter theatre and revise one of his earlier works for revival there. The death of the king and the accession of Charles X changed Rossini's plans, and his first new work for Paris was Il viaggio a Reims , an operatic entertainment given in June 1825 to celebrate Charles's coronation. It was Rossini's last opera with an Italian libretto. He permitted only four performances of

3783-511: The Vienna season Rossini returned to Castenaso to work with his librettist, Gaetano Rossi , on Semiramide , commissioned by La Fenice. It was premiered in February 1823, his last work for the Italian theatre. Colbran starred, but it was clear to everyone that her voice was in serious decline, and Semiramide ended her career in Italy. The work survived that one major disadvantage, and entered

3880-574: The age of seventy-six. He left Olympe a life interest in his estate, which after her death, ten years later, passed to the Commune of Pesaro for the establishment of a Liceo Musicale, and funded a home for retired opera singers in Paris. After a funeral service attended by more than four thousand people at the church of Sainte-Trinité , Paris, Rossini's body was interred at the Père Lachaise Cemetery . In 1887 his remains were moved to

3977-460: The basilica of Santa Croce , Florence. "Tous les genres sont bons, hors le genre ennuyeux". Rossini, in a letter of 1868 (citing Voltaire ) The writer Julian Budden , noting the formulas adopted early on by Rossini in his career and consistently followed by him thereafter as regards overtures, arias , structures and ensembles, has called them "the Code Rossini" in a reference to

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4074-426: The best music from operas unlikely to be revived in Naples." The new opera was received with tremendous enthusiasm, as was the Neapolitan premiere of L'italiana in Algeri , and Rossini's position in Naples was assured. For the first time, Rossini was able to write regularly for a resident company of first-rate singers and a fine orchestra, with adequate rehearsals, and schedules that made it unnecessary to compose in

4171-522: The company to Vienna, Rossini was glad to join them, but did not reveal to Barbaia that he had no intention of returning to Naples afterwards. He travelled with Colbran, in March 1822, breaking their journey at Bologna, where they were married in the presence of his parents in a small church in Castenaso a few miles from the city. The bride was thirty-seven, the groom thirty. In Vienna, Rossini received

4268-450: The composer's earlier operas. It is unclear to what extent – if at all – Rossini was involved with this production, which was in the event poorly received. More controversial was the pasticcio opera of Robert Bruce (1846), in which Rossini, by then returned to Bologna, closely cooperated by selecting music from his past operas which had not yet been performed in Paris, notably La donna del lago . The Opéra sought to present Robert as

4365-574: The composer, but this was not known to the London press and public, who blamed Rossini. In a 2003 biography of the composer, Gaia Servadio comments that Rossini and England were not made for each other. He was prostrated by the Channel crossing and was unlikely to be enthused by the English weather or English cooking. Although his stay in London was financially rewarding – the British press reported disapprovingly that he had earned over £30,000 – he

4462-538: The composers who attended the salons, and sometimes performed, were Auber , Gounod , Liszt , Rubinstein , Meyerbeer, and Verdi . Rossini liked to call himself a fourth-class pianist, but the many famous pianists who attended the samedi soirs were dazzled by his playing. Violinists such as Pablo Sarasate and Joseph Joachim and the leading singers of the day were regular guests. In 1860, Wagner visited Rossini via an introduction from Rossini's friend Edmond Michotte who some forty-five years later wrote his account of

4559-494: The construction, assuring that the interior decoration reflected "the sobriety of neoclassicism and the colours white and light blue". In 1849, restoration was called for and then, four years later under the Bourbon Duke Carlo III, more opulent decoration took place. This included the replacement of the neoclassical elements with the more sensual aspects of the mid-19th century; as Martini notes, "this rendered

4656-473: The curtain was brought down due to vociferous protests from audience members, one event actually leading to the dismissal of the theatre's administration. A 21st century performance, which incited audience displeasure was the 2001 opening of a controversial production of Verdi's Macbeth , which was set during the First World War. A later performance caused competing "bravas" and booing for and against

4753-587: The cuts was Rossini's lifetime annuity, won after hard negotiation with the previous regime. Attempting to restore the annuity was one of Rossini's reasons for returning. The other was to be with his new mistress, Olympe Pélissier . He left Colbran in Castenaso; she never returned to Paris and they never lived together again. The reasons for Rossini's withdrawal from opera have been continually discussed during and since his lifetime. Some have supposed that aged thirty-seven and in variable health, having negotiated

