Italian opera during much of the first half of the nineteenth
century, opera was dominated by one man whose work continues to
delight opera audiences today, Gioacchino Rossini. Rossini, the
creator of nearly forty operas in less than two decades, had an
immense impact upon the development of opera. Scholars often
note that a vital component of his success was the tunefulness
of his music and the effortlessness with which he composed.
Rossini was born to a family of musicians in Pesaro, Italy, on
February 29, 1792. His father was a horn player and his mother
was a singer. Rossini learned to do both as a child, and studied
music in Bologna, Italy, where the family lived when he was
growing up. Rossini’s first opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio was
produced in Venice when he was 18. At this time, he had already
received awards for shorter compositions. Between 1810 and 1813,
he wrote operas for Bologna, Rome, Venice and Milan, all of
which were fairly well received. It was also during this period
that he wrote the