Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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152 EOSSINI ROSSINI
was brought out during Lent, and proved a
fiasco. [It was performed as Cyrus ' in Babylon
at Drury Lane Theatre (Lent Oratorios), Jan.
30, 1823, under Sir George Smart.] Another
failure was La Seala '
di Seta,' an opera bufFa in
one act, produced at Venice in the course of the
spring. While the Mombellis were engaged on
his serious opera, he flew off to Milan to fulfil
an engagement which Marcolini had procured
for him, by writing, for her, Galli, Bonoldi, and
Farlamagni, a comic piece in two acts called
'La Pietra del Paragone,' which was produced
at the Soala during the autumn of 1812, with
immense success. It was his first appearance
at this renowned house, and the piece is underlined
in the list as musica nuoya '
di Gioacchino
Rossitai, di Fesaro,' The numbers most applauded
were a oavatina, 'Ecco pietosa,' a
quartet in the second act, the duel -trio, and a
finale in which the word ' Sigillara ' recurs
continually with very comic effect. This finale
is memorable as the first occasion of his employing
the crescendo, which he was ultimately to
use and abuse so copiously. Mosca has accused
Eossini of having borrowed this famous effect
from his ' Pretendenti delusi,' produced at the
Scala the preceding autumn, forgetting that
Mosea himself had learned it from General! and
other composers. Such accusations, however,
were of little or no importance to Rossini, who
had already made up his mind to adopt whatever
pleased him, wheresoever he might find it.
In the meantime he took advantage of his
success to pass a few days at Bologna with his
parents, en route for Venice ; and thus ended
the year 1812, in which he had produced no
less than six pieces for the theatre.
Kor was 1813 less prolific. It began with a
terrible mystification. He had accepted a commission
of 500 franca for a serious opera for the
Grand Theatre at Venice, but the manager of
San Mos6, furious at his desertion, in pursuance
of some former agreement, forced on him a
libretto for that theatre, ' I due Bruschini, o il
figlio per azzardo,' which, if treated as intended,
would inevitably have been the death of the
music. From this dilemma Rossini ingeniously
extricated himself by reversing the situations,
and introducing all kinds of tricks. The
second violins mark each bar in the overture
by a stroke of the bow on the lamp shade ;
the bass sings at the top of his register and the
soprano at the bottom of hers ; a funeral march
intrudes itself into one of the most comical
scenes ; and in the finale the words ' son pentito'
are so arranged that nothing is heard but ' tito,
tito, tito.' Those of the audience who had been
taken into the secret were in roars of laughter,
but the strangers who had paid for their places
in good faith, were naturally annoyed, and
hi8se4 loudly. But no complaints were of any
avail with Rossini, he only laughed at the
success of his joke. ' I due Bruschini ' disappeared
after the first night, and the remembrance
of it was very shortly wiped out by the
appearance of Tancredi ' ' at the Fenice during
the Carnival. The characters were taken by
Manfredini, Malanotte, Todran, and Bianohi.
A work so important and so full of spirit,
effect, and melody, was naturally received with
enthusiasm, and nobody had time to notice
various plagiarisms from Paisiello and Paer. It
was in fact the first step in the revolution which
Rossini was destined to effect in Italian opera.
All Venice, and very soon all Italy, was singing
or humming Mi ' rivedrai, ti rivedr6.' Hardly
any one now remembers that it is only to the
happy accident that Malanotte was dissatisfied
with her air, and insisted on its being rewritten,
that we owe the 'Di tanti palpiti,' which was
nicknamed the 'aria de' rizzi,' because it was
said to have been dashed off while waiting for
a dish of rice. One must read the accounts of
the day to understand the madness—for it was
nothing else—which Tancredi ' ' excited among
the Ve'netians. 'I fancied,' said Rossini, with
his usual gaiety, ' that after hearing my opera
they would put me into a mad-house—on the
contrary, they were madder than I.'
Henceforward he was as much fSted for his
social qualities as for his music. But he did not
give way to such dissipations for long. His
next work was ' L' Italiana in Algeri,' an opera
buffa produced at the San Benedetto theatre,
Venice, in the summer of 1813. Its greatest
novelty was the famous trio 'Papataci,' a charming
union of melody and genuine comedy
while the patriotic
' air, Pensa alia Patria,"
which closes the work, spoke not less powerfully
to the hearts of his countrymen,
and the failure so far affected him as to
' Aureliano in Palmira ' and ' II Turco in
Italia ' were both brought out at the Scala, Milan,
the first in Dec. 1813, the second in August
1814, before an audience somewhat more critical
than that at Venice. 'Aureliano,' though it
contains some fine things, which were afterwards
utilised in ' Elisabetta ' and the ' Barbiere,' was
a fiasco. The ' Turco,' too, was not received with
the applause which it afterwards commanded.
Rossini, however, was greatly feted during his
stay in Milan, and among his ' amiable protectresses
'—to use the expression of Stendhal
was the Princess Belgiojoso, for whom he composed
a cantata entitled ' Egle ed Irene.' His
next opera, ' Sigismondo,' written for the Fenice
at Venice, in the Carnival of 1815, was unsuccessful,
make him give up work for a time, and retire
to his home at Bologna. There he encountered
Barbaja, who from being a waiter at a coffeehouse
had become the farmer of the public
gaming-tables and impresario of the Naples
theatre. Barbaja, though rich, was still bent
on making money ; he had heard of the success
of the young composer, and of his brilliant
talents, and was resolved to get hold of him ;