4850-594: The effort of composing it left him exhausted. Although within a year he was planning an operatic treatment of the Faust story, events and ill health overtook him. After the opening of Guillaume Tell the Rossinis had left Paris and were staying in Castenaso. Within a year events in Paris had Rossini hurrying back. Charles X was overthrown in a revolution in July 1830, and the new administration, headed by Louis Philippe I , announced radical cutbacks in government spending. Among

4947-577: The entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse . Guests included Franz Liszt , Anton Rubinstein , Giuseppe Verdi , Meyerbeer, and Joseph Joachim . Rossini's last major composition was his Petite messe solennelle (1863). Rossini was born on 29 February in 1792 in Pesaro , a town on the Adriatic coast of Italy that was then part of the Papal States . He was the only child of Giuseppe Rossini,

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5044-514: The first, was the song cycle Musique anodine , dedicated to his wife and presented to her in April 1857. For their weekly salons he produced more than 150 pieces, including songs, solo piano pieces, and chamber works for many different combinations of instruments. He referred to them as his Péchés de vieillesse – "sins of old age". The salons were held both at Beau Séjour – the Passy villa – and, in

5141-480: The four operas Rossini wrote to French librettos were Le siège de Corinthe (1826) and Moïse et Pharaon (1827). Both were substantial reworkings of pieces written for Naples: Maometto II and Mosè in Egitto . Rossini took great care before beginning work on the first, learning to speak French and familiarising himself with traditional French operatic ways of declaiming the language. As well as dropping some of

5238-456: The genial conversation between the two composers. One of Rossini's few late works intended to be given in public was his Petite messe solennelle , first performed in 1864. In the same year Rossini was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon III. After a short illness, and an unsuccessful operation to treat colorectal cancer , Rossini died at Passy on 13 November 1868 at

5335-407: The government over his annuity in 1835 Rossini left Paris and settled in Bologna. His return to Paris in 1843 for medical treatment by Jean Civiale sparked hopes that he might produce a new grand opera – it was rumoured that Eugène Scribe was preparing a libretto for him about Joan of Arc . The Opéra was moved to present a French version of Otello in 1844 which also included material from some of

5432-463: The home key of F to that of A flat (see example); Taruskin notes the implicit pun, as the words talk of returning, but the music moves in a new direction. The influence was lasting; Gossett notes how the Rossinian cabaletta style continued to inform Italian opera as late as Giuseppe Verdi 's Aida (1871). Such structural integration of the forms of vocal music with the dramatic development of

5529-464: The house took its present name, the Teatro Regio. Verdi, who was born and who grew up only 20 miles from Parma, was perhaps quite naturally soon adopted by the city as its native son, especially as his fame grew after the success of the 1840 Nabucco . His operas have had a special place in the Regio's programming after 17 April 1843, when Verdi came to direct his Nabucco . Since that time,

5626-602: The international operatic repertory, remaining popular throughout the 19th century; in Richard Osborne's words, it brought "[Rossini's] Italian career to a spectacular close." In November 1823 Rossini and Colbran set off for London, where a lucrative contract had been offered. They stopped for four weeks en route in Paris. Although he was not as feverishly acclaimed by the Parisians as he had been in Vienna, he nevertheless had an exceptionally welcoming reception from

5723-555: The king, George IV , although the composer was by now unimpressed by royalty and aristocracy. Rossini and Colbran had signed contracts for an opera season at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket . Her vocal shortcomings were a serious liability, and she reluctantly retired from performing. Public opinion was not improved by Rossini's failure to provide a new opera, as promised. The impresario Vincenzo Benelli defaulted on his contract with

5820-484: The libretto had been changed since the last performance". Rossini expressed his disgust when the publisher Giovanni Ricordi issued a complete edition of his works in the 1850s: "The same pieces will be found several times, for I thought I had the right to remove from my fiascos those pieces which seemed best, to rescue them from shipwreck ... A fiasco seemed to be good and dead, and now look they've resuscitated them all!" Philip Gossett notes that Rossini "was from

5917-399: The most famous playwrights. This remains today. The chandelier, which was built in Paris and taken to Parma in 1854 when the theatre was adapted for gas, is 4.5 metres in height and weighs 1100 kg. Renaming the theatre After the reign of Duchess Marie Louise, the theatre was renamed and between 1849 and 1860, it was known as the "Teatro Reale". With the unification of Italy in 1861,

