Gioacchino Rossini's Innovative Masterpieces

This course commemorates the 150th anniversary of the death of Gioacchino Rossini (1792—1868) who dominated the development of Italian opera in the first thirty years of the 19th century. He inexplicably retired from opera composition at the age of 37 leaving an outstanding legacy that includes symphonies, cantatas, chamber music and ranges from opera buffa to opera seria. His comedic masterpieces such as L'Italiana in Algeri, La gazza ladra, and perhaps his most famous work, Il barbiere di Siviglia, are regarded as cornerstones of the genre. Rossini experienced the turmoil that European society underwent in the early 1800’s and his music though highly innovative also reflects a need for form, order, critical distance and even irony.