Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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ROSSINI ROSSINI 157
the end of five months he found himself in
possession of £7000 ; and just before his departure
was honoured by receiving the marked
compliments of the king at a concert at the
Duke of Wellington's, for which His Majesty
had expressly come up from Brighton. [See
Musical Times, 1900, pp. 18 ff.]
In leaving England on July 26, after so hearty
and profitable a reception, Rossini was not taking
a leap in the dark ; for through the Prince de
Polignac, French ambassador in England, he
had already concluded an agreement for the
musical direction of the Theatre Italien,
Paris, for eighteen months at a salary of
£800 per annum. In order to be near his
work he took a lodging at No. 28 Rue Taitbout,
and at once set about getting younger
singers for his company. Knowing that Paer
was his enemy, and would take any opportunity
of injuring him, he was careful to retain
him in his old post of maestro al cembalo ; but
at the same time he engaged Harold (then a
young man of twenty-five) as chorus-master,
and as a check on the pretensions of Madame
Pasta he brought to Paris Esther MombelU,
Schiassetti, Donzelli, and Rubini, successively.
To those who sneered at his music he replied
by playing it as it was written, and by bringing
out some of his operas which had not yet made
their appearance in Paris, such as ' La Donna
del Lago ' (Sept. 7, 1824), 'Semiramide' (Dec. 8,
1825), and Zelmira ' ' (March 14, 1826). And
he gave much eclat to his direction by introducing
Meyerbeer's ' Crociato '—the first work of
Meyerbeer's heard in Paris—and by composing
a new opera, ' II Viaggio a Reims, ossia 1' Albergo
del giglio d' oro,' which he produced on June 19,
1825, during the fetes at the coronation of
Charles X. The new work is in one act, and
three parts ; it is written for, fourteen voices,
which are treated with marvellous art. It was
sung by Mmes. Pasta, Schiassetti, Mombelli,
Cinti, Amigo, Dotti, and Rossi ;
and by MM.
Levasseur, Zucchelli, Pellegrini, Graziani, Auletta,
Donzelli, Bordogni, and Scudo—a truly
magnificent assemblage. In the ballet he
introduced an air with variations for two
clarinets, borrowed from his Naples cantata of
1819, and played by Gambaro (a passionate
admirer of his) and by F. Berr. In the hunting
scene he brought in a delicious fanfare
of horns, and the piece winds up with 'God
save the King,' 'Vive Henri Quatre,' and other
national airs, all newly harmonised and accompanied.
After the Revolution of 1848 the
words were suitably modified by H. Dupin,
and the piece appeared in two acts at the
Theatre Italien as Andremo noi a Parigi,' on
'
Oct. 26 of that year. 1
After the expiration of Rossini's agreement
I The score of Andremo noi a Parigi ' ' is in the Library of the ConservatoiTe,
but the finale of the Viaggio,' which we have mentioned
'
as containing national ail's, is not there, and all trace of this curious
feat seems to have vanished.
as director of the Th^toe Italien, it was a
happy idea of the Intendant of the Civil List to
confer upon him the sinecure posts of ' Premier
Compositeur du Roi ' and ' Inspecteur G&eral
du Chant en France,' with an annual income of
20,000 francs, possibly in the hope that he
might settle permanently at Paris, and in time
write operas expressly for the French stage.
This was also an act of justice, since in the
then absence of any law of international ^ copyright
his pieces were public property, and at
the disposal not only of a translator like Castil-
Blaze, but of any manager or publisher iu the
length and breadth of France who chose to
avail himself of them. Fortunately the step
was justified by the event. The opera of
' Maometto '—originally written by the Duke
of Ventagnano, and produced at Naples in 1820
—had never been heard in France. Rossini
employed MM. Soumet and Balocohi to give
the libretto a French dress ; he revised the
music, and considerably extended it ; and on
Oct. 9, 1826, the opera was produced at the
Academic as Le ' Siege de Corinthe,' with a cast
which included Nourrit and Mile. Cinti, and
with great success. For the new opera Rossini
received 6000 francs from Troupenas.
After this feat Rossini turned to another of
his earlier works, as not only sure of success but
eminently suited to the vast space and splendid
m,ise en seine of the Grand Op&a. This was
' Mose. ' He put the revision of the libretto into
the hands of Etienne Jouy and Balocchi, and
arranged for Cinti, Nourrit, and Levasseur to
be in the cast. 'Moise ' was produced March 25,
1827, and created a profound impression. True,
it had been heard in its original form at the
Italiens five years before, but the recollection of
this only served to bring out more strongly the
many improvements and additions in the new
version—such as the Introduction to the first
act ; the quartet and chorus ; the chorus La
'
douce Aurore ; '
the march and chorus, etc.
The airs de ballet were largely borrowed from
'
Armida '(1817) and' Ciro in Babilonia '(1812).
This magnificent work gave Rossini a sort of
imperial position in Paris. But it was necessary
to justify this, and he therefore resolved to try
a work of a diflerent character, and according
to the axiom of Boileau, to pass
From grave to gay, from lively to severe
not in the direction of comic but of lyric opera.
With this view he employed Scribe and Poiison
to develop a vaudeville which they had written
in 1816 to the old legend of 'Le Comte Cry,'
adapting to that lively piece some of his
favourite music in the 'Viaggio a Reims,'—the
introduction and finale of the first act, the duet
of the Count and Countess, and the famous
narrative of Raimbaut when he brings up the
3 The custom in Italy in those days was to sell an oiiera to a
manager for two years, with exclusive right of representation ; after
that it became public property. The only person who derived no
profit from this arrangement was the unfortunate composer.