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6014-461: The most frequently staged composers, with Verdi topping the list with five of his operas, the most frequent of which was Aida with 177 performances over the 150-year period. The 2001 centennial of the composer's death resulted in a year-long celebration beginning with the Requiem and including six operas. The "bicententario" year of 2013 prompted special celebrations which included concerts by

6111-556: The music before the première. Such pressures led to a further significant element of Rossini's compositional procedures, not included in Budden's "Code", namely, recycling. The composer often transferred a successful overture to subsequent operas: thus the overture to La pietra del paragone was later used for the opera seria Tancredi (1813), and (in the other direction) the overture to Aureliano in Palmira (1813) ended as (and

6208-427: The musical establishment and the public. When he attended a performance of Il barbiere at the Théâtre-Italien he was applauded, dragged onto the stage, and serenaded by the musicians. A banquet was given for him and his wife, attended by leading French composers and artists, and he found the cultural climate of Paris congenial. At the end of the year Rossini arrived in London, where he was received and made much of by

6305-506: The new Ducale achieved prominence in the years after 1829, and especially so after the composer Giuseppe Verdi , who was born near Busseto , some thirty kilometres away, had achieved fame. Also well known in Parma was the conductor Arturo Toscanini , born there in 1867. As has been noted by Lee Marshall, "while not as well known as La Scala in Milan or La Fenice in Venice, the city’s Teatro Regio....is considered by opera buffs to be one of

6402-466: The next twenty-five years following Guillaume Tell Rossini composed little, although Gossett comments that his comparatively few compositions from the 1830s and 1840s show no falling off in musical inspiration. They include the Soirées musicales (1830–1835: a set of twelve songs for solo or duet voices and piano) and his Stabat Mater (begun in 1831 and completed in 1841). After winning his fight with

6499-545: The original music that was in an ornate style unfashionable in Paris, Rossini accommodated local preferences by adding dances, hymn-like numbers and a greater role for the chorus. Rossini's mother, Anna, died in 1827; he had been devoted to her, and he felt her loss deeply. She and Colbran had never got on well, and Servadio suggests that after Anna died Rossini came to resent the surviving woman in his life. In 1828 Rossini wrote Le comte Ory , his only French-language comic opera. His determination to reuse music from Il viaggio

6596-418: The outset a consummate composer of overtures ". His basic formula for these remained constant throughout his career: Gossett characterises them as " sonata movements without development sections, usually preceded by a slow introduction" with "clear melodies, exuberant rhythms [and] simple harmonic structure" and a crescendo climax. Richard Taruskin also notes that the second theme is always announced in

6693-586: The particular qualities of certain members of the audience when attending a performance at the Ducale and the Regio: "Parma's operatic public has a reputation as particularly demanding [and] famous for being unforgiving of any singer not in good voice" notes Plantamura, while Lynn goes back to the early days of the old Ducale in 1816 with an account of the way the tenor Alberico Curioni was "whistled and booed, but he would have none of it and shouted obscenities back" until

6790-542: The piece, intending to reuse the best of the music in a less ephemeral opera. About half the score of Le comte Ory (1828) is from the earlier work. Colbran's enforced retirement put a strain on the Rossinis' marriage, leaving her unoccupied while he continued to be the centre of musical attention and constantly in demand. She consoled herself with what Servadio describes as "a new pleasure in shopping"; for Rossini, Paris offered continual gourmet delights, as his increasingly rotund shape began to reflect. The first of

6887-412: The police were called and arrested him. The inaugural gala of the Teatro Regio on 16 May 1829 "was not a joyous occasion" for the audience, which gave Bellini's Zaira "a frosty reception" due to the fact that he was the second choice and that he had refused to use a libretto written by one of the company's board members. Lynn also recounts several incidents during performances in the 19th century where

6984-406: The public and critics round. Rossini's first work for the San Carlo, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra was a dramma per musica in two acts, in which he reused substantial sections of his earlier works, unfamiliar to the local public. The Rossini scholars Philip Gossett and Patricia Brauner write, "It is as if Rossini wished to present himself to the Neapolitan public by offering a selection of

7081-654: The same title as its hero, Almaviva . Despite an unsuccessful opening night, with mishaps on stage and many pro-Paisiello and anti-Rossini audience members, the opera quickly became a success, and by the time of its first revival, in Bologna a few months later, it was billed by its present Italian title and it rapidly eclipsed Paisiello's setting. Rossini's operas for the Teatro San Carlo were substantial, mainly serious pieces. His Otello (1816) provoked Lord Byron to write, "They have been crucifying Othello into an opera: music good, but lugubrious – but as for

