MICHELLE WILLIAMS

Era il 1969. Avevo appena compiuto 11 anni. Da quel
momento, Rossini, che durante l’infanzia si era insinuato
nel mio cuore senza che me ne rendessi realmente conto,
entrò prepotentemente nella mia vita!
Se il ’69 era stato l’anno della consapevolezza, il 1974 fu
l’anno del consolidamento e dell’approfondimento. Non
mi bastava più conoscere la sua musica: volevo sapere
tutto del “personaggio” Rossini.
Un padre suonatore di corno nella banda municipale; una
madre alla quale era profondamente legato; una carriera
operistica iniziata a 18 anni; 39 opere in 19 anni; 2 mogli
(una spagnola, l’altra francese) e, soprattutto, 2… vite!
Sì. Perché il compositore acclamato e osannato dall’Europa
intera, l’artista alla moda, creatore di un suo stile personale
imitato da molti, dopo aver scritto Guillaume Tell, al culmine
del successo, si ritira dal mondo teatrale all’età di soli
37 anni.
Vivrà ancora 39 anni, durante i quali, tra crisi depressive,
esaurimenti nervosi e malattie più o meno serie, continuerà
a scrivere musica, per lo più pianistica, senza però pubblicare
nulla.
90 LUXURYfiles SUMMER 2012
It was 1969. I had just turned 11 years old. Since then,
Rossini really entered powerfully into my life, though he
had crept into my heart without realizing it, already during
my childhood.
If 1969 was the year of awareness, the 1974 was the year
of consolidation and deepening. For me, just to know his
music was not enough: I wanted to know everything
about the Rossini’s figure.
The father was a horn player in the municipal band and he
was deeply attached to his mother; a career in the opera that
began when he was just 18 years old; 39 operas in 19 years;
he got married twice – a Spanish woman and a French one
- and above all, he got 2 lives!
Yes, because the composer that was acclaimed and hailed
from all Europe, the fashionable artist who created his own
style that was imitated by many, after he wrote Guillaume
Tell, , he decided to withdraw from the scene at the age of
37 years, at the height of success.
He still lived other 39 years, during which he continued to
write music - mostly piano operas - but without publishing
anything and living in the dumps, with nervous breakdowns
and more or less serious diseases.