7178-490: The site of the former Monastery of St. Alexander and it was located next to the Ducal Palace. Construction began in 1821 during the reign of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma who, as Napoleon I 's divorced second wife, preferred divorce rather than exile. She settled in Parma, ruling from 1816 to 1847, and under her patronage and financial support, secured the services of the architect Nicola Bettoli . Marie Louise oversaw

7275-830: The successes of Giacomo Meyerbeer and Fromental Halévy in the genre of grand opéra. Modern Rossini scholarship has generally discounted such theories, maintaining that Rossini had no intention of renouncing operatic composition, and that circumstances rather than personal choice made Guillaume Tell his last opera. Gossett and Richard Osborne suggest that illness may have been a major factor in Rossini's retirement. From about this time, Rossini had intermittent bad health, both physical and mental. He had contracted gonorrhoea in earlier years, which later led to painful side-effects, from urethritis to arthritis ; he suffered from bouts of debilitating depression, which commentators have linked to several possible causes: cyclothymia , or bipolar disorder , or reaction to his mother's death. For

7372-467: The taste of the age of Romanticism , with stories demanding stronger characterisation and quicker action; a jobbing composer needed to meet these demands or fail. Rossini's strategies met this reality. A formulaic approach was logistically indispensable for Rossini's career, at least at the start: in the seven years 1812–1819, he wrote 27 operas, often at extremely short notice. For La Cenerentola (1817), for example, he had just over three weeks to write

7469-415: The theatre more splendid with extensive use of red velvet and golden ornamentation. In addition, gas lighting in the house was installed. By 1907, the stage lighting was electrified, and that of the rest of house took place during the centennial of Verdi's birth in 1913. The architecture of the "Nuovo" The façade of the theatre was built in the neoclassical style , which has remained unchanged over

7566-450: The time, but inspirational to the young Rossini. He was a quick learner, and by the age of twelve, he had composed a set of six sonatas for four stringed instruments, which were performed under the aegis of a rich patron in 1804. Two years later he was admitted to the recently opened Liceo Musicale, Bologna , initially studying singing, cello and piano, and joining the composition class soon afterwards. He wrote some substantial works while

7663-491: The title Teatro Regio . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Teatro_Regio&oldid=996690443 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Teatro Regio (Parma) Replacing an obsolete house,

7760-624: The title of maestro di cartello – a composer whose name on advertising posters guaranteed a full house. The following year his first opera seria , Tancredi , did well at La Fenice in Venice, and even better at Ferrara, with a rewritten, tragic ending. The success of Tancredi made Rossini's name known internationally; productions of the opera followed in London (1820) and New York (1825). Within weeks of Tancredi , Rossini had another box-office success with his comedy L'italiana in Algeri , composed in great haste and premiered in May 1813. 1814

7857-436: The true homes of the great Italian tradition, and the well-informed audience is famous for giving voice to its approval or disapproval – not just from the gallery." The 1,400-seat auditorium, with four tiers of boxes topped by a gallery, was inaugurated on 16 May 1829 when it presented the premiere of Vincenzo Bellini 's Zaira , a production which was staged another seven times, although it did not prove to be popular with

7954-399: The very prime of life, renounced that form of artistic production which had made him famous throughout the civilized world? The poet Heine compared Rossini's retirement with Shakespeare 's withdrawal from writing: two geniuses recognising when they had accomplished the unsurpassable and not seeking to follow it. Others, then and later, suggested that Rossini had retired because of pique at

8051-423: The wealth his success had brought him, and the rise of spectacular grand opera under composers such as Giacomo Meyerbeer . From the early 1830s to 1855, when he left Paris and was based in Bologna, Rossini wrote relatively little. On his return to Paris in 1855 he became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays, regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and fashionable circles of Paris, for which he wrote

8148-505: The winter, at the Paris flat. Such gatherings were a regular feature of Parisian life – the writer James Penrose has observed that the well-connected could easily attend different salons almost every night of the week – but the Rossinis' samedi soirs quickly became the most sought after: "an invitation was the city's highest social prize." The music, carefully chosen by Rossini, was not only his own but included works by Pergolesi , Haydn and Mozart and modern pieces by some of his guests. Among

8245-400: The words of Rosselli, in Rossini's hands, "the aria became an engine for releasing emotion". Rossini's typical aria structure involved a lyrical introduction ( "cantabile" ) and a more intensive, brilliant, conclusion ( "cabaletta" ). This model could be adapted in various ways so as to forward the plot (as opposed to the typical eighteenth-century handling which resulted in the action coming to

8342-522: The words!" Nonetheless, the piece proved generally popular and held the stage in frequent revivals until it was overshadowed by Verdi's version , seven decades later. Among his other works for the house were Mosè in Egitto , based on the biblical story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt (1818), and La donna del lago , from Sir Walter Scott 's poem The Lady of the Lake (1819). For La Scala he wrote

8439-410: The years. With a colonnade of ten Ionic granitic columns at the base, which created an arcade, this supports five imperial-style windows above, topped by a tympana and decorative elements enrich the highest part of the facade with one central semi-circular window, besides bas-reliefs by Tommaso Bandini of two muses at one lyra in the central and lateral position. The foyer is, as Martini describes it,

8536-526: Was Venice ; under the tutelage of the composer Giovanni Morandi , a family friend, Rossini moved there in late 1810, when he was eighteen. Rossini's first opera to be staged was La cambiale di matrimonio , a one-act comedy, given at the small Teatro San Moisè in November 1810. The piece was a great success, and Rossini received what then seemed to him a considerable sum: "forty scudi – an amount I had never seen brought together". He later described

8633-571: Was a less remarkable year for the rising composer, neither Il turco in Italia or Sigismondo pleasing the Milanese or Venetian public, respectively. 1815 marked an important stage in Rossini's career. In May he moved to Naples , to take up the post of director of music for the royal theatres. These included the Teatro di San Carlo , the city's leading opera house; its manager Domenico Barbaia

8730-409: Was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music . He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity. Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his father a trumpeter, his mother

8827-406: Was an undoubted success, without being a smash hit; the public took some time in getting to grips with it, and some singers found it too demanding. It nonetheless was produced abroad within months of the premiere, and there was no suspicion that it would be the composer's last opera. Jointly with Semiramide , Guillaume Tell is Rossini's longest opera, at three hours and forty-five minutes, and

8924-537: Was contracted by the Opéra in Paris, for which he produced an opera to celebrate the coronation of Charles X , Il viaggio a Reims (later cannibalised for his first opera in French , Le comte Ory ), revisions of two of his Italian operas , Le siège de Corinthe and Moïse , and in 1829 his last opera, Guillaume Tell . Rossini's withdrawal from opera for the last 40 years of his life has never been fully explained; contributory factors may have been ill-health,

9021-582: Was happy to sign a contract at the French embassy in London to return to Paris, where he had felt much more at home. Rossini's new, and highly remunerative, contract with the French government was negotiated under Louis XVIII , who died in September 1824, soon after Rossini's arrival in Paris. It had been agreed that the composer would produce one grand opera for the Académie Royale de Musique and either an opera buffa or an opera semiseria for

9118-470: Was known for his susceptibility to singers in the companies he worked with. Among his lovers in his early years were Ester Mombelli (Domenico's daughter) and Maria Marcolini of the Bologna company. By far the most important of these relationships – both personal and professional – was with Isabella Colbran , prima donna of the Teatro San Carlo (and former mistress of Barbaia). Rossini had heard her sing in Bologna in 1807, and when he moved to Naples he wrote

9215-465: Was so moved that he determined to meet the reclusive composer. He finally managed to do so, and later described the encounter to many people, including Eduard Hanslick and Richard Wagner . He recalled that although conversation was hampered by Beethoven's deafness and Rossini's ignorance of German, Beethoven made it plain that he thought Rossini's talents were not for serious opera, and that "above all" he should "do more Barbiere " (Barbers) . After

9312-434: Was the true native heirship of an Italian: a little music, a little religion, and a volume of Ariosto . The rest of his education was consigned to the legitimate school of southern youth, the society of his mother, the young singing girls of the company, those prima donnas in embryo, and the gossips of every village through which they passed. This was aided and refined by the musical barber and news-loving coffee-house keeper of

9409-429: Was to be an important influence on the composer's career there. The musical establishment of Naples was not immediately welcoming to Rossini, who was seen as an intruder into its cherished operatic traditions. The city had once been the operatic capital of Europe; the memory of Cimarosa was revered and Paisiello was still living, but there were no local composers of any stature to follow them, and Rossini quickly